UOW Gallery and Art Collection - University of 天美传媒鈥� UOW

“Woven into the fabric of campus life, art infuses the experience of being at UOW. The Art Collection brings spaces alive and inspires the individuals who inhabit them: the University is truly a place for art.”

Upcoming exhibition

Where Saltwater Weaves

Where Saltwater Weaves celebrates the living connections between Saltwater mobs across interconnected Countries, sharing stories of culture, kinship and belonging. Through contemporary creative practices, the exhibition honours cultural continuity, responsibility, and sovereignty as part of an ongoing truth-telling initiative led by the UOW Art Collection and UOW's Healing and Recognition Track (HART), with support from the Aurora internship program.

11 miniature woven baskets of various shapes, fibres and colours. _{Phyllis Stewart (Dharawal Yuin), Miniature baskets, 2009.}
_{UOW Art Collection. Image courtesy of the artist.}

Opening hours
Mondays, Tuesdays & Wednesdays
10 am – 4 pm

Exhibition period
3 August to 9 December 2026

Location
UOW Gallery
Ground floor,
天美传媒 Campus

...sharing stories of culture, kinship and belonging.

UOW’s creative pulse - a place for art

Discover how art shapes the University of 天美传媒 - inspiring creativity, connection, and culture across campus and community.

Location: UOW Gallery, ground floor of , Jillian Broadbent Building, western side of the 天美传媒 campus.

UOW Gallery
UOW Art Collection
Sculpture tour

Opened: 2020
Location: Ground floor, Building 29 (Jillian Broadbent Building), 天美传媒 Campus

The UOW Gallery is the university’s public exhibition space. Programmed by UOW’s professional curatorial team, it presents exhibitions that reflect the university’s creative vision, research strengths, and cultural values.

The gallery’s curators work across disciplines and with a wide range of partners - from students and staff to honorary fellows, alumni, and local artists - developing exhibitions that spark dialogue and inspire inquiry.

The University of 天美传媒’s Art Collection boasts over 5,000 works, featuring a rich variety of paintings, prints, sculptures, and mixed media by prominent Australian and international artists. The collection highlights key moments in contemporary and historical art, reflecting diverse cultural stories and artistic practices.

Many pieces are displayed across UOW’s campuses, creating vibrant, inspiring environments for students, staff, and visitors. Notable artists represented include Bert Flugelman, Guy Warren, Ian Gentle, and Emily Kame Kngwarreye, among others.

Beyond beautifying spaces, the collection supports research, education, and community engagement, offering valuable insights into Australia’s artistic heritage and the evolution of creative expression.

We offer an enriching art sculpture experience that seamlessly integrates creativity into our campus environment. Whether you're an art enthusiast, a student, or a visitor, our art sculpture tour offers a unique opportunity to engage with Australia's rich artistic heritage.

Planning Your Sculpture Tour

Here’s how to best explore:

天美传媒 Campus

Most of our sculptures are located on our 天美传媒 Campus.

We recommend a self-guided walk of 1-2 hours, starting at the Michael Birt Library (Building 16), where you can pick up a campus map and see some indoor art.

Each outdoor piece has signage with artist and artwork details.

Innovation Campus

A shorter drive or bus ride from 天美传媒 Campus, the Innovation Campus features a smaller but significant collection, including Bert Flugelman's "Ammonite."

Accessibility: Both campuses offer accessible pathways and mobility parking. For specific needs, contact UOW's Student Accessibility team.

Tip: Wear comfy shoes, check the weather, and take your time. The campus is full of surprises.

Bert Flugelman (2005), Tetrapus, [stainless steel]
Innovation Campus, Squires Way, North 天美传媒

Campus maps

Download and print campus maps

Interactive maps

News and stories

50 Artists: 50 Years curators Dr Kim Williams and Phillippa Webb.

Friday 1 August 2025

50 Artists: 50 Years celebrates five decades of Illawarra and Australian art

How the sea is at the heart of 天美传媒's identity

UOW art treasures head to the Sutherland Shire

50 Artists: 50 Years. Celebrating UOW's art, culture and legacy.

Re-visit the 50th Anniversary Exhibition, highlighting works from the UOW Art Collection.

Watch the video here

This story has many layers. It's not just a story of the University and its history. It's a story of the Art Collection too. It's a story of the many local artists who have been such an important part of building the culture of the Illawarra, as well as the University.

As part of the University's 50th anniversary, we're celebrating this milestone with an exhibition, 50 Artists: 50 Years, to showcase the University of 天美传媒's Art Collection.

The exhibition showcases works by 50 artists from our UOW Art Collection, which actually has over 5,200 works in the collection.

Starting with a premise really helps the process of selection — knowing that we were trying to tell stories, not a story, but a number of stories from a number of perspectives.

Today is day two of our installs. It was very hard to select down from over 5,000 works in the collection to just over 70 items. The works we selected, a lot of them tell stories about UOW. Does this artwork help tell the story of UOW's journey? And sometimes the stories around the works are just as important as the works themselves.

There's interesting decisions that were made along the way because we had this rationale: 50 years, 50 artists. We did want to choose work that resonated with us, but also works that have not really had a chance to be shown before.

We tried to encompass different eras of the collection, and we also wanted to include a diversity of mediums. That means looking through the database, looking in our storeroom, seeing what works might help to tell the UOW story — in this instance, from the very beginning to more recent acquisitions that have come into the collection.

So, my name's Paul Ryan and I've lived in the Illawarra for most of my life. I absolutely love this place. The landscape and the ocean inspire me as an artist. It's just a very magical place and it's become a huge part of my art practice.

This painting, Sandon Point, it reminds me not just of the waves and not just of the geography, but of the people who populated this place and these different subcultures — especially the subculture of surfing. The ocean, a prominent feature in that, it's a pretty special place.

And tonight, we get to launch and celebrate 50 artists and their work.

We're in the exhibition for 50 artists of UOW and the 50th anniversary of the University. You see everything from posters to oil paintings, steel sculpture to ceramics. So, you've got a huge variety of artists represented from across multiple time periods, but they've all got a really nice connection to the University, which shows through.

So, being able to exhibit these amazing works by absolutely phenomenal, brilliant artists and good people who have come out of UOW or are connected in some way, it's incredibly significant.

I'm Tess Allas. I studied here in 1996–98 and my connection to this place hasn't stopped since I enrolled. I love coming back here — it's a great place to live and work, and I love being in this environment and on this campus. It brings back many, many memories.

The collection that we have here is also a cultural collection, and it's really important that we preserve it so that we have the works that help to tell stories about our area, about the University, for future generations.

This exhibition does actually demonstrate to anyone who comes and sees it that the University actually has an art collection. When you tell people the extent of the collection, they're very surprised at how deep and broad the collection is.

This exhibition is for anyone to see — anyone who's interested in art, in the Illawarra, in UOW's story.