Artists called to respond to Bondi Chanukah attack

Sydney’s Shalom Collective is calling on artists across Australia to submit works for a major exhibition responding to the Bondi Beach Chanukah attack, with Expressions of Interest closing this Sunday.

Shalom Collective, supported by Waverley Council, has announced the exhibition will run at Bondi Pavilion Art Gallery from 25 April to 28 June 2026. Between 20 and 30 professional artists will be selected, alongside a digital gallery of community submissions.

Rabbi Alon Meltzer, Director of Programs at Shalom Collective, said the project was about channeling the community’s pain into something collective.

“This exhibition is an opportunity for our community to come together through creativity — to mourn, to honour, and to imagine pathways toward healing. Art helps us hold what feels impossible to hold alone.”

Selected artists will receive a $350 honorarium, curatorial support, professional documentation, and the chance to take part in public programming. A panel of Shalom Collective representatives, curatorial consultants, and community advisors will assess all submissions.

The exhibition is open to emerging, mid-career, and established artists from all cultural and religious backgrounds. However, priority will be given to artists based in NSW, those with ties to Bondi or greater Sydney, and those with direct experience of the attack or its aftermath.

Works can span painting, drawing, photography, printmaking, sculpture, installation, mixed media, digital and new media, text-based works, and video or sound. Themes the curators have identified include grief and remembrance, community and care, resilience, and hope.

The Bondi Beach Chanukah massacre claimed the lives of 15 innocent people, including a 10-year-old child and a Holocaust survivor.

The attack occurred against a backdrop of rising antisemitism in Australia and globally, and came just over two years after the Hamas terror attacks of 7 October 2023, a period during which many in the Jewish community had already reported feeling increasingly unsafe.

For more information and to submit an expression of interest, visit
shalomcollective.com.au/programs/visual-arts-2