Make sure to visit the Newstead Arts Hub this February to see a collection of portraits taken by local Anglican Church Reverend Darcy Vaughan.

The exhibition, open during the weekends, tackles issues of social isolation and how our communities function when faced with anxiety and uncertainty.

Part of the exhibition is a series of interviews with each subject, relating to the issue of being ‘homesick’. Deanna Buck, one of the subjects said, “I think of homesickness now, as a very much older person, where apart from my own home here there is not a home to run to. And I think that’s quite interesting. I remember when my mother moved into a hostel, she was about 94, and I had this sudden pang. I was about 60, thinking; there’s no home I can run home to. Even though I knew I wasn’t going to be running home, all of a sudden this idea that there wasn’t this physical sense of home, where you knew you’d be welcome under whatever circumstances. That really struck me.”

Local community member and volunteer at the Newstead Arts Hub, Carl Liffman, told the Times, “The collection has sparked a lot of conversations in the church. It’s a unique thing, a way to keep people together.”

This article appeared in the Tarrangower Times, 11 February 2022.