Coolamon Shire’s Yield Festival kicked off last Friday night at the Up-to-Date Store and despite wet and windy weather, almost 350 people were in attendance for a fantastic opening night event.

The winning entries for the Up2Date Art Exhibition and Capture Coolamon Photographic Competition were announced at the event.

The Yield Festival will continue throughout the month of September with a significant increase in visitors to the Coolamon Shire expected.

As part of the opening ceremony, a community mural depicting the Up-to- Date Store and its links to art and photography was unveiled. Created by Wagga artist Emily Shannon designed the work and members of the community contributed to its creation. The mural will now go on display at the Up-to-Date store as a permanent reminder of the 20 years of art exhibitions in Coolamon.

Wagga Artist Sharon McLoughlin took out the Beyond Bank Open Art Prize with her art work ‘Burning Stubble’. Exhibition Judge, Dr. Sam Bowker from CSU commented on the

commented on the significance of the subject and noted that the piece captured and held a viewer’s eye anywhere in the room.

The winner Veterans Art Prize, sponsored by the Coolamon RSL Sub Branch was Colin Lucock for Coolamon for his work, ‘Traction Engine’.

The themed section of this year’s art exhibition asked artist to submit works that visualised the theme ‘From Little Things, Big Things Grow”, recognising 2025 is the 20th anniversary of the Up2Date Art Exhibition.

Kylie Van Tol took home the prize for her work, ‘First Stroke’ The Coolamon Shire Council Acquisition Prize is awarded annually with the winning artwork being purchased by Coolamon Shire Council and added to Councils art collection.

The Council prize was awarded to Ganmain artist Kerry Symons for her work ‘I See You’. Jack Watta was awarded the Primary School Prize for his outstanding entry ‘Chill ‘in Frog’ while Angus Lenton took out the High School section with ‘Whispers of the Mountains’.

The Coolamon Shire Council Acquisition Prize will be displayed in the Coolamon Library for 12 months before being permanently located in an appropriate location in a Council facility in the shire.

The Capture Coolamon Photographic Competition has again attracted an extremely has again attracted a high standard of entries. The prize winners were announced at the launch of the 2025 Yield Festival at the Up-to-Date Store last Friday.

This year the image that “Best Depicts the Coolamon Shire” was awarded to Baxter Smith for ‘Cloudy With a Touch of Gold’. Congratulations to award recipients in the Open Section who were as follows:

Landscape – Aurora Australis by Lenuta Quraishi; Built Environment ‘No Gold, Just Tin’ by Kyle Jarrett; Nature – ‘Checking Me Out’ by Zane Fraser; People ‘The Boss’ by Katie

Bishop; Beyond the Boundary Ancient Flinders Ranges by Julie Clark.

The hard working committee of Capture Coolamon would also like to thank the efforts of the judges, Jodie Harris and her team for their efforts.

The Capture Coolamon Photographic Competition is on display in the Up-to-Date Store for the remainder of September.