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Utp, 5 Olympic Parade, Bankstown (2026)

27/08/2026

We are thrilled to announce the participants of the first ‘Area School: Study Tour’ 🧩✈️ This small cohort of Western Sydney artists and curators will travel to the 61st Venice Biennale next month.

Anney Bounpraseuth ()
Rainer Ciar ()
Jagath Dheerasekara
Shivanjani Lal ()
Audrey Newton ()
Wasielah Noorsjamsi ()
Miski Omar ()
Neda Taha ()

We are excited to engage with Khaled Sabsabi ()’s works at the Australia Pavilion and the main exhibition ‘In Minor Keys’, curated by the late Koyo Kouoh (), as well as explore the other pavilions and satellite exhibitions.

Co-designed by and , ‘Area School’ is a professional development program with a series of building blocks that will unfold across 2026-27. Watch this space for more.

📷 Photography credits: Anney - by Jacquie Manning, 2024; Rainer - by Celine Cheung; Jagath - by Lyndal Irons; Shivanjani - by Evanna Devine, courtesy of IMMA; Audrey - by Jessica Maurer; Wasielah - by Gillian Kayrooz; Miski - courtesy of the artist; Neda - by Anna Kucera

21/08/2026

Join us on Saturday 22 Aug, 2-4pm for ‘Area Discourse: To Love’💌 There will be screenings of films directed by Mohammad Awad (), including ‘Bikes’, a documentary music video.

“How can you say love does not exist for me here, when heartbreak has been my witness?”

Step into ‘Bikes’, an intimate exploration of q***r love in Western Sydney in two parts, the film invites you into the lives of q***r people either in love or looking for love, while retelling a story of q***r romance and heartbreak. Debunking the myth that q***r and trans people need to leave their Western Sydney homes to find love, joy and intimacy.

This piece actively opposes a one-dimensional narrative of q***r love only existing in shame and behind closed doors, everywhere you turn, we thrive before your eyes - allow our love to encompass you. ❤️

We are excited to screen Mohammad’s latest film ‘Inheritance’ as well. Be sure not to miss it! 📺

Sign up now to join us 🔗 link in bio.

🗓️ Date: Saturday 22 Aug, 2-4 pm AEST
📍 Location: RS1, Utp, Bankstown Arts Centre
5 Olympic Parade, Bankstown NSW
🎤 Featuring Mohammad Awad and Zena Sagar (.sagar)

🌈 We are committed to creating a safe space for LGBTQIA+ communities and allies at our events.

🎥 1-4: Stills from ‘Bikes’, written and directed by Mohammad Awad
5: Poster for 'Inheritance'

20/08/2026

Join us on Saturday 22 Aug, 2-4pm for ‘Area Discourse: To Love’ 💌We are excited to screen Mohammad()’s latest film ‘Inheritance’. 📺

The death of his father compels Ameen to confront a home, and a past, he left behind years ago. An intimate, and at times funny, portrait of grief, reconciliation and family politics, as siblings squabble over their late father’s estate.

This will be followed by ‘Bikes’, an intimate exploration of q***r love in Western Sydney in two parts. The film invites you into the lives of q***r people either in love or looking for love, while retelling a story of q***r romance and heartbreak. Debunking the myth that q***r and trans people need to leave their Western Sydney homes to find love, joy and intimacy.

Sign up now to join us 🔗 link in bio.

🗓️ Date: Saturday 22 Aug, 2-4 pm AEST
📍 Location: RS1, Utp, Bankstown Arts Centre
5 Olympic Parade, Bankstown NSW
🎤 Featuring Mohammad Awad and Zena Sagar (.sagar)

🌈 We are committed to creating a safe space for LGBTQIA+ communities and allies at our events.

🎥 1-3: Stills from ‘Inheritance’
4-7: Stills from ‘Bikes’

20/08/2026

Presented as part of Ngalawan: We Live. We Remain. , Leanne Tobin () and Amy Sole () will lead a yarning circle on Bulunggayi.

Bulunggayi (Maria Locke), was a formidable Dharug advocate who found herself fighting for justice and equality in the newly established colony of Sydney Town. Her many triumphs in the face of early frontier settler-colonialism are yet to be told. Leanne Tobin and Amy Sole are creating a major project that follows the semi-biographical history of Leanne’s family.

“It’s still urgent that this story is told because a lot of people don’t know first contact stories, and this is a story of an amazing woman, my great-great-great-grandmother, Maria Locke; or Bulunggayi, as we’ve come to know her.” — Leanne Tobin

🗓️Date and Time: Saturday 26 Sep, 11am-12pm
📍 Location: Penrith Regional Gallery
86 River Road, Emu Plains, NSW

RSVP link in bio via Penrith Regional Gallery's website 🔗 We look forward to seeing you there!

📷Photo credit: ‘Bulunggayi’ script development, Day 2 On Country site visit, July 2025, photo by Hannah Donnelly

19/08/2026

Don’t miss our upcoming event, ‘Area Discourse: To Love’ 🌈 This Saturday 22 Aug, 2-4pm AEST. We are honoured to invite Zena Sagar (.sagar) in conversation with Mohammad Awad () about the intersections of class, caste and love.

Thrilled to be screening ‘Tara’, a short film directed by Ashutosh S. Shankar (.shankar) and produced by Zena Sagar.

‘Tara’ tells the story of a 26-year-old Dalit trans woman who meets a singer named Aman at a q***r party, sparking an immediate connection. Their growing closeness forces Tara to confront the internal tensions between her caste and gender identity. The film explores the complexities of intersectionality, love, and the quiet resilience of those navigating layered marginalisations in a modern, urban India.

🗓️ Date: Saturday 22 Aug, 2-4 pm AEST
📍 Location: RS1, Utp, Bankstown Arts Centre
5 Olympic Parade, Bankstown NSW
🌈 Safe space for LGBTQIA+ communities and allies

Link in bio to RSVP 🔗

Join us in-person for the second event in ‘Area Discourse’ – a new conversation series where artists from Western Sydney and beyond unpack their work as it relates to political, social and cultural events, past and ongoing.

🎥 Stills from ‘Tara’ directed by Ashutosh S. Shankar and produced by Zena Sagar.
shortfilm

13/08/2026

Introducing the filmmakers who will be in conversation at ‘Area Discourse: To Love’ 🌈 Sign up here: https://events.humanitix.com/area-discourse-to-love

Mohammad Awad is an award-winning writer, director, poet, playwright, producer, musician, author and involuntary artist who is running out of ways to express himself. They are the creative director of FULL FAT PRODUCTIONS, a company focused on elevating unapologetic QTBIPOC voices onto the big screen.

Mohammad’s first film ‘Bikes’ premiered at the Sydney Opera House. Their film ‘Inheritance’ won the national Q***r Screen Pitch-Off and had its world premiere at Mardi Gras Film Festival where they won the Emerging Filmmaker Award. Its international premiere will be at the Iris Prize Film Festival. Their first feature ‘BALL AND CHAIN’ is in development with Nicholas Weinstock's LA-based Invention Studios, supported by Screen NSW.

Zena Sagar is an India-based impact producer/filmmaker and one of the country’s first trans women in producing, coming from a Dalit background. She is an alumna of the Producing for Film & Television program at the Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute (SRFTI), Kolkata, where she was among the first dalit-transgender students to openly enter and navigate the campus space.

Zena produced her debut short film, ‘TARA’, which premiered at the San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival and continues its festival and impact journey. Her work centres on amplifying marginalised voices, with a larger focus on building long-term cultural infrastructure and authorship for underrepresented communities in media, alongside developing long-term capacity building programs and ecosystem in media. Beyond filmmaking, Zena has led and contributed to multiple large-scale digital advocacy efforts regarding trans rights and representation.

🗓️ Date: Saturday 22 Aug, 2-4 pm AEST
📍 Location: RS1, Utp, Bankstown Arts Centre
5 Olympic Parade, Bankstown NSW
🌈 Safe space for LGBTQIA+ communities and allies

Hope to see you there!

✒️Artwork by Eddie Abd with edits by Celine Cheung

10/08/2026

Looking back at Deep Dive session 2 🌊 We were thrilled to have a progress showing of ‘Dancing with the Roots’ by Guillermo Robayo Gómez () with Dica (Diana Benavides, ) and Daniela Zambrano ().

Excitingly, the work will premiere at from 10-12 September. Head over to experience an immersive performance of dance, live music and Latin American memory.

Thank you again to the artists and all those who came 💬

We have one more Deep Dive session next week on Wednesday 19 August. Come have conversations with us and learn more about new works artists have been developing.

🌀Session 3 ~ 19 August
Bonnie Huang ()
Alia Ardon ()
RSVP link 🔗 https://events.humanitix.com/utp-deep-dive

📷 Photo credits:
1-3,4-5,7,9 by Adriana Diaz
3,6,8 by Eddie Abd

06/08/2026

The second iteration of ‘Area Discourse: To Love’ presents stories of Q***r and Trans love in Western Sydney and India. RSVP Here: https://events.humanitix.com/area-discourse-to-love

Come for a screening and talk that brings filmmakers Mohammed Awad () and Zena Sagar (.sagar) in conversation about intersections of class, caste and love.

We will be screening ‘Bikes’, directed by Mohammed Awad and ‘Tara’, directed by Ashutosh S. Shankar (.shankar) and produced by Zena Sagar.

Join us to explore nuances within love, identity and solidarity.

🗓️ Date: Saturday 22 Aug, 2-4 pm AEST
📍 Location: RS1, Utp, Bankstown Arts Centre
5 Olympic Parade, Bankstown NSW

🌈 This event is a safe space for LGBTQIA+ communities and allies.

‘Area Discourse’ is a new conversation series where artists from Western Sydney and beyond unpack their work as it relates to political, social and cultural events, past and ongoing.

✒️Artwork by Eddie Abd

13/07/2026

Thinking of applying to ‘Area School: Study Tour’? Here are some of your questions answered. Visit our website for more details 🔗 https://utp.org.au/event/area-school

🧩✈️ We invite Western Sydney artists and curators to apply for this opportunity to travel to the 61st Venice Biennale. As a small cohort, together we will experience Khaled Sabsabi ()’s works, including ‘conference of one’s self’, curated by Michael Dagostino at the Australia Pavilion and khalil’ in the main exhibition ‘In Minor Keys’, curated by the late Koyo Kouoh ().

The travel dates are 15-25 September. ✈️

Submit your Expression of Interest for the study tour here: https://airtable.com/appwU1Out6h7buhPb/shrCRAJbFazBibGgK
EOI opens until Sunday 19 July, 11:59pm

‘Area School’ is a professional development program that will unfold across 2026-27. Watch this space for more.

02/07/2026

Announcing ‘Area School’, a professional development program for Western Sydney emerging and mid-career artists and curators. Co-designed by Pari ∞ and Utp, Area School will unfold across 2026-27 as a series of programs.

Expressions of Interest are open for the first program, ‘Area School: Study Tour’ 🧩✈️ Apply to be a part of a small cohort of Western Sydney artists and curators who will travel to the 61st Venice Biennale, to collectively experience:
💠‘conference of one’s self’ by Western Sydney artist Khaled Sabsabi, curated by Michael Dagostino at the Australia Pavilion
💠khalil’ in the main exhibition ‘In Minor Keys’, curated by the late Koyo Kouoh

We will cover participants’ return flights, accommodation, travel insurance, local transport in Venice, activities during the study tour dates and an allowance of AUD$75 (~EUR€45) per day.

✈️The travel dates are 15-25 September.

We will work with participants to ensure our itinerary in Venice is accessible to all in the program.

Submit your Expressions of Interest here: https://airtable.com/appwU1Out6h7buhPb/shrCRAJbFazBibGgK
EOI opens until Sunday 19 July, 11:59pm

For more information about the program and accessibility, please visit our website.

Watch this space for more Area School programs.

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