Umoona Arts Start Up

Umoona Arts is an Indigenous-owned and governed organisation, located in Umoona Community, Coober Pedy, in the north of South Australia. Established in 2020, Umoona Arts joins neighbouring art centres on the APY Lands with the central aim of building capacity for sustainable employment pathways through the art centre. Since its formation, artists have worked with a collective passion and focus, as the long-held dream of owning and operating their own permanent art centre and studio is becoming a reality.

Umoona community is diverse, with artists from different language groups across the Central Desert working alongside those who have always called Umoona and Coober Pedy home. Artists embrace a variety of mediums, including acrylic paint on linen, punu and carving (traditional woodwork), tjanpi (fibre weaving) and ceramics, with works demonstrating a diversity of styles alongside a vibrant use of colour and energetic mark making.

Recent achievements from the Umoona studio include Jeannie Minunga, Kay Finn and Myra Kumantjara nominated as finalist in the 2022 Wynne Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Keith Minunga nominated as finalist in the 2022 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards at Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory and George Cooley selected as a contributing artist to the 2024 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Inner Sanctum at the Art Gallery of South Australia.