Lismore Lightbox Lane 2025: Celebrating creative community
This September, Lightbox Lane once again transforms a hidden laneway in the heart of the Lismore CBD into a glowing gallery of public art. Opening on 5 September 2025, the exhibition celebrates the People of Lismore and the city’s Creative Community, honouring the artists, makers, performers, and cultural leaders who continue to shape the region’s unique identity.
A biannual initiative by Lismore City Council, Lightbox Lane reimagines urban space as a canvas for storytelling, resilience, and shared creativity. Each illuminated lightbox installation reflects the diversity, spirit, and artistry that define the Northern Rivers, from portraits of cultural practitioners to vibrant explorations of memory, landscape, and connection to Country.
Free to view and illuminated nightly, Lightbox Lane offers an inspiring cultural experience that brings art to the streets, inviting locals and visitors alike to engage with the creativity that makes Lismore a hub of innovation and imagination.
- Where: Off Woodlark Street, between Woodlark Street and the Clyde Campbell carpark, Lismore CBD
- When: Nightly from 5 September 2025 | Free entry
Meet the artists
BADArt – Waterways and Lanterns
Instagram: @badartlismore
Title of work: Waterways and Lanterns
BADArt is a collective of second-year students from Southern Cross University’s final Bachelor of Art & Design cohort. Their first collaborative lightbox, Waterways and Lanterns, explores regeneration, shared memory, and community resilience. Inspired by the Lantern Parade and Lismore’s healing after the floods, the work creates a luminous collage of voices that captures the city’s enduring creative spirit.
“Our collaborative artwork speaks to Lismore’s enduring creative spirit and resilience through collective action and storytelling. Our subject is the Lantern Parade and collective healing, embodying Lismore’s capacity to endure and transform. Through this lightbox installation, we seek to present a luminous collage of voices and moments—some celebratory, others quietly powerful. We aim to reflect the depth, colour, and compassion of a town that continues to remake through connection and care.”
Image: “Waterways and Lanterns”
Raimond de Weerdt – 300 Creatives of the NSW Northern Rivers
Instagram: @studio_now_lismore
Title of work: 300 Creatives of the NSW Northern Rivers
Photographer and visual artist Raimond de Weerdt showcases portraits from his acclaimed book Creatives of the NSW Northern Rivers. Featuring more than 300 artists and cultural practitioners, the project celebrates the diversity and depth of the region’s creative community. His Lightbox Lane work offers a striking glimpse into the people shaping the Northern Rivers cultural landscape.
This lightbox presents a selection of portraits (2022–2023) from the book project.
IMAGES: Artist Image and “300 Creatives of the NSW Northern Rivers”
Kay Lee Williams – Floating Garils (Leaves)
Instagram: @kayleewilliams67
Title of work: Floating Garils (Leaves)
Kamilaroi artist Kay Lee Williams draws inspiration from Country, waterways, and natural materials in her multidisciplinary practice. Floating Garils presents brightly painted leaves drifting across a river, a vivid departure from her usual earthy bush-dye palette. This work reflects her deep connection to place and her evolving artistic journey in the Northern Rivers.
Medium note: monoprint / mixed techniques (bush dye, ochre, drawing, printmaking).
Image: Kay Lee Williams holding driftwood, Ballina. Photo: Tim Hillier
Floating Garils (Leaves)
Maarten (Marty) de Weerd – Welcome to Nimbin
Instagram: @deweerdmarty
Title of work: Welcome to Nimbin (2024) – Acrylic on stretched canvas, 90 × 120 cm
Nimbin-based artist Marty de Weerd paints luminous landscapes that capture the raw beauty of the Northern Rivers. His work Welcome to Nimbin depicts the breathtaking view of Blue Knob from Lismore, the moment that inspired him to make the region his home. Rich in colour and atmosphere, the piece embodies his fascination with the relationship between people and place.
“Seeing this breathtaking range rising up behind the town for the first time is etched in my memory and served as a catalyst for choosing Nimbin as my new home. I was thrilled to capture this scene on canvas in a way that imbues that sense of place that landscape artists strive for in their work.”
About Lightbox Lane
Lightbox Lane is a biannual public art program by Lismore City Council that transforms hidden laneways in the CBD into glowing galleries of creativity. The initiative offers a platform for local and emerging artists to share their work in public space, bringing art directly to the community.
Part of the wider Lismore Laneways project, Lightbox Lane reimagines urban spaces as places of culture, storytelling, and connection. Each exhibition supports the Lismore, Nimbin & Villages Destination Management Plan (2024–2028), strengthening the city’s reputation as a Creative Hub and celebrating the cultural industries that define the Northern Rivers.