Past Exhibitions

Opened: 7 Sep 2017, Closed: 31 Jul 2018

We are excited to have up the fantastic photographic exhibition 'Unfinished Lines' in our temporary exhibition space until 7 October. Don't miss out! Inspired by Eyes as Big as Plates created by Finnish photographer Riitta Ikonen and Norwegian photographer Karoline Hjorth, the projects aim was to demonstrate the beauty and wisdom encapsulated in the process of ageing, and the continuing living journey for all seniors. 

Opened: 8 Mar 2017, Closed: 18 May 2017

Fluid acrylic painting is the use of acrylic paints diluted with water or mediums to a consistency of thickened cream.  There are many ways to pour and many different additives that can be used to help create different effects.  Meegan explores colour and form, often achieving aerial/satellite image type results.

This will be a visual delight for viewers with all pieces for sale.

Opened: 22 Oct 2016, Closed: 18 Dec 2016

National Pioneer Women's Hall of Fame in conjunction with the Alice Springs Correctional Centre are proud to present to you "An Exhibition of Prisoner Art and Craft".  Opening Saturday 22 October at 5.45pm at the Old Alice Springs Gaol, 2 Stuart Terrace, Alice Springs.

Opened: 28 Sep 2016, Closed: 7 Oct 2016

Acacia Hill Art Exhibition and Sale

We are very pleased and proud to host Acacia Hill School's art exhibition and sale.  Also on offer will be craft works made by the students, as well as raffles and auctions on the night.  Come down and enjoy what promises to be a delightful evening.

Acacia Hill Art Exhibition and Sale

Wednesday 28 September 6-8pm at the National Pioneer Women's Hall of Fame.

Opened: 18 May 2016, Closed: 20 Sep 2016

This evocative exhibition tells the story of Bertha Strehlow's honeymoon journey.  The story of Bertha is captured in Leni Shilton's poetry and shown alongside the original panels which were the poems' inspiration.  On display until Tuesday 20 September 2016.

Opened: 11 Sep 2015, Closed: 29 Feb 2016

Tiffany has been working at the NPWHF since June 2014 and, in this exhibition, shares with you her story during that time. Further information on Tiffany's work at the Museum can be found here. Also available is an interview with Tiffany and others recorded at the opening of "Full Circle", courtesy of our local ABC Radio.

Opened: 1 Jul 2015, Closed: 26 Sep 2015

Radi­ant Dreams holds an incred­i­ble promise as it cel­e­brates the 2015 Inter­na­tion­al Year of Light acknowl­edg­ing achieve­ments of light sci­ence and its appli­ca­tions, and its impor­tance to humankind. This UV lumi­nous instal­la­tion takes you on a jour­ney through diverse fields as each emerg­ing young stu­dent artist col­lab­o­rat­ed in pro­duc­ing sto­ries inspired by the sim­ple beau­ty and com­plex­i­ty of nature. The col­lab­o­ra­tion between the Nation­al Pio­neer Wom­en’s Hall of Fame and Cen­tralian Senior Col­lege which began in 2014 is fur­ther built on in Radi­ant Dreams and extend­ed to also include the works of stu­dents from Cen­tralian Mid­dle School, Ross Park Pri­ma­ry School and Gillen Pri­ma­ry School.

The dark­ened space of the Old Alice Springs Gaol men’s cells reassem­bles the imag­i­na­tion of undis­cov­ered places unbound by the sub­con­scious mind. These places are the only means of escape for the incar­cer­at­ed soul as the cell door and high walls act as a bar­ri­er to pre­vent a phys­i­cal trans­for­ma­tion. The black light serves up an inte­ri­or of unpre­dictable anom­alies from trees, moun­tain­ous forms, paint­ed views to del­i­cate lace pat­terns and body parts. The ambi­ent elec­tron­ic sounds echo dis­tant desires, entan­gling each space in new untamed sensations.

We would like to acknowl­edge the work and com­mit­ment of Judith Coverdale (Visual/​Creative Arts Teacher, Cen­tralian Senior Col­lege). Spe­cial thanks also goes to Alice Springs Music Producer/​Composer Erik Ander­sen for his exper­i­men­tal elec­tron­ic sounds com­mis­sioned to fill the instal­la­tion space and to Rosie Ben­nett (Gillen Pri­ma­ry School), Stone Lee (Cen­tralian Mid­dle School) and Miran­da Need­ham (Ross Park Pri­ma­ry School

Opened: 24 Apr 2015, Closed: 3 Sep 2015

It is estimated that over one million pairs of socks were knitted by Australian women and children during World War One. The Australian Comforts Fund co-ordinated knitting circles and distributed free ‘comforts’ to the Australian troops which included tobacco, chocolate, newspapers, cakes and knitted items. Knitting socks and other items of clothing was one way that Australians could feel they were contributing to the war effort.

Many sol­diers were evac­u­at­ed from the front line suf­fer­ing with trench foot. Pro­longed expo­sure to damp, unsan­i­tary, and cold con­di­tions caused boils and sores, which could lead to fun­gal infec­tions, gan­grene, and even ampu­ta­tion. Keep­ing one’s feet dry and reg­u­lar­ly chang­ing one’s socks were two ways to help stop the spread of trench foot.Our exhi­bi­tion Wartime Wool­lens remem­bers the silent con­tri­bu­tion of these knit­ters one hun­dred years ago. It also gives a glimpse into how the knit­ted com­forts were received by the men at the front.The idea for the exhi­bi­tion came from mem­bers of a local knit­ters’ group which meets reg­u­lar­ly at the Nation­al Pio­neer Women’s Hall of Fame. A call out to an online knit­ting group gen­er­at­ed a lot more interest.And so, to show their sup­port, the knit­ting began. Just like one hun­dred years ago. 

Opened: 8 Mar 2015, Closed: 19 Apr 2015

This fine and evocative exhibition on Bertha Strehlow told the story of her honeymoon journey of 1936.

The exhi­bi­tion was a col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Strehlow Research Cen­tre and the Old Luther­an Church His­to­ry Cen­tre, Alice Springs. On dis­play were orig­i­nal copies of pho­tographs and let­ters along with the rich pan­els telling the sto­ry of this very mov­ing hon­ey­moon journey.

Opened: 11 Sep 2014, Closed: 14 Nov 2014

Objects as Art: Hidden Stories from the National Pioneer Women's Hall of Fame Collection of Treasures

Developed in collaboration with the National Pioneer Women's Hall of fame and Centralian Senior College Years 10, 11, and 12 Visual Art students Objects as Art assembled a range of painters, drawers, photographers, film makers and sculptors who make up this community's art scene.

From refined graphite draw­ings to sculp­tur­al works the group’s goal was to cre­ative­ly respond to the Nation­al Pio­neer Wom­en’s Hall of Fame object col­lec­tion and to the sep­a­rat­ed spaces of the men’s and wom­en’s cell blocks of the Old Alice Springs Gaol. Con­sid­er­a­tion was giv­en to the his­tor­i­cal con­text of the space and objects as stu­dents explored the ele­ments of form and function. 

The artists were: Renee Cusack, Seraphi­na Cavanagh, Tah­peiya Har­vey, Bradley Parkin­son, Tigen-Jane Rum­bal, Christi­na McK­er­lie, Jade Doyle, Tyler Har­ris, Krys­tal Ran­gi­tu­tia, Sara Wal­lace, Isaac Fore­man, Haley Col­la-Howard, Zavier Fabi­jan, Teio Tapera, Jef­fery Klaren­beek, Dong Wei Lui, Jess Tyley, Shiloh Jar­rett, Cen­tralian Senior Col­lege Dance Col­lec­tive (Ash­leigh Owens, Alisha Lind­say, Avi Kumar, Krys­tal Obrien, Chris­tine Hayes, Emma Wormwald, Zaner­in Rum­bal and Jor­dyn Van Den Akker), Daniel Witts, Denise Roberts. 

Objects as Art was on dis­play from 11 Sep­tem­ber-14 Novem­ber 2014.Thanks to Alice Springs Town Coun­cil and the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Gov­ern­ment for their gen­er­ous finan­cial assis­tance which enable this exhi­bi­tion to reach fruition. 

Opened: 1 Jan 2013, Closed: 1 Jan 2013

This exhibition from 2013 was a celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the founding in 1993 of the National Pioneer Women’s Hall of Fame.

Opened: 1 Jan 2012, Closed: 1 Jan 2012

Launched as part of Women's History Month 2012, the exhibition Shaping our Central Australian Surroundings: for women, by women, about women explored some of the many different ways in which women have influenced the development of the built environment of Alice Springs, and Central Australia generally.

The dis­play fea­tured sto­ries about some of the indi­vid­ual women who have played sig­nif­i­cant roles in build­ing, plan­ning and land­scap­ing in Alice Springs and the sur­round­ing region and asked vis­i­tors to think about the advan­tages and dis­ad­van­tages for a town like Alice Springs of con­vert­ing from non-pro­fes­sion­al build­ing design and con­struc­tion to an increas­ing­ly reg­u­lat­ed, pro­fes­sion­al­ly-dri­ven built environment. 

Many thanks to vol­un­teer Anne Scher­er for all her hard work on design­ing and devel­op­ing this exhibition. 

Opened: 1 Mar 2011, Closed: 31 Mar 2011

The theme of Women's History Month 2011 was Women in the Business of Food and this exhibition explored the place of the kitchen in Central Australian history. In various kitchen scenarios displayed, the kitchen itself was the key player with the design, equipment and setting of the different kitchens revealing the changing circumstances of women and Central Australians.

This exhibition was designed and developed by committed NPWHF volunteer Anne Scherer.

Opened: 1 Mar 2010, Closed: 31 Mar 2010

Demeter, Goddess of the Earth, Fertility and Fruits of the Earth, is said to symbolize all things to do with ‘food harvesting’ or ‘food farming’. It is her story that inspired the national theme for Women’s History Month 2010 ‘Demeter’s Daughters: Women’s harvest history’ and the National Pioneer Women’s Hall of Fame contribution to this commemoration – a display entitled: Desert Harvest History – No place for a woman?

‘Pri­ma­ry Indus­try’ in Cen­tral Aus­tralia has tak­en many forms over the years – from wild food har­vest, home­stead and mar­ket gar­den­ing and farm­ing for fam­i­ly sus­te­nance to large com­mer­cial graz­ing and hor­ti­cul­ture busi­ness­es. Tra­di­tion­al Abo­rig­i­nal lifestyles relied on use of the land in its entire­ty for sur­vival; and the pre­dom­i­nant land-use in Cen­tral Aus­tralia con­tin­ues to be large tracts giv­en over to graz­ing. Adap­ta­tions to the desert envi­ron­ment in the form of niche hor­ti­cul­ture crops and busi­ness enter­pris­es that part­ner food pro­duc­tion are also grow­ing in num­ber and importance.

Lifestyles of all Cen­tral Aus­tralians, Abo­rig­i­nal and more recent set­tlers, have changed over the years. The desert har­vest sto­ries depict­ed in this dis­play reflect this in the way the char­ac­ters, set­tings and cre­ative enter­pris­es have var­ied over time. How­ev­er the end results have a com­mon thread – coun­try once viewed as ​‘the dead heart of Aus­tralia’ has giv­en gen­er­ous­ly in the form of a rel­a­tive­ly boun­ti­ful ​‘desert harvest.’

Many thanks to vol­un­teer Anne Scher­er for all her hard work on design­ing and devel­op­ing this exhibition.