An excited crowd filled the Knox Civic Centre on Saturday 11th November for the launch of Knox’s biggest art show ‘Immerse – 30 artists on 30 sites for 30 days’.

Developed and coordinated by Knox City Council in 2015, Immerse immediately became a celebrated arts event and is certain to surprise and inspire again in 2017.

The program aims to make the arts more accessible by engaging with people as part of their everyday lives, outside of the traditional gallery space. It also provides artists the opportunity to expose their artwork to the public, collaborate with an experienced curator and potentially win prize money.

Exhibiting in this manner has the effect of making the visual arts more publicly accessible while stimulating a greater understanding of and discussion about, the cultural life of the city.

At the opening, Barbara Oehring took photographs. The view into the atrium shows a spectacular installation of ceramic butterflies floating in coloured light above palms and people. That installation, ‘Odd Opulence’, is the work of Marwa Fahmy. Another is the swathes of colour cris-crossing through the frame of the building: ‘Urban Maze’ by Mariah Bakhtair.

Prizes were awarded to:

• Best Young Artist: Ellen Yeong Gyeong Son
• Emerging Artist: Jody Haines
• Joint winners of the Best Overall Exhibition: Fausto Gallego and Rhianon Slatter & Sally Tape

Plan your Immerse journey or simply enjoy the surprise that comes from finding remarkable artworks in unexpected places. Full list of venues and featured artists at the Immerse website.