On the Local Arts Trail in February 2026
— with Alison Desmond —
And we’re back for the new year, phew! This month we have newly commissioned public art at Bald Hill Lookout, our libraries are havens from the heat, and our gift shops are bursting with new locally handmade items for your Valentine!
Flack Post & Telegraph Office
Currently showing, Concetta McFall’s pastels draw on post-WWII fashion and her Italian mother’s garment-mending work in mid-C20th Melbourne where she says, “the fabric of our multicultural society,” was formed.
In this piece, Style Sisters, sharp lines delineate feminine silhouettes with a richly-pigmented, all over irregular geometric pattern where the body and garment unify.
Group exhibition Stories of the Heart opens from noon on Saturday 22 February.
Flack PTO is open 11am to 2pm Friday and Sunday, and from 10am to 3pm on Saturdays
1000 Steps and All Abilities Sculpture Walk
A recent addition to the Bacchus Marsh 1000+ Steps site, the All Abilities Sculpture Trail features temporary and permanent artworks installed at points along the walk, including this evocative piece by James Voller.
A plane crash-landed or something rooted and growing from the Earth? An elegantly asymmetric steel skeleton and perforated aluminium architectural photo-based images puncturing the sky, at once concealing and revealing the landscape.
• James Voller, Changing Lands, You Yangs Lookout, Bald Hill
MAPP Up in Lights - Village Green, Bacchus Marsh, and AA McLean Reserve, Ballan
Caring for our Patch, a collection of beautifully pigmented watercolours and animation, by Blackwood artist Kathy Holowko, occupies both MAPP galleries this month.
The collection aims to draw attention to the problem of weeds travelling downstream, representing Blackwood and Barry’s Reef Landcare Group and supported by Melbourne Water.
Kathy has been busy; she recently led a workshop of St Brigid’s PS students to design O Fountain, the new water fountain at AA McLean Reserve.
She directed them to focus on the local flora and fauna, their drawings, used on the surface design, celebrate the local ecology.
MAPP up in lights can be viewed at Village Green, Bacchus Marsh and AA McClean Reserve, Ballan.
Ballan Library and Community Hub, Ballan
Well-known for their recognisable miniatures of local buildings with painstaking work on the facades and interiors, Heather and Paul Anthony have created a little recreation of the previous Ballan Library at the Mechanics Institute building.
Little mice in little outfits check out little books and read stories, call into the library to view it in 3D, it really is a delight!
Alsdo at the library: Learn to make exquisite handmade cards, journals, collages and more at a papercrafting workshop from 9.30am to 11.30am on Saturday 14 February.
Ballan Art Space
Woven Worlds is a group exhibition currently on show.
This piece, Purple-Orange Bowl, crafted from grapevine, fabric and wood by Karen Longhurst, emanates radially with warmth.
Ballan Artspace is always rotating new stock in the shop, find a Valentines gift at any price point.
Lerderderg Library, Bacchus Marsh
A paddle of cardboard sculptures of platypuses, some as large as five metres, by artist Taro Liyayama are currently on loan from the Bacchus Marsh Platypus Alliance and can be viewed inside the library.
Gordon Bar Room Gallery
The artists at Gordon also have new inexpensive, high-quality stock, plenty of ceramic pieces, jewellery, prints, scarves and cards - pop in and find a bargain.
Oak Grove Gallery, Ballan
Not just a great artist, a great host to his studio as well, Martin Cleal’s paintings are contemporary landscapes in the tradition of the Australian Impressionists.
For Moorabool’s best views visit Marty at Oak Grove Gallery, pick up a souvenir or commission a painting.
Oak Grove Gallery is open 10am, “most days, depending on the mood.”
BMAC, Lerderderg Library, Bacchus Marsh
This year’s first meeting/workshop will be book or journal making at Lerderderg Libray, Bacchus Marsh on Tuesday, 17th February - contact the library for time and materials list. New members welcome.
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.
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