Image: Canberra Museum and Gallery
Canberra Museum and Gallery will host an illustrated talk on 27 July with Sophie Heath, director of the Sidney Nolan Trust, focusing on the Trust’s history, collections and programs. The event, titled 'A View from the Edge of England - The Rodd, home of the Sidney Nolan Trust', is scheduled for 3pm to 4:30pm and will be held at CMAG in Canberra. It is part of the gallery’s broader celebration of Sidney Nolan’s legacy and his 1974 donation to the nation.
The talk centres on The Rodd, the 400-year-old farm and estate in North Herefordshire, on the border of England and Wales, that was Sidney and Mary Nolan’s final home. According to CMAG’s event description, the couple founded the Sidney Nolan Trust there in 1985 as a place where people could experience contemporary art, in all its forms, in the context of landscape. The Trust now operates from that setting as a site for contemporary art, history and landscape, and Heath will discuss current work toward realising the Nolans’ vision for the place.
CMAG frames the event within its ongoing 'Nolan50' program and its exhibition 'Public Impressions: Sidney Nolan in Popular Media', which runs from 6 June to 13 September 2026. That exhibition examines how magazines helped bring Sidney Nolan’s work and image to wider audiences in Australia and beyond, while the gallery’s related programming marks the 50th anniversary of Nolan’s 1974 gift to the nation. The museum also manages The Nolan Collection on behalf of the Australian Government.
Heath’s background connects the talk to both Britain and Australia. CMAG says she is a dual British Australian, born in Scotland to Australian parents, and that she attended high school and college in Canberra. She is an ANU graduate with a combined arts/science degree, BA hons Art History and BSc Chemistry, and earned an MA in the History of Design from the Royal College of Art/V&A in London. The event listing says she has 20 years’ experience leading cultural sites and collections in the West Midlands across art, craft, design and industrial heritage.
The talk will be followed by a conversation moderated by Virginia Rigney, CMAG’s senior curator. Humanitix lists the event as pay-what-you-want in the email announcement, while the booking page gives the venue as Canberra Museum and Gallery, 176 London Cct, Canberra ACT 2601. Refunds are available up to three days before the event.
The Nolan-focused programming sits alongside other CMAG offerings in late July and August, including talks and workshops tied to 'Flutterbry: Worlds Beyond Waste' and a film talk on the Maratus spider. But the Nolan Trust event remains the institution’s main July presentation about the artist’s legacy, with Sophie Heath’s talk set for Monday 27 July at CMAG in Canberra.
