Artist Respite Program

Holly Ahern is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher, and arts worker, living on Bundjalung country. She holds an Honours degree in Art and Design from Southern Cross University, with a focus on collaboration, experimentation, and contemporary installation. Her research explores regional witnessing and the potential of public spaces as sites for artistic intervention and community connection.

Holly’s career spans diverse fields, including design, project coordination, creative production and grant writing. This experience reflects a versatile and adaptive approach to engaging with art and community. She has developed and contributed to a range of projects, from large-scale public art installations and community initiatives. In 2023, she established an international residency program which focuses on the role of art in public spaces within post-disaster landscapes, building connections between the Northern Rivers and Ōtautahi, Christchurch.

Her practice is deeply connected to the ecology and communities of the Northern Rivers, addressing the region’s evolving needs while advocating for sustainable creative futures. As the region approaches the third anniversary of its major flooding events, Holly’s work continues to evolve with care and intention, prioritising thoughtful and deliberate responses to long-term recovery.

Through the lens of regional witnessing, her work invites audiences to experience public spaces with intention, offering authentic connections to material, time and place. By encouraging slower and more reflective engagement with the Northern Rivers, Holly amplifies the stories and identities that define its unique landscape and collective voice.

Image: Expansive Encounters Iron Ridge Quarry Sculpture Park 2023. Credit: Holly Ahern

Hunter Wilson is an emerging multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans sculpture, print, photography, and projection. Identifying as a minimal metamodernist conceptual artist, his work examines the profound societal shifts brought about by the advent of the internet, social media, and mobile technology.

Focusing on the contrasts between pre- and post-digital life, Wilson’s work interrogates how these innovations have transformed communication, identity, and connection. His minimalist approach distills complex ideas into powerful, thought-provoking visuals and forms, encouraging viewers to reflect on their relationship with technology and its pervasive influence on modern culture.

Wilson has participated in multiple group exhibitions, achieving notable success, including the sale of his work and recognition through awards in highly competitive arenas. These achievements underscore his dedication to his craft and his ability to engage audiences with compelling narratives that explore the intersection of technology and humanity.

Through his projects, Wilson seeks to foster dialogue about society’s growing dependence on digital tools while questioning their impact on human interaction and collective memory. His work invites meaningful conversations about where we have come from and where we are headed in an increasingly digital world.

Explore Hunter’s work on Instagram @hunter_by_name_only or through the Northern Rivers Creatives directory.

Image: Fragmented Reality

Kate Stroud is a vision hunter, a visual communicator, artist, signwriter and large-scale muralist, whose joyful, provocative, and sometimes rebellious works are synonymous with the outspoken and creative spirit of the Northern Rivers region. Her vibrant murals and signs adorn laneways, footpaths, walls, arcades, shopfronts, and the interiors of local businesses from Lismore to Perth, and chances are she has designed the logo or interior of that local businesses you love. A fierce advocate for community-led development and a vibrant creative economy, Kate’s work is a constant celebration of identity and survival.

Image - Cool to be Kind, Back Alley Gallery, 2021