The Lock-Up will launch its latest exhibition LOUD SKY this month.

The seven-week showing, from Friday 31 March, is a collaborative exhibit featuring the work of five Hunter-based contemporary artists.

The pieces have been created in response to stories of survival uncovered through the work of the 2016 Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in the Hunter region.

Developed closely with members of the Clergy Abused Network (CAN), LOUD SKY presents the experiences of survival in the aftermath of trauma through contemporary art.

It is both for those immediately affected, family members, and the wider community within the context of the Hunter, a region impacted by institutional child abuse.

LOUD SKY will include the commissioning of five new works developed through a process of research and collaborative conversations with the survivor community.

These works have forged a way of processing this historical trauma and stand as a form of activism against the injustices of those who were affected.

LOUD SKY features artists Lottie Consalvo, Peter Gardiner, Fiona Lee, Damien Linnane and Clare Weeks and curated by Dr Rod Pattenden and Dr Kath McPhillips, in collaboration with The Lock-Up and the Clergy Abused Network.

Opening night is Friday 31 March at 6pm.

The exhibition will run from 1 April to 21 May.

Located in one of Newcastle’s most significant heritage buildings, The Lock-Up is a multi-disciplinary contemporary arts space and hub for creative thinking and doing.  

It was the Newcastle Police Station and lock up from 1861 until its closure in 1982.  

Today, it stands as a purpose-built gallery space alongside rare heritage listed cells, an event and installation space in what was the former men’s exercise yard and an onsite apartment for its residency program.  

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