Clay On Country @ PACC

Clay on Country, ceramics from the central desert opens at PACCessnock Saturday 15 August - Saturday 19 September 2026. Offical opening on 15 August. RSVP Essential.

Co-curated by Jo Foster and Neridah Stockley, and toured by Artback NT, Clay on Country, ceramics from the central desert, is an impressive survey of ceramic practice that includes over thirty artists and collectives. Some are established ceramic artists others are incorporating clay into their practice for the first time, all have produced accomplished insightful and contemporary works that reflect the culturally and historically rich and complex region where they live and work.

“Many communities and cultures call the Northern Territory home, and we value the contributions and enrichment that come from this diversity” says Shay Vigona-Goudge, Chief Executive Officer, Artback NT, the Northern Territory’s key development and touring agency that is sending Clay on Country on a 3-year National Tour, to public art galleries in QLD, NSW, VIC, TAS, and WA.

“We hope Clay on Country’s audiences across Australia will find, amongst the stories told through this exhibition, reference points and resonance with their own stories, for while the artists in the exhibition share their uniquely Territorian experiences, they simultaneously speak of the complexity of our nation’s history”.

It is the exercise of recalling and reflecting, of truth telling, and deep diving with all its occasional discomfort, that Clay on Country does with such grace and generosity.

Clay on Country, ceramics from the central desert was first exhibited at the Araluen Arts Centre, during the 16th Australian Ceramics Triennale, Apmere Mparntwe/this place Alice Springs in 2022.

To support the creative aspirations of artists in the region, several skills development projects were undertaken throughout 2021. Artback NT, in partnership with Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Education, facilitated workshops for remote community artists at Walkatjara Arts, Kaltukatjara Arts and Engawala Community. Additional projects were facilitated by Artback NT staff with studio support from Central Craft for Iltja Ntjarra Artists and Akeyulerre Healing Centre in Alice Springs.

The exhibition is Audio Described, and accompanied by an Education Kit for Schools, as well as 100-page full colour catalogue with essays by, Jo Foster, curator; Hannah Kothe, writer, arts manager and board member of The Australian Ceramics Association; and interviews with artists Judith Pungkarta Inkamala (Hermannsburg Potters), Anne Nginyangka Thompson, and Alison Milyika Carroll (Ernabella Arts).