A photographic exhibition by the Australian National Veterans Arts Museum (ANVAM). Friday February 24 to Sunday March 5 – Open daily 10am to 2pm.

Bright RSL has its Centenary this year. The Bright Art Gallery will host an exhibition by ANVAM situated in Melbourne, titled PERSONA. The Bright Art Gallery is honoured to be the first regional gallery to host an ANVAM travelling exhibition!

Persona is a commemorative project raising awareness of the cultural and creative engagements of Australian contemporary veteran artists.  The project took shape in 2017 with the chance meeting of ANVAM founder, Tanja Johnston, and professional photographer, Michael Christofas. Tanja and Michael brought their interests in showcasing ‘who veteran artists are’ together to form Persona. The exhibition features 48 photographic artist portraits plus some digital video footage.

ANVAM was established in 2013 in response to the growing need for an innovative model of care in veterans’ wellbeing. As a veteran led charity and Public Benevolent Institution, ANVAM supports the mental, physical and social wellbeing of current and former service members and families through community-based facilitated Arts engagements.

The exhibition will be opened on Friday morning at 10am by Kat Rae. You are invited to attend, the gallery will put on a morning tea and Kat will talk about her experiences in the Army and how it affected her life.  Printmaker Kat is one of the photographic subjects and was instrumental, together with Tony Strachan from Bright RSL, in making the Bright exhibition happen.

To find out more about ANVAM and Persona go to the website: https://www.anvam.org.au/persona