The Race to Hang “Radiance in Bloom” at 95 on Nasmyth
Radiance in Bloom was a fabulous exhibition — but behind the scenes, it was an all-out race to the finish line. The official opening was locked in for 4pm on Friday 5 December, perfectly timed just before the 75th National Cherry Festival grand opening at 5pm. That one-hour buffer became the tightest deadline of my artistic life. What followed was a behind-the-scenes saga of ladders, logistics, teamwork, and sheer Boorowa grit.
To turn my AWI Consulting psychology office into “95 on Nasmyth Gallery” for a pop-up exhibition, I had ordered a full professional hanging system from overseas. DHL assured me it would arrive in time, but by the final week it felt touch-and-go. Four critical packages — rails, hooks, wires, wall plugs — finally landed on Australian soil late on Saturday 29 December. Paperwork signed, import bills paid… and then the real stress began.
Adam from the DHL Brisbane office delivered the line that made my heart stop: “If we don’t get them cleared and directly to Canberra, they’ll be passed to Australia Post — and you might not see them before Christmas.”
Cue the nail-biting.
Thanks to the heroic efforts of the DHL team, the packages made it to the Canberra facility in Fyshwick by Tuesday morning. And since DHL still doesn’t deliver to Boorowa, my husband Mick jumped straight into the farm ute and raced to Canberra to retrieve the precious cargo.
From that moment, installation began in earnest: sawing, drilling, levelling, measuring, adjusting, and climbing up and down ladders more times than either of us can count. Mick was still installing components of the system into Friday afternoon — mere hours before the exhibition opened.
We absolutely could not have done it without our wonderful community:
Heather Rhul, Young Society of Artists publicity officer and all-round gem, who lent us tracking so we could at least begin hanging.
Miss Kate van Leeuwen (Creative Arts Teacher – St Joseph’s Primary School, Boorowa) and Principal Mark Birks, who lent hooks and wires so we could fill all four downstairs rooms while the main system was en route.
Susan Corcoran (Chair of the Boorowa Art Show Committee) and fellow committee members for being my second “back -up” plan – just in case I didn’t have enough hooks and wires, the committee generously offered to lend me their gear until min arrived.
Once the final rail clicked into place, the last-minute cleanup began. Sawdust, plaster crumbs, stray screws — all banished in a blur. And yes, our Dyson (who is absolutely male in my book; every vacuum I’ve ever met has had a distinctly masculine personality) roared to life and handled his duties with heroic pride.
It came down to the wire, but we pulled it together — as we always do. We once renovated a house in Parkes before we got married, and I remember thinking, If we can renovate a house together, we can do anything. Turns out we still can.
The doors opened at 4pm, the artworks glowed on their freshly installed rails, and Radiance in Bloom welcomed its first guests with not a hint of the chaos that came before.
Art may be what fills the gallery — but it’s teamwork, community, back up plans for back up plans, and a dash of last-minute magic that bring a pop-up exhibition to life.
