Impact and Change

Created as a participatory, community-facing experience, Threads of Belonging asks us to actively engage, rather than just wander through a gallery space as a casual observer. It’s a new initiative that brings Australian creatives together in conversation to celebrate and strengthen Arts Education and reaffirm its value. 

As curators Sophie Perez and Emma Cleine describe it, the goal for Threads is simple: ‘Impact and change.’

The exhibition format is enough to pique viewers’ and participants’ curiosity. Uniform size and price, works from graduates and novices as well as award-winning Australian creatives, all displayed anonymously. 'Every artwork in the Threads exhibition is created equal. No names, no hierarchy, each artist’s voice is heard through the work itself,' says Perez. For exhibition guests, works remain unseen until the opening and are taken home on the night. Students usher guests through the walls of work, facilitating conversations and handling the artworks. Participation and conversation are key features of the exhibition. 

Threads is bigger than just another school event on the calendar. It lands at a time when Arts education is under real pressure in Australia. According to research from Australian Catholic University, across the country, the Arts learning area has been deprioritised and left to ‘wither away.’ In the senior years, classes are routinely combined for efficiency, and in place of developing skills through craft and practice, students are asked only to write about it.  

Simply put, Arts Education has an accessibility problem. Losing The Arts means we lose some of our most potent ways of storytelling and meaning-making.

Threads is part of Woodleigh’s ongoing commitment to Arts education, an acknowledgement that, for our students, Arts education is not an add-on; it has clear and visible value, centres on critical and creative thinking, problem-solving and making meaning of the world. In a world of content overload, Arts education encourages students to be thinkers and creators, not consumers.  

Opening night was a huge success, with more than 300 guests packing the Dame Elisabeth Murdoch Gallery and over half of all the $150 artworks sold on the night. Proceeds from Threads are being funnelled straight back into The Arts, funding Woodleigh’s new Artist-in-Residence bursary. The $10,000 award is a first of its kind in an Australian school, and the first recipient is Canberra artist Annika Romeyn, a painter and printmaker known for her detailed, immersive and visually transportive works that focus on the natural environment. Annika will spend ten days at Woodleigh in 2026, working with students and connecting a professional arts culture into the school’s everyday learning environment.  

There is a lot of belief in Cleine and Perez’s Threads of Belonging vision and the exhibition’s power to create a space for beautiful art that invests in artists and arts culture. We can’t wait to see how their vision will continue to evolve and connect Arts Education at Woodleigh to the broader world.  

For more information about the Threads of Belonging 2027 Exhibition and Bursary, how to register, or to simply join our Threads Mailing List — hit the button below.