Cooktown artists have begun working on their portraits for the 2025 Archies exhibition. Photo: Facebook (Cooktown Art).
The lead-up to this year’s Archies exhibition is highlighting the growing strength of the Cooktown gallery scene as artists excitedly start on their portraits in preparation for next month’s showcase.
Now in its third year, the Archies invites artists of all levels to highlight their favourite local characters through portraiture, and many have already put colour to canvas for opening night on 26 September.
Cooktown School of Art Society president Jane Dennis said she has already received entries and expressions of interest from many artists, which was great to see.
“Last year was pretty quiet, but this year, everybody’s coming and saying, ‘I’ve already started my portrait’,” she said.
“It’s settled into being an event now, not just a one-off, so I think people have it set in their brains now that they can be involved.”
With local school students being involved this year, Ms Dennis said she was expecting a wide range of portraits on the Elizabeth Guzsely Gallery walls.
“A lot of kids are doing it through the school, so it’s going to be quite a large representation this year,” she said.
“It can be a bit tricky getting kids involved through school, because the school has its own curriculum.
“It just so happens that the school is using portraiture as part of their curriculum at the moment, so they can easily be involved with that.”
She said the Archies was a wonderful way to celebrate a variety of local faces, many who made big impacts without asking for any recognition.
“I think the exhibition certainly hopes to create an awareness of community,” Ms Dennis said.
“Things like the Australia Day Awards recognises one or two people for their contribution, but I think, in a way, this kind of fills that gap of acknowledging lots of different people who are the silent achievers.”
