A silver gelatin dry plate glass negative in landscape format.

Country Always

Caring for Country

A Corner of the Empire

The Garden Palace

Sepia photograph of the Technological Museum and a cow in the foreground

The Holding Pen

The Agricultural Hall

Sepia photograph of the Technological College and Museum in Broken Hill

Regional Networks

Across New South Wales

A Museum of Doing

Technological Museum

Colour photograph of red corrugated iron building from a high vantage point

Transforming the Tramsheds

Powerhouse Stage 1 and the Harwood Building

A Symbol in Time

Sydney Observatory

Powerhouse Museum, Stage 2 exterior from high angle, city skyline in background

Ongoing Transformations

Powerhouse Ultimo

Blurred image from film with museum object number

Applied Arts and Sciences

Defining the terms in the 21st century

Blacktown Arts

Foundational Cultural Partnership

Powerhouse Renewal

Two people standing next to a cow in a field of cows.

Powerhouse Food: Producers

Across Western Sydney24 Aug 2024 — 25 Jul 2025

We Rise

Blak Powerhouse

A tall rocket with a long trail of burning fuel lifts off from a launchpad at Cape Canaveral.

Powerhouse-1 Mission Launch to the ISS

An initiative of the Powerhouse: Future Space program

Photofields

Across Sydney6—7 Dec
Shadows cast by the Powerhouse Parramatta exoskeleton on concrete

Exoskeleton

Powerhouse Parramatta

A woman stands on stage in front of a large audience. She has her left hand raised in the air and a microphone in her right hand. The audience are holding their phones up recording the woman.

Blak Powerhouse

Powerhouse x We Are Warriors

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Stories

Blacktown Arts

Foundational Cultural Partnership
Powerhouse Parramatta x Blacktown Arts
Powerhouse Parramatta will set a new international benchmark for what contemporary museums can be for their communities and Blacktown Arts are a recognised leader in contemporary arts in Australia.
John Graham MLC, NSW Arts Minister

The NSW Government has announced a foundational cultural partnership between Powerhouse Parramatta and Blacktown Arts that will strengthen and amplify the arts and creative industries in Western Sydney.

With Powerhouse Parramatta set to open in 2025, this major partnership with Blacktown City Council acknowledges the long-established creative leadership that has emerged from Blacktown. It will also reflect the cultural priorities of Western Sydney by supporting the creative industries and establishing leadership pathways across multiple disciplines.

'Powerhouse Parramatta is thrilled to announce this exceptional multi-year cultural partnership with Blacktown Arts, and work with local communities to amplify and connect with audiences across Western Sydney, Australia and the world.

We are partnering with Blacktown Arts, through Blacktown City Council, to recognise, sustain and amplify the dynamic, self determined cultural practices that are already happening across Blacktown and Western Sydney.

I am particularly excited to collaborate with Blacktown Arts, the Vyva Entertainment team, 4ESydney, Garage Graphix and the many creatives that will be part of WE’VE who play important roles in the Western Sydney community, providing space for young people to explore and express their ideas, values and creativity and support social cohesion and mental health.'

Lisa Havilah, Chief Executive, Powerhouse

Key Strategic Pillars

Two figures on stage.

A new home for 4ESydney

Empowers youth, artists and diverse communities by breaking through stereotypes, creating a platform and audience and establishing innovative pathways to education, training and employment. Produced by Vyva Entertainment, 4ESydney is the only festival and project specialising in the culture of HipHop and multi-artform interdisciplinary practice.

Powerhouse Parramatta will be the new home of 4ESydney when the museum opens in 2025. Leading up to creating a new home for 4ESydney, Powerhouse Parramatta will be a major partner in 2024.

A vibrant multi-coloured screenprinted artwork.

Garage Graphix Archive

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Mount Druitt’s Garage Graphix Community Arts Inc. or ‘The Garage’ produced hundreds of political and socially relevant screen-printed posters with Western Sydney communities.

This led to the development of art workshops and community activism that told the stories of the region. Blacktown City is now the custodian of many of The Garage’s original artworks. Powerhouse Parramatta will ensure The Garage's significance is recognised by working with Blacktown Arts to establish a permanent home for this nationally important Western Sydney collection.

Woman walk catwalk wearing leathery weaving skirt and bandeau.

WE'VE

Blacktown Arts and Powerhouse Parramatta will establish WE'VE, a new multi-year cultural program that will support, present, collect and amplify cultural weaving practices. These artists are presenting contemporary weaving embedded in the cultural histories of the Pacific and Indigenous communities, two of the fastest growing communities in Sydney.

The program will reach from Western Sydney across Australia and into the Pacific to connect weaving practice through international residencies, masterclasses, cultural programs and the establishment of an Australian and Pacific First Nations Weaving Garden at Powerhouse Parramatta.

NSW Arts Minister John Graham MLC said of the announcement, 'The connecting thread across the key strategic pillars highlight the distinctive cultural practices of Western Sydney, emerging from the history of the people and the area. It is important that these diverse and distinctive creative practices are documented, preserved and integrated into our cultural institutions - reflecting the realities of lives, stories and distinctive creativity of the region. The legacy of the partnership will have an impact on generations to come.'

'Cultural practice across Western Sydney will be captured and presented across both Blacktown Arts, Powerhouse Parramatta and collected and preserved, creating a new cultural legacy for the city.'

We are proud to embark on this significant partnership with Powerhouse Parramatta. It recognises the excellence of Blacktown City creatives and cultural knowledge in our communities.
Tony Bleasdale OAM, Mayor, Blacktown City Council
It’s no surprise that these diverse cultural practices are all coalescing in Blacktown which is so dynamic and diverse. This partnership will strengthen and amplify many important cultural practices in the Blacktown area.
Stephen Bali, Member for Blacktown
Group in yellow tracksuits on stage.

Blacktown Arts

Blacktown Arts is a recognised leader in the development of contemporary arts in Australia. Supporting artistic innovation, it offers exciting, new experiences for audiences through an award-winning curated program of exhibitions, performances, workshops, residencies and events. Blacktown Arts is committed to exploring dynamic, culturally diverse work that reflects Blacktown, its history and its communities. It places Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists and communities at the heart of its program to develop new work drawing on issues of local and global significance.

The partnership with Powerhouse Parramatta will amplify opportunities for artists and creative communities across Blacktown City. Blacktown Arts reflects the creative energy of Western Sydney – forward-moving, audience-focused, culturally-rigorous and connected to larger global ideas and trends. Our projects pay homage to ancient cultural forms in exchange with fashion, music, spoken word, media and digital.
Alicia Talbot, Director, Blacktown Arts

Foundational Cultural Partner

Eight people pose for camera.
Six people stand for camera.

4ESydney HipHop Festival

Date: Saturday, 25 November
Photographer: James Evans

Vyvienne Abla – Founder and Creative Director of 4ESydney
John Graham – Minister for Music, Night-time Economy, Roads, Arts, Tourism & Jobs, Special Minister of State
Michael Rodrigues – 24-Hour Economy Commissioner
Lisa Havilah – Powerhouse Chief Executive
Alicia Talbot – Blacktown Arts, Manager Arts & Cultural Development
Kerry Robinson – CEO of Blacktown City Council
'Dobby’ Rhyan Clapham
‘Shazam’ Azzam Mohamed
'MC Trey’ Thelma Trey Thomas

Building Parramatta

Powerhouse Parramatta is being realised through the generosity, support and collaboration of the NSW Government, foundations, agencies, businesses and individuals for the community.

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