By the Bay Arts Program & Exhibitions

By the Bay Arts Program and Exhibitions is a triennial program facilitated by the Shire of Shark Bay, funded by the Western Australian Government and supported by the Shark Bay Arts Council.

Shark Bay, commonly known as “The Bay” has countless stories to be told, and it is not surprising that for a place so sparsely populated (around a mere 950 residents spread across its 23,000 square kilometres) it nonetheless inspires a highly diverse community of artists.

This program, first designed and funded in 2024 will run for 3 years, 2024 to 2027. By the Bay brings together the work of six artists each year who are based in or with strong connection to Gathaagudu/Shark Bay, in Western Australia’s remote Gascoyne region.

By the Bay Program Curator

The curator for this amazing program is Andrew Nicholls, an Australian/British artist, writer, and curator whose practice engages with the sentimental, camp, and other historically-marginalised aesthetics, and traces the historical recurrence of particular aesthetic motifs.

Nicholls has curated projects for organisations including the Art Gallery of Western Australia, FORM, the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, and Object Galleries Sydney, and written for most of Australia’s major national arts publications. His work is represented in collections including Artbank, the Art Gallery of Western Australia, the City of Bunbury, Central Institute of Technology, Curtin University (50th anniversary commissioned artwork and commemorative products), Edith Cowan University (with Sandra Black), Janet Holmes à Court, The City of Joondalup, Murdoch University, the Kedumba Collection of Australian Drawings, Turner Galleries’ Art Angels (10th anniversary commission), and the City of Perth. He is a member of Art Collective WA (www.artcollectivewa.com.au) and shows with .M Contemporary, Sydney.

Find out more about Andrew at his website