In a new series of exhibitions, Different Takes, we invite guest curators from the community to delve into our storerooms and present well-known and not so well-known works in a new light.

This brings a fresh perspective to the gallery’s permanent collection. 

We are delighted that Cecilie Knowles is our guest curator for the latest installment. 

Her selection, which she has titled Common Place, is on now in our upstairs gallery until July 30. 

In her catalogue essay, Cecilie observes that “our connection to place helps define who we are”. 

“Our personal life histories guide us in forming bonds to our natural and built environments in uniquely complex ways,” she said.

“Common Place includes works from the Orange Regional Gallery collection that touch on this human-place connection.”

Cecilie has a degree in fine arts from Sydney College of the Arts.

She also has a background in heritage, materials conservation and design.

She brings to this exhibition a deep understanding of how specific places can hold personal significance for us and also act as sites for shared meaning. 

“I’ve been fortunate in my working life to be involved in a variety of projects that closely examine the importance of place,” she said.

“The jobs where significance is established through careful research and a set of well-established criteria. 

“When assessing the cultural significance of a place it is not only the aesthetic qualities that are taken into consideration but also the historic, scientific and social values.

“For the most part (and certainly so for the built environment) it’s the social values that, for me, have held the most interest.

“The stories linking the people to the place that give them their meaning. 

“It’s this intangible, emotional connection to place that I am most excited by and what forms the basis for Common Place. 

“A grand landscape, a quiet interior, a tree, a studio, an everyday corner, these works tell a story bigger than the places they represent. 

“They are a unique insight into the personal histories of the people who created them.”

Orange Regional Gallery is open 10am to 4pm daily (except Christmas day, Boxing day and Good Friday). 

Drop in to the gallery at 149 Byng Street, Orange.

Exhibitions are free. 

For more information about this exhibition or upcoming events and exhibitions please contact the gallery on 6393 8136.

You can also visit the gallery’s website: www.org.nsw.gov.au