University of Tasmania, Australia

Exhibition artist: Philip Kuruvita

Guest opening speaker: Dr Malcom Bywaters, Director Academy Gallery and NEW Gallery

Exhibition opening: 5.30 - 7pm Friday 11 October

Exhibition curator: Vicki Kuruvita

In the last exhibition in my Faces of Launceston series, we concentrated on the Next Generation. The young people in our city who were doing good things and making a positive contribution to the society in which they lived.  As a counter point to this, my 6th Faces of Launceston exhibition will be looking at the people who hold the knowledge, not necessarily just the older generation, but educators, leaders, gurus and mentors.

Ancient wisdom, lost trades, dying skill sets, the people who know stuff that is in danger of being lost to the sands of time. These are the people I was looking to include in  this next edition of Faces .and yet again it was a wonderful journey of discovery. Come and meet some of the interesting and wonderful people who share this city with us.

Over the last 18 years I have exhibited over 300 portraits of people from my community.  I have met so many different people doing all sorts of great things and it has been my pleasure to spend a little bit of time with each of them, finding out about their lives and making some pictures. Faces of Launceston can, and will, be a project that I can continue for as long as I have the strength to hold a camera - and with the camera companies making lighter and lighter cameras, things look good for a long series of exhibitions. 

^{image credit: Philip Kuruvita, Donald Pitt, has lived in Launceston for 80 years.}