Archive - Tanks Art Centre, Cairns
Tanks Art Centre
Curator, Installation Director, Community Arts Facilitator
This work predates the founding of Cr8Studios and represents a formative chapter in Raymond Mather’s curatorial and community arts practice.
Between 2000 and 2005, Raymond Mather worked at the Tanks Art Centre in Cairns during its formative operational years, a period when the centre had limited infrastructure compared with the fully resourced venue it is today. He worked in close collaboration with Art Centre Manager Leanne Forsythe and was entrusted with significant creative latitude to curate, design, and physically install a sustained program of exhibitions, festivals, and community arts projects.
Tanks Art Centre, Cairns - Exhibition and Event Spaces (Early Years)
This work was largely hands-on and independently delivered, involving long hours of physical installation, spatial transformation, and problem-solving within the industrial heritage environment of the former World War II fuel tanks. Projects spanned visual art, installation, performance, music, youth arts, education programs, community markets and cross-cultural community events, often realised with minimal financial remuneration, reflecting both the realities of regional arts practice at the time and a deep personal commitment to cultural access and development.
Tanks Art Centre, Cairns - Exhibition: PAEA-RUSH Student Art (2002)
Installation process and installed views
A component of Raymond’s role involved education and youth engagement. He delivered workshops for school students and worked closely with Janelle Williams, Head of Visual Arts at Trinity Bay State High School, as well as the Peninsula Art Educators Association (PAEA) committee, supporting their annual exhibitions at Tanks and strengthening links between professional arts practice and arts education in Far North Queensland.
Tanks Art Centre, Cairns - Japan Week: Shodo Workshop (2002)
Tanks Art Centre, Cairns - Japan Week: Performance Exhibition - Incarnate Traces (2002)
One of the standout projects during this period was Japan Week, a deeply community engaged, city-wide cultural event developed in collaboration with Trinity Anglican School and multiple partners across Cairns. The project exemplified the early Tanks ethos of inclusive, cross-cultural programming embedded within the broader civic fabric rather than confined to the gallery walls.
Tanks Art Centre, Cairns - Exhibitions: The Upholstery Group
The Upholstery Group
Exhibition: Daniel (Wally) Wallwork, Car Bonnets 2 and artwoks by Samuel Tupou
The Upholstery Group - Exhibition: Samuel Tupou
Raymond’s contribution sits within the broader historical significance of the Tanks Arts Centre site, a former Royal Australian Navy fuel storage facility constructed in 1944 and later repurposed as a community arts space following its acquisition by Cairns City Council in the early 1990s. The adaptive reuse of these monumental concrete tanks created a unique cultural venue whose early programming relied heavily on practical ingenuity, physical labour, and creative trust between staff and collaborators.
These years at the Tanks Art Centre represent a foundational chapter in Raymond Mather’s curatorial, installation, and community arts practice, contributing to the groundwork upon which the centre’s later national and international profile was built. He remains deeply proud to have been part of the Tanks’ early development and to see the centre now fully realised, actively programmed, and embraced by the community it serves.
Tanks Art Centre, Cairns - Exhibition: 100 Not Out (2003)
Tanks Art Centre, Cairns - Exhibition: Fiona Foley, Hopevale school visit (2002)
Tanks Art Centre, Cairns - Exhibition: George Wagner Retrospective (2002)
Tanks Art Centre, Cairns - Exhibition: Stewart Owen Fox and Cairns Potters Club (2002)
Tanks Art Centre, Cairns - Peace Week Market Life Line Exhibition: Recycled Art (2002)
Tanks Art Centre, Cairns - Peace Week Market (2002)
Tanks Art Centre, Cairns Peace Week - Touring Exhibition: Medcins San Frontiere (2002)
Tanks Art Centre, Cairns - Rainbow Ribbon Day market and performances (2002)
Tanks Art Centre, Cairns - Rainbow Ribbon Day market and performances (2002)
Tanks Art Centre, Cairns - Rainbow Ribbon Day performances and activities (2002)
Tanks Art Centre, Cairns - Rainbow Ribbon Day market and displays (2002)
Tanks Art Centre, Cairns - Rainbow Ribbon Day market and exhibitions (2002)
Tanks Art Centre, Cairns - Rainbow Ribbon Day market, exhibitions and activities (2002)
This work forms part of the broader ART1 Archive, which documents selected curatorial, performance, installation, and community arts contributions.
Further related professional work and credits can be explored here in the Archive.