On the Local Arts Trail in December 2025
— with Alison Desmond —
It’s the end of the year and Moorabool’s galleries are wrapping up exhibitions but are still stocked full of locally handmade giftware at all price points.
Thanks to all the artists and galleries that have contributed to my little monthly arts report this year.
Keep supporting local and have a wonderful festive season, see you next year!
Flack Post & Telegraph Office, Ballan
Black N Roll: Noir Raw Power by Jane Taverner presents “the holy trinity of fashion, music and black”.
Luxury fabrics like wool, adorned with metallic threads, beads and safety pins, a hand-sewn trauma blanket wall-hanging, and an altered guitar casually strewn on the chaise lounge recall an enduring rock aesthetic.
Taverner transforms the Lucy Lounge into a rock goddess’s romantically dishevelled interior, the luxurious closet of a dark and mysterious bohemian character.
Ballan Art Space
Artist’s Choice is the theme for the final exhibition of the year at Ballan Art Space and many of the members are showing landscapes and animal themes.
In the shop you will find Christmas earrings and handmade and decorated stockings sculpture, ceramics, journals, gift cards and more.
Oak Grove Gallery, Ballan
For a statement gift pop in and see artist Marty Cleal. You’ll learn why many visitors have become fans of his landscape and seascape paintings, with the colours of the Australian bush in the style of the Australian Impressionists.
Gordon Bar Room Gallery
Ceramics, textiles, jewellery, paintings, giftcards, all local and all handmade: find the perfect gifts for your loved ones at Gordon Bar Room Gallery.
Bacchus Marsh Art Collective
After a big year of exhibiting BMAC are on a well-earned break until the New Year.
Pictured is a piece created by local artist Emma Buzza during the collective’s recent clay angels workshop.
Moorabool Art Community Pathways (MAPP) Up in Lights
Hanging at the Bacchus Marsh MAPP gallery is a group exhibition by Wombat Regional Art Network marking this year’s 16 Days of Activism (pictured), while the Ballan MAPP gallery is in the final days of its Remembrance Day exhibition.
On December 10, both galleries will switch to host pieces from Caring for our Patch, a new exhibition from artist, Kathy Holowko.
MAPP up in lights can be viewed at Village Green, Bacchus Marsh and AA McClean Reserve, Ballan.
Public and Community Arts
Moorabool Shire has an amazing collection of public art, from markers of place in bush settings, to Ballan’s cosily yarn-bombed Inglis Street, to eye-catching paste-ups in the townships.
You can find out more about Moorabool’s public art pieces at the Moorbool Shire website
About On the Local Arts Trail
The Local Arts Trail column is released through our monthly eNewsletter and on this website at the start of each month.
If you have an arts-related exhibition or event you’d like to let us know about, you can use our Submit an Event form.
Keep in touch with the local arts scene by following us on Facebook and Insta, and be sure to sign up for our monthly eNewsletter.