Streetside Gallery

Lane Cove Library is celebrating its 70th anniversary in 2025, a milestone marking seven decades of serving as a cornerstone of knowledge, creativity, and community life. Council is inviting proposals for the creation of an "Instagrammable" art installation that celebrates the library’s rich history and the creative community that gathers within its walls.

Artist Brief - Lane Cove Library 70th Anniversary

The Street Libraries Project encourages the community to donate, swap and borrow books from mini wooden houses located within community parks and streets. By decorating with painted artworks, the Libraries enliven the local streetscape, raising awareness of the Libraries and reducing the likelihood of vandalism.

Council is seeking original, colourful and appropriate works for public display for two upcoming locations.

• EOI Street Libraries Project  

Submissions close Sunday 12 January 2025.

The Lane Cove Villages: Public Art Program is part of Council’s multifaceted approach to promote civic pride and enliven public spaces.

Through the program, Council will work with an artist or artists to develop small-scale sculptural works or installations in local areas throughout the LGA. 

To apply to produce a work, you must be a practicing artist with demonstrated experience creating sculptures or installation artworks suitable for public spaces and willing to work collaboratively with Council and/or neighbouring businesses to develop the artwork concept, methodology and installation schedule.

This is an open competition model with EOI. Council invites qualified artists to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI). Artists will then be shortlisted and paired with a site. There is opportunity for one artist to create pieces in response to all three briefs. 

Shortlisted artists will then be contracted for a fee to develop a concept design and quote in response to the brief.

We look forward to bringing this project to life in the coming months.

Expression of Interest - Beatrice Street Shops - Lane Cove West

Expression of Interest - Hughes Park and Waterview Community Centre, Lane Cove 

Expression of Interest - Lane Cove North

Submissions close Friday 31 January 2025.

Another Street Library has popped up in Greenwich featuring the work of Sydney-based artist Shana Danon (@emiliofrankdesigns) entitled Streets of Your Town. 

The artist stated that, "This artwork celebrates the joy of neighbourhood connection, encouraging community sharing of resources to educate, inspire and invite creativity. Vibrant colours and motifs represent the adventures taken on the journey of a new book. My intention with my artwork is to create happy spaces and evoke joy, one house at a time, one street at a time. The houses, gardens and a flowers in Streets of Your Town artwork offer a sense of whimsy and childlike wonder, inviting you to join in the fun."

You can visit www.streetlibrary.org.au for Street Library locations throughout Lane Cove.

The next chapter in our Street Libraries collection is now ready for the community to enjoy at Tantallon Oval Playground. It features the artwork of Matt McLarty who explains the meaning behind the piece, "So Many People is symbolic of both history and community, our interconnectedness over time and within society, the infinitely complex, sentient layers and webs that makes us who we were and who we will be. At this time of disruption our embrace of technological, compassionate and cooperative connections both holds us together and gives us a path to a future where we can move on from this. A future where we will be back to what we were, but hopefully, perhaps, a little better for where we've been".

You can visit www.streetlibrary.org.au for Street Library locations throughout Lane Cove.

Village Night Lights was a 10 day series of evening activations in the Lane Cove Village, including the illumination of iconic sites around the village including Lane Cove Library, Gallery Lane Cove + Creative Studios, Lane Cove Plaza and The Canopy.

This included a newly commissioned digital video artwork featuring the faces, stories and imagery of Lane Cove that make it a unique place, which was projected onto the side of Lane Cove Library. The illumination was extended by a further week to finish on Sunday 27 January. 

Village Night Lights was proudly funded by the NSW Government: The Festival of Place – Summer Night Fund.

Council commissioned a collaboration between digital multimedia company TEK Electronic Arts and the Aboriginal Heritage Office resulting in a new digital artwork entitled Turrumburra Storytelling. The work tells the stories of Turrumburra (Lane Cove River), the associated culture and history, across the passage of time and highlighting the interconnectedness of all things including the flora and fauna. 

This temporary digital artwork and public installation was commissioned as part of Lane Cove's Festival by the River and was installed in Lane Cove Plaza for the period of 1-10 November 2021. Festival by the River is an annual festival that celebrates life on Lane Cove River with a range of events and activities.

The Daily by Kim Siew

Sydney-based artist, Kim Siew, has created this vibrant mural called The Daily on the rear wall of Lane Cove Newsagency facing The Canopy town square. What an amazing transformation!

With a playful reference to the newsagency that resides within these walls, The Daily also highlights the little routines that we create for ourselves to maintain a sense of connection with each other. Whether it's stopping for a coffee from our local, taking a walk along the neighbourhood streets or stopping to sit and read the paper within The Canopy square. These little habitual comforts are familiar to us all.

This artwork was completed in August 2021 as part of the Lane Cove Village Art Project; a public art initiative strengthening cultural and creative expression within Lane Cove. Public art is an exciting opportunity to create a vibrant and engaging atmosphere in the Lane Cove Village, preventing graffiti and enlivening public spaces.

Next time you visit Lane Cove Aquatic Centre, you might notice the new artwork Concurrents near the starting blocks of the outdoor pool. The artwork by Grant Molony, Jason Goulding and Russ Molony explores the ongoing theme of water and how it flows through time and space to make connections with the natural world and with people of all ages. Over thousands of years, the Lane Cove River has nurtured the lives of people living along its tree lined banks and today, now the Lane Cove Aquatic Centre provides a space for families and friends.

As a topographical map in the style of Australia’s first peoples, we see travel lines connecting special sites with our wonderful flora and fauna. We see old man Banksia, the uniquely soft Flannel Flower and we see the Powerful Owl – Australia’s largest. The circles are the camp sites. The shapes surrounding them are the people. The fluid lines are the water flows – moving in and out of the camp sites and joining all together. Look beyond the surface. Step into the spirit of what you see. Let its calming message take you to a place of warmth, love and peaceful continuity.

These mini wooden houses hold books that you are able to donate, borrow and/or swap. And it's free! There are no associated fees or memberships to use Street Libraries. The Libraries aim to celebrate a sense of community, create opportunities for neighbourly connection and encourage literacy skills.

Local and Sydney based artists have been engaged to design and paint the Street Libraries.

Each Street Library has a Custodian who will be the local hero and caretaker of the designated Library. They will help alert Council as to any maintenance or support required. Council provides the artist-decorated Library, takes care of initial book stocking and helps to promote our libraries which are part of a wider Street Library network - visit www.streetlibrary.org.au for Street Library locations.

To suggest a future location or become a local supporter who helps to monitor the libraries, email cultural@lanecove.nsw.gov.au. Drop by your local Street Library to see what's on offer

Street library locations:

• So Many People 2022 by Matt McLarty - Tantallon Oval Playground, Tantallon Oval, Lane Cove North
• Untitled by Isabelle Shepherd - Helen Street Reserve, 37 Helen Street, Lane Cove North
• Soaring Thoughts by Maya Cheesman - Yorks Corner, 61 Tambourine Bay Road, Riverview
• Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright by Adam Long - Ludowici Reserve, Penrose Street, Lane Cove
• Other People's Books by Ignacio Quereteja - 151 Burns Bay Road, Lane Cove
• Easy as ABC by Ignacio Quereteja - Lloyd Rees Park, Northwood Road, Northwood
• Diversity by Andre Braun - Kimberley Playground, 53 Kimberley Avenue, Lane Cove
• Tattle Tea by Yoanna Machowska - Stringybark Creek Reserve, corner of Centennial Avenue and Elizabeth Parade, Lane Cove
• Wonderland by Natalie Tso and Birrahlee Preschool students - Birrahlee Reserve, Burns Bay Road, Lane Cove
• Untitled by Anjali Abbey and Lane Cove Montessori Long Day Care students - Corner of Gay Street and Roslyn Street, Lane Cove North
• Bubble and Pop by Karri McPherson, Kindy Cove, Phoenix Street, Lane Cove
• ABC (Animal Book Club) by Amy Ge and Victoria Zhou, corner of Austin Street and Alpha Road, Lane Cove

Lane Cove's Traffic Signal Box (TSB) Art project is one of many public art initiatives implemented as part of the Council's Public Art Policy and Implementation Plan. The objective of the TSB Art project is to use traffic signal boxes as artist canvases to enliven the local streetscape, provide new opportunities for creative expression and deter graffiti taggers. It will contribute to a Streetside Gallery of art found out and about in the streets of Lane Cove.

Traffic Signal Box locations:

• Local Legends by James Gulliver Hancock (2022) at the corner of Burns Bay Rd and Tambourine Bay Rd
• Risen from the Flames by Matt McClarty at the corner of Epping Rd and Sam Johnson Way
• Boys Own Magazine by Adam Long at the corner of Epping Rd and Tantallon Rd
• In Full Bloom by Kasia Jacquot at the corner of Epping Rd and Centennial Ave
• A Rose Amongst… by Andrea Davis at the corner of Centennial Ave and Figtree St
• A Tribute to Former Dairy and Pasture Lands of the Area by Doug Coates on the corner of Burns Bay Rd and Penrose St
• Lane Cove Critters by Ed Pearson on Burns Bay Rd near View St
• Rupert Kirks Soap by Sharon Ferris on the corner of River Rd West and Tambourine Bay Rd
• The Lady Southern Cross by Eirini Fokas on Northwood Rd near Kenneth St
• Our School in the Bush by Frannie Deane onRiver Rd near Greenwich Hospital
• Jacarandas by Mandy Kopelke on the corner of River Rd and Greenwich Rd
• Little Phoenix St by Laura Carey on Longueville Rd outside Gallery Lane Cove + Creative Studios
• Lane Cove Trams by Mark Rowden on the corner of Longueville Rd and Birdwood Ave
• Streetscape by Rebecca Noël Holmes on the corner of Epping Rd and Longueville Rd