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Wednesday 10am - 4pm Thursday 10am - 4pm Friday 10am - 4pm Saturday 10am - 4pm Sunday 10am - 2pm

The Lock-Up

Housed in Muloobinba/Newcastle’s original police station and lock-up, The Lock-Up is a contemporary art space for communities and their creative imaginaries.

FREE ENTRY. The Lock-Up is multi-disciplinary contemporary arts centre and hub for creative thinking and doing. Its program includes exhibitions, events, site specific installations and performances, residencies and a variety of activities designed to engage the public.

22/06/2026

💭 Did you know that for every artwork purchased in our annual fundraising exhibitions, COLLECT and COLLECT: FOCUS, 40% of the sale facilitates The Lock-Up's artistic program, and the remaining 60% is returned to the artist?

COLLECT and COLLECT: Focus are not only incredible opportunities for artists to exhibit in a unique group exhibition, but all funds from sales go directly back into our artistic community! 🫶

PLUS, all donations made to TLU are 100% tax-deductible! With EOFY fast approaching, there is no better time to show your support 🎁

Purchase your COLLECT-able piece online now via the 🔗 in our bio!

📸: Opening night documentation, COLLECT and COLLECT: Focus 2026 Opening Night, curated by Ella Grace Paterson and Elloise Ansell, 15 May - 5 July 2026, The Lock-Up, Muloobinba/Newcastle. Photograph by Wanagi Zable-Andrews ( )

20/06/2026

⭐️COLLECT Artist Spotlight ⭐️

We are sharing some features from our incredible COLLECT roster.
Next up... ⚡️Annabel Sutton ⚡️

Annabel Sutton’s current practice expands across print media, sculpture, installation and drawing. In late 2025, Annabel was selected to partake in a residency with PADA Studios in Barreiro from April to June 2026 and received the Ian Potter Cultural Trust Grant for emerging artists to support the project. 👏

At PADA, she has approached the post-industrial site where the residency is located as a living archive, collecting discarded magazines, newspapers, and structural materials to interpret the history and defining narratives of the area.

The intaglio print ‘Letters’, included in this year’s Collect show, is from a series of ongoing works centred on deconstructing ideas of ownership and attachment to place. Annabel uses handmade miniature models to generate this blown-out image, in which the outline dissolves into form, the subject obscured yet domineering.

Up next. Annabel will travel to Tasmania in early August to undertake a residency at the Tasman Cottage, where she is looking forward to focusing on drawing and writing in response to the seascape, rurality and locality.

'Letters', along with an incredible selection of other COLLECT artworks, are for sale via the 🔗 in our bio!

Image 1: Portrait of Annabel Sutton, Courtesy the artist.
Image 2: 'Letters', 2025, Intaglio etching, 53 x 42cm. Photograph by Ben Adams.

18/06/2026

⚡️COMING UP ⚡️

Next Thursday: Ambient atmospheres meet live experimentation 🤝 for Live @ The Lock-Up with Rose White, Jordan Hunt and Dark Pattern ䷣

🎟 Tickets on sale now — link in bio
🗓 Thurs, 25 June
🍷 Doors + bar 6.30pm | COLLECT exhibition open

Artist bios below ⬇️

䷣ DARK PATTERN
Pulling inspiration from ambient sound design and contemporary beat-making, Dark Pattern combines classical instruments and digital effects to make eerie, melancholic soundscapes. By recontextualising grainy samples within soft, droney sonic environments, he melds genres and generates a unique sound. His love for string instruments has heavily influenced his composition with sweeping cello samples and soft harp plucks as a staple.

🥀 ROSE WHITE
Rose White is an artist whose musical journey has made a sudden shift. From indie/folk to dance/ambience music, she has experimented with live DJing at festivals and shows, using a loop station to record vocals and violin, and a groove box to play samples and beats. The musicality and technique of her folk days carry over into the complexity of her new lush electronic sound.

⚔️ JORDAN HUNT
Contrast is the word that best describes Jordan’s music. A collision of more traditional songwriting mixed with his love for modern electronic music. Whether it is a war or a dance, between the two worlds, is up to the listener. Just as Jordan has a hunger to explore sonically, he also explores his own psyche and the triumphs and downfalls of the human experience.

Images 1-3: Headshots courtesy of the artists. Rose White headshot by .on.35mm
Image 4: Dark Pattern and Jordan Hunt. Photograph by .dot.tv
Image 5: Courtesy of the artists.

17/06/2026

PANEL DISCUSSION | Becoming and Beyond

As we usher out the end of COLLECT, our annual fundraiser exhibition showcasing the immense talent we have locally from emerging to established artists, we find ourselves asking, what makes Mullobinba / Newcastle such a special place for art?

On this panel, hosted by this years emerging curators Ella Grace Paterson and Elloise Ansell, we invite local artists, archivists, and cultural workers embedded in the city’s established yet evolving creative landscape to unpack a scene that has long thrived at the intersection of grit and refinement.

Panelists include: Braddon Snape ( ), Shellie Smith ( ), Katerina Skoumbas ( ), James Turvey ( ), and Emerald Ruby / Jennifer Hankin ( ).

🗓️ Thursday 2 July
⏰ Bar open from 5.30pm
💬 Panel discussion kicks off at 6pm

This is a FREE event, registration essential, 🔗 in bio.
Doors at 5:30pm. Panel discussion kicks off at 6pm.

Photographs by Nikola Jokanovic .wave.sampler. Poster by

14/06/2026

Have Your Say! 📢

Heritage NSW has begun the formal process to consider the Newcastle Government Building Group (74–90 Hunter Street) for inclusion on the NSW State Heritage Register, and community feedback is now open.

This significant precinct, which includes The Lock-Up, sits on Country and forms part of a place with deep and continuing significance for Awabakal and Worimi peoples. The precinct also holds important colonial histories, including its role within a carceral system, and these layered histories are important to consider alongside the site's present and future.

Heritage NSW has identified the Newcastle Government Building Group as meeting multiple criteria for State significance, including its historic, associative and aesthetic values, as well as its research potential.
Please share this with anyone who cares about Muloobinba / Newcastle's history, heritage and future.

State heritage listing helps ensure these buildings, stories and histories are recognised and protected for generations to come, while allowing places such as The Lock-Up to continue fostering contemporary artistic practice, critical reflection and public engagement.

These buildings are part of our shared story — both the histories they hold and the futures that will take place here. Your memories, experiences and insights can help shape that future.

📅 Submissions close 16 August 2026.
💬 Share your thoughts: Newcastle Government Building Group | Have Your Say

🔗 Or via the link in our bio.

12/06/2026

🐚 It's almost time for our next Crafternoon! 🐚

This time, Crafternoons will be facilitated by one of our COLLECT: Focus artist, Emerald Ruby / Jennifer Hankin ( ) in a textile-based workshop drawn from her exhibition, ‘Beach Comber’!

'Beach Comber' reflects Emerald Ruby's identity as a "collector" as well as the COLLECT exhibition as a whole. It showcases the myriad of things we find washed up on our shores, from shells and plastic to soft memories, while also highlighting the vastness of the artist's practice.

Crafternoons is a monthly art-making party for people of all ages with all materials and snacks included. A bar for grown-ups will also be open from 12.30 🍷

📅 Sat 27 June 12:30pm – 3:30pm
📍 The Lock-Up
💲Cost:
Pay to play: $20
Accompanying adults or support workers: Free (must be included in the same booking)
🔗 Get tickets and more info about Crafternoons - link in our bio

Image 1: Exhibition view, Emerald Ruby, 'Beach Comber', COLLECT: Focus 2026, 16 May - 5 July 2026, curated by Elloise Ansell, The Lock-Up, Muloobinba/Newcastle. Photograph by Wanagi Zable-Andrews ( )
Image 2: Portrait of Emerald Ruby. Courtesy of the artist.

10/06/2026

⚡️ Live @ The Lock-Up is back ⚡️

Live at The Lock-Up brings together three local experimental sound artists for an immersive, collaborative performance, transforming found sounds into something entirely new and unexpected.

Rose White ( ) layers dreamy soundscapes overdubbed by loops recorded live with vocals and violin; Jordan Hunt ( ) reshapes acoustic elements through bold and experimental sampling techniques; and Dark Pattern ( ) crafts striking sonic collages, weaving bright lo-fi samples against moody, atmospheric strings.

Moving between intimate solo moments and charged collaborative interplay, the performance unfolds as a rich, evolving sonic world; a one-night-only experience shaped by the night and The Lock-Up itself.

Do not miss these three local experimental sound heavy-hitters as they transform our space and drift with us into the night.

ONE NIGHT ONLY!
WHEN: Thurs, 25 June 2026

Doors and bar from 6.30pm
Exhibition COLLECT open for viewing
Duration 90 mins

Tickets on sale NOW, 🔗 in bio

Poster by Dark Pattern

09/06/2026

⭐️COLLECT Artist Spotlight ⭐️

We will be sharing features from our all-star COLLECT roster over the coming weeks. First up... ⚡️ Tahlia Riley ⚡️ ( .nock.riley )

Tahlia Riley is an emerging visual artist based on Awabakal Country, NSW. Working primarily with ceramics, her practice explores reconnection to family, culture, and history through her mixed European and Aboriginal heritage. Her ancestors were part of the Stolen Generations in Western Australia, and navigating this disrupted connection is central to her work, with a subconscious relationship to Country emerging through intuitive making. Riley’s hands-on practice is guided by a strong awareness of climate change and a commitment to preserving the natural environment.

She was recently selected as a finalist in the highly coveted Wynne Prize 2026. Congratulations Tahlia!

'Waugal', along with an incredible selection of other COLLECT artworks, are for sale no via the 🔗 in our bio! the surface of Country. The work considers protection, memory, and the unseen connections that carry story across time. It speaks to the strength of cultural knowledge and the ways these connections can continue to exist, even when they have been disrupted.

'Waugal', along with an incredible selection of other COLLECT artworks, are for sale via the 🔗 in our bio!

Image 1: Portrait of Tahlia Riley. Courtesy of the artist
Image 2: Waugal, 2026, mid-fire ceramic, 75 x 23 x 18cm. Photograph by Ben Adams.

07/06/2026

The Lock-Up is excited to announce the appointment of Ella Grace Paterson as our new Gallery & Curatorial Assistant! 🥳

Ella is an emerging arts administrator and artist, whose practice spans time-based video work and photography. She has worked across the creative sector in permanent and project based capacities, including commercial and live photography nationally and internationally, curation, events and in the music industry. She also has a background in film and screen media, which informs her creative practice.

She was the early-career curator for The Lock-Up’s COLLECT 2026 and has contributed to many group exhibitions as an artist and curator locally and interstate. She has a strong interest in Muloobinba / Newcastle’s youth arts / DIY culture, which she has been active in for over 10 years.

Ella has been working full-time with us, and we are so excited to see what she continues to contribute!

📸 : Ella Grace Paterson at The Lock-Up 2026. Photograph by Ben Adams.

05/06/2026

Watch our full film of Karla Dickens’ first solo exhibition in Muloobinba / Newcastle, ‘Locked On’ in this captivating and poetic interview with the artist. A ‘lock-on’ is a powerful, non-violent civil disobedience tactic used by protesters - using bicycle locks, handcuffs and other DIY material — to secure themselves in their place of protest. Part homage, part rallying cry, Locked On merged works from Dickens’ extensive repertoire and embodied both a statement on our volatile climate situation and an urgent call to action.

A timely reminder that climate action is all of our responsibilities, and that we each have a choice to make in the fight for our planet. 🌎

🔗 Link to full vimeo in bio.

Karla Dickens is a Wiradjuri, Irish and German multidisciplinary artist based in Lismore on Bundjalung Country, NSW. Dickens is celebrated for searingly honest and charged installations, collage, and sculpture.
Known as a found-object virtuoso, the artist transforms discarded materials into potent narratives that confront race, gender and injustice with fierce wit and generosity.

Film narrative by and Storyhaus Productions in association with The Lock-Up. ‘Locked On’ was Karla Dickens’ first major solo exhibition in Muloobinba/Newcastle and the Hunter, featuring major bodies of works and new commissions, initiated and led by The Lock-Up and New Annual.
australia

Address

90 Hunter Street
Newcastle, NSW
2300

Opening Hours

Wednesday	10am - 4pm
Thursday	10am - 4pm
Friday	10am - 4pm
Saturday	10am - 4pm
Sunday	10am - 2pm

Telephone

+61249252265

Website

http://www.thelockup.org.au/, https://linktr.ee/thelockupartspace

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