Serendipity surely played a big role in the achievement of “The Forgotten Works of Pixie O’Harris” exhibition at The Manning Regional Art Gallery from January 23 to March 8, 2020. This was the culmination of the efforts of a collective of specialists with the passion, skills and drive to bring the collection of Pixie O’Harris painting back together and have them restored for posterity after almost being lost in storage at the Manning Hospital.

The collection is a lasting legacy of Pixie O’Harris’ work, some with the assistance of her brother Olaf, and is a rare complete collection that were commissioned by many hospitals in the mid 20th century to brighten and make hospital children’s wards less sombre for the young patients. The Taree collection of 25 works were completed on boards as opposed to those at other hospitals being painted directly onto walls, which over time, have been lost to renovation or painting over. The paintings are an important addition to Manning Valley art heritage.

The evening provided background to the O’Harris family journey and that of the journey that was undertaken from the recent re-discovery of the paintings, through researching the history to the painstaking conservation. The evening was held among the enchanting images and accompanied by the exceptional catering of the FOGS (Friends of the Gallery) team.

Images below of Pixie O’Harris, some of the exhibition and Olaf Harris with the permission of the O’Harris family.

Regular Netters will know this as one of the most fun nights of the year.

This year Ruth devised a trivia quiz to get us all casting our memories back to the 1980s

As always, Ruth covered a diverse range of topics of the decade including Food trends, Events, Celebrities, Fashion & Hair Styles, and all manner of entertainment such as Politics, Music, Movies, Literature and TV - including Advertising. Mostly with particularly Australian and local flavour.

As has become the tradition, there was a lot of frivolity in arriving at the answers, with more than a little collaboration!

The night rounded out another fantastic year of incredible speakers who have associations with our local area.

Intent Netters and Trivia Master Ruth

Lyanne MacFarlane

A life enriched by music and the joy of giving back in the community

Lyanne delivered a vibrant, entertaining and encouraging account of her journey and the effect music can have for everyone’s wellbeing. She describes herself as an “accidental musician”. In fact, her whole musical journey nearly didn’t happen. Now she finds herself back in her home town taking on the role of “accidental musician” once again.

Her musical journey began at Sydney Conservatorium in 1976. She graduated in 1980 with A Diploma Music Education, and Certificates of Vocal Studies and of Dalcroze Eurhythmics.

Then music took her on the most amazing journey from singing tours through South East Asia, singing at the opening night of the Proms in Royal Albert Hall, singing with Ward Swingle and the Swingle Singers, performing with Christopher Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient Music, Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and working alongside some of the most amazing conductors on the planet including Charles Dutoit, Vlademir Ashkenazy, and more recently David Roberston and the SSO. She has been mentored by some of the most esteemed music educators including Richard Gill and Brett Weymark. She believes she is definitely the luckiest lady on the planet, albeit accidentally.

Lyanne is passionate about Music Education and specifically the way in which singing can enrich and enhance all our lives. She demonstrated this to all present with a little warm up and sing along - with harmonies! Her message of overall health benefits and particularly brain health held everyone’s attention and imagination of what could be achieved with music. She is currently involved with residents of Bushland Place by way of forming a choir which not only enriches their lives but also enhances their physical and mental wellbeing.

Her hope for the future is that we can all involve ourselves in singing at some level and that singing will eventually take over the world.

Robyn Thomas

Support Services Specialist ~ Service NSW

We had the privilege of having firsthand advice provided by Robyn about the availability of State Government rebates and services. Robyn is an experienced local Support Services Specialist with the Taree office of Service NSW. The service was developed in July 2012 and now offers a web site, around the clock telephone service and over 100 service centres across the state.

Robyn inform us of some of the 900 government transactions offered across the likes of Roads and Maritime, NSW Births, Deaths and Marriages, Fair Trading as well as the newest service called Cost of Living where a specialist can provide individual advice about specific rebates that may be available. They are thrilled with being able to offer over 70 rebates which have so far saved the local community $200,000. Robyn explained the three ways that the service can offer help: self-assessment via the internet, free appointment with a support service specialist, or telephone service. She also made mention of assistance provided by other departments such as the small business and quad bike rebates offered by SafeWork NSW.

We all learned about the benefits available for possible savings in our living expenses, this information that helps us be better financially informed and equipped in daily living skills was welcome advice to many of us.