Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts: 408 Flinders St, Gurambilbarra / Townsville, QLD 4810.
View the interactive PUNQ Art Trail Map for directions.
Venue Accessibility
Umbrella's gallery and shop are located on street level with a doorway entrance and one low step up into the space. Visitors with alternative accessibility needs may enter via the side entrance door and ramp a couple metres to the left of the front door.
The Vault where Overthink is exhibited is located downstairs within Umbrella’s heritage building and has access limitations. Please note that The Vault is accessed via stairs and is not wheelchair accessible. We apologise for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience and understanding.
PricingFree Event | Registration is appreciated but not essential. If you're planning to attend, register your attendance to help us prepare for your visit.
Wednesday 23 September 6-8pm
PUNQ Festival Launch
Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts
Join Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts for a historic celebration of North Queensland art, archives and culture - launching:
- PUNQ Festival: Pop Up North Queensland, presented in partnership with the North Australian Festival of Arts (NAFA)
- A Radical Art History: Artists, Ideas and Cultural Exchange Across Forty Years, produced by Umbrella in partnership with James Cook University
- A Shifting Reality - Jill Chism, presented by Umbrella as part of NAFA.
- Overthink - Justin Bishop, presented across two sites for PUNQ Festival.
Connect with artists and audiences at this opening event to discover contemporary art from North Queensland and beyond.
About The ArtistPUNQ transforms natural and built environments across North Queensland, bringing together contemporary art and exhibitions, public artworks, performances, installations and events.
NAFA is an annual celebration of arts, culture, inclusion and community. With world-class programming each year, NAFA enriches the local community while strengthening Townsville’s standing as a destination for artistic excellence.
PUNQ and NAFA, presented in partnership as key festivals of the North, explore transformation, cultural history and the ways we understand the world around us.
A Shifting Reality by Jill Chism examines the ongoing transformation of forms, identities, meanings and perceptions, inviting us to consider how our understanding of reality is continually shaped and reshaped.
Overthink by Justin Bishop considers how words accumulate meaning through repetition, context and circulation, and how contemporary media environments shape the ways we think, feel and respond. Drawing on the heightened anxiety associated with ‘overthinking’, the work reflects on how continuous streams of headlines, commentary and content can amplify emotionally charged material and reinforce existing beliefs and biases. Presented across two sites at Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts: 1. The Vault, downstairs 408 Flinders St, Gurambilbarra / Townsville, QLD 4810; and 2. External back wall, Ogden St, Gurambilbarra / Townsville, QLD 4810.
A Radical Art History: Artists, Ideas, and Cultural Exchange Across Forty Years is a new digital archive accessible across two platforms. Rather than presenting a conventional institutional history, an interactive digital archive and an in-person exhibition trace the networks of people, projects and conversations that have defined Umbrella since 1986.
Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts is a leading independent platform for contemporary and experimental arts practice on Wulgurukaba Country (Gurambilbarra / Townsville). Through artists, ideas and collaboration, Umbrella amplifies regional voices, fosters creative exchange and creates meaningful connections between North Queensland and the world
Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts: 408 Flinders St, Gurambilbarra / Townsville, QLD 4810.
View the interactive PUNQ Art Trail Map for directions.
Venue Accessibility
Umbrella's gallery and shop are located on street level with a doorway entrance and one low step up into the space. Visitors with alternative accessibility needs may enter via the side entrance door and ramp a couple metres to the left of the front door.
The Vault where Overthink is exhibited is located downstairs within Umbrella’s heritage building and has access limitations. Please note that The Vault is accessed via stairs and is not wheelchair accessible. We apologise for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience and understanding.
PricingFree Event | Registration is appreciated but not essential. If you're planning to attend, register your attendance to help us prepare for your visit.
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PUNQ respectfully acknowledges the Wulgurukaba of Gurambilbarra and Yunbenun and the surrounding groups of our region; Bindal, Gugu Badhun, Nywaigi, Warrgamay, Bandjin and Gudjal as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we gather, share and celebrate local creative practice. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as the first people of Australia. They have never ceded sovereignty and remain strong in their enduring connection to land and Culture.
PUNQ respectfully acknowledges the Wulgurukaba of Gurambilbarra and Yunbenun and the surrounding groups of our region; Bindal, Gugu Badhun, Nywaigi, Warrgamay, Bandjin and Gudjal as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we gather, share and celebrate local creative practice. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as the first people of Australia. They have never ceded sovereignty and remain strong in their enduring connection to land and Culture.
PUNQ is produced by Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts. The festival is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland, the Tim Fairfax Family Foundation and receives funding from Creative Australia through the Australian Cultural Fund. Townsville City Council is a funding partner of PUNQ.