Broken Hill is known around Australia as an arts town. Art is part of the city’s identity, its tourism story and its history. 

But Broken Hill artist Kelly Leonard thinks there is an important question we should be asking: how well do we value the artists who are living and working here now? 

Kelly is West Darling Arts’ Window Feature Artist for September. A multidisciplinary artist working across weaving, jewellery, sound and performance, she has been part of Broken Hill’s creative community for many years and spends a lot of time thinking about what it takes for that community to thrive. 

For Kelly, Broken Hill’s extraordinary artistic heritage is something to celebrate, but our focus on the past can sometimes come at the expense of recognising contemporary practice. 

“We have to look at the past to see where we are in the present, and also to reinvent or reimagine a future for ourselves,” Kelly says. 

“Heritage does play a part here. It’s where a lot of art projects bounce from and gather ideas from, but it’s not the only perspective. 

“I think we, as a community, should pay attention to what artists are saying now.” 

It’s an interesting tension for a city so strongly associated with art. Broken Hill’s historic artists, collections and movements are rightly celebrated, while artists continue to live here, experiment, collaborate and create new work in response to the city and surrounding landscape. 

Kelly would like to see that contemporary creativity given greater prominence. 

She points to West Darling Arts’ 2023 GlamFest, which brought together contemporary art and music by local and visiting artists, and The Cad Factory’s work with the Menindee community as examples of projects that have successfully presented contemporary regional practice. 

But she also sees missed opportunities. Major events and festivals bring significant audiences and investment into the Far West, and Kelly would like to see the region’s living artists more meaningfully incorporated into them. 

“I’d love to see more local content included,” she says. 

That support doesn’t need to be confined to festivals, galleries or conventional arts programs either. 

Kelly would like to see artists brought into conversations across health, education and local government, recognising that creative practitioners have skills and perspectives that can contribute far beyond the arts sector. 

“That kind of creative thinking creates new worlds: new visions, new ways of thinking and new ways of doing things,” she says. 

“I’d just like to see artists valued more for their contributions.” 

Kelly’s own practice demonstrates what contemporary art in Broken Hill can look like. 

Originally trained as a loom-based weaver, she now also works across jewellery, performance and sound. Her jewellery draws on local minerals as well as metals and recycled materials she scavenges, while her sound practice responds directly to the environment, attempting to “raise the voice” of the landscape. 

Across these different forms, Kelly returns to pattern, repetition, materials and experimentation. 

Her practice is distinctly connected to this place, but it doesn’t rely on nostalgia to tell its story. 

And perhaps that is part of Kelly’s challenge to Broken Hill. 

The city already has an extraordinary artistic history. The question is whether we are equally willing to invest our attention, opportunities and enthusiasm in the people creating its artistic future. 

“Some days, it feels like everyone else in the world recognises that except the locals,” Kelly says. 

“Everyone wants to come to Broken Hill and undertake an art residency, and there’s so much energy around the place.” 

Throughout September, Kelly Leonard’s work can be seen in the West Darling Arts Exhibition Window, an opportunity to encounter the work of one of the artists contributing to that energy right now. 

About the Exhibition Window 

The West Darling Arts Exhibition Window is a free exhibition opportunity supporting emerging and established artists from the Far West region and beyond, providing a public platform for artists to showcase their work, increase visibility and connect with new audiences.