Kandos School of Cultural Adaptation

20/07/2026

'KSCA "aren’t particularly motivated by “raising awareness” or demystifying the conditions that produce a crisis. Rather, they are more invested in prefigurative experiments and assembling resources for creating microcosmic futures.... [The exhibition] trains our attention onto an underacknowledged lineage of artists... whose work has long moved between community and institution, expanding our understanding of where art happens and who it is for."

https://www.memoreview.net/reviews/the-art-of-adaptation-culture-changes-everywhere-by-nina-stromqvist

Thank you Nina Stromqvist, for your eloquent review of the "Art of Adaptation - Culture Changes Everywhere". It's quite something to read your perceptive comments about KSCA's projects and the job we feel Art has to do out in the world! And a huge thanks again to curators Ben Rak and Katherine Roberts for this invitation to look back on 10 years of our work and take on the challenge of bringing it in to the gallery, first at Manly Art Gallery and Museum, and now at Blue Mountains Cultural Centre - we've had such heartening encounters with audiences at both places. The show is up for another fortnight, closing August 2!

Draft The Art of Adaptation: Culture Changes Everywhere July 3, 2026 The Art of Adaptation: Culture Changes Everywhere Venue: Blue Mountains Cultural Centre 20 Jun 2026 – 02 Aug 2026 Author(s): Nina Stromqvist The future is something we make together, in our daily practices. — Rosi Braidotti Aro...

10/07/2026

Thank you Blue Mountains Cultural Centre for this wonderful showing of The Art of Adaptation - Culture Changes everywhere! It's quite striking to see our work and 10 year history displayed in your roomy, community-connected quarters - so grateful to Rilke Oakley and the install team for your expert curatorial judgement and care. And extra lovely to be co-billed at the moment with the NAIDOC show Reflections, curated by Aunty Elly Chatfield, to mark 50 years of Deadly 🌞

13/06/2026

Coming up on Friday night 19 June, 6-8pm at Blue Mountains Cultural Centre - it's the Kandos School of Cultural Adaptation exhibition THE ART OF ADAPTATION.

Fresh from Manly Art Gallery and Museum where the show Launched to Great Acclaim... if you missed Manly don't miss the Mountains!

We are honoured to have Stuart Hill launching the exhibition. Stuart's work in the field of Social Ecology has been so generative for our group.

All the details about the launch are here:

Join us for the opening night of

"The Art of Adaptation: Culture Changes Everywhere"

by Kandos School of Cultural Adaptation

Participating artists include Diego Bonetto, Laura Fisher, Lucas Ihlein, Ian Milliss, Georgina Pollard, Imogen Semmler, Peter Swain, Leanne Thompson, Erika Watson, Kim Williams, Alex Wisser and Vickie Zhang. Contributing members over the past decade include Gilbert Grace, Eloise Lindeback, Sarah Breen Lovett, Christine MacMillan, Emmanuela Prigioni and Kelly Reiffer.

Friday 19 Jun, 6 – 8 pm

To be opened by:

Emeritus Professor Stuart B. Hill | Foundation Chair of Social Ecology | School of Education, Western Sydney University
Free event. All welcome.

RSVPs appreciated via [email protected]

__BONUS__ -- if you can't make the exhibition launch, perhaps you'd like to come along to the free public events in the exhibition space on Sat 20th June during the day.

All the details are here:

Friday 19 Jun, 6 – 8 pm   To be opened by:  Emeritus Professor Stuart B. Hill | Foundation Chair of Social Ecology | School of Education, Western Sydney University Free event. All welcome.  RSVPs appreciated via [email protected]

15/04/2026

Wow, KSCA's week of installing and opening 'The Art of Adaptation' in Manly was rich and full! We travelled from very many distances, swam, made string, ironed silk a lot, constructed toilets and carefully placed knitted turds, mapped, sang (if anyone has footage of the guerilla singalong of 'Poo and Wee' on opening night please bring forth!) watched our kids watch their younger selves on the videos... and soaked it all up with a lot of gratitude and a few tears. Thank you to humble hero Julie Gibson of CaperteeValley Landcare for opening the show and sharing that grassroots story with our audience, And Mayor Sue Heins - such strong advocacy for the arts, environment and sustainability! And the curators Ben and Katherine and patient installers at Manly Art Gallery and Museum for making it all happen so smoothly. And thanks to all the friends, family, supporters and locals who came to share this moment with us, we hope the show contained a few surprises for everyone! And especial thanks to those who helped us with all the practical and unglamorous things that have to happen, especially when we have kids in tow and come from far away. Diego Bonetto, Vickie Zhang, Imogen Semmler, Eloise Lindeback we missed you too! The show is on till 7 June, drop in! And come and hang with us for the CEAD forum on 9 May: https://www.northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au/things-to-do/whats-on/cead-forum-2026-day-kandos-school-cultural-adaptation

09/04/2026

Lunch break at Manly Art Gallery and Museum. The crew digging in after a long day of installing art.

08/03/2026

Hellooo world, KSCA has something coming up! As a cooperative we are a bit quiet on the socials in general. But we've turned 10 years old and we're excited to share this invitation - a survey show and some cool events at Manly Art Gallery & Museum at Northern Beaches Council, which will also tour to Blue Mountains Cultural Centre in a few months. Save the date, we would love to see you there! Artists involved are Diego Bonetto, Georgie Pollard, Laura Fisher, Kim Williams, Alex Wisser, Imogen Semmler, Ian Milliss, Erika Watson, Leanne Thompson, Peter Swain, Vickie Zhang and Lucas Ihlein. You can read about it here:

KSCA is 10 years old! The exhibition ‘The Art of Adaptation: Culture Changes Everywhere’ is opening April 10 at Manly Gallery & Art Museum!

09/02/2026

Join us in Lithgow on Saturday 21st for Wild Food Festival.
It will be fun!
More info here>
https://www.sevenvalleyswildfood.com/
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUhI6H7ATjZ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

10/02/2025

This is an amazing initiative. I wish we were doing it in our Council Area

The global population of just over eight billion uses nearly two planets worth of resources a year.Organised and wide-scale recovery, recycling and reuse of ...

12/09/2024

Join KSCA for 'Disturbed' next week at Cementa Festival 2024 as as we gather, ramble and contemplate in a vacant paddock in Kandos.

Introducing Cementa24 artists, the Kandos School of Cultural Adaptation.

KSCA creates environmentally focused, collaborative and socially-engaged art that reaches beyond the familiar context of galleries to contribute to real-world cultural change. Formed in 2016 in the post-industrial town of Kandos, Wiradjuri Country, its geographically diverse members have presented projects across many different urban, rural and regional communities and audiences. Past works have included the multi-year collaboration ‘An Artist, a Farmer and a Scientist Walk into a Bar’ and ‘Groundswell’ in Bingara, NSW; the Capertee Valley Hydrology Project’; Land Studio’, Futurelands 2’ and Waterland’.

KSCA is a group of interdisciplinary practitioners including writers, geographers, farmers, educators, scientists and researchers. KSCA members participating in Cementa24 are Ian Milliss, Imogen Semmler, Diego Bonetto, Erika Watson, Peter Swain, Vickie Zhang, Leanne Thompson, Lucas Ihlein, Kim Williams, Laura Fisher, and Eloise Lindbeck.

View the full details of Cementa24 artists via https://cementa.com.au/artists

📷: ‘Solving the Puzzle of Landscape Resilience’, 2022, workshop. Photography by Gus Armstrong