Inside Out Katherine—a 2023 Dry Season community portrait project—is now starring on the silver screen! The creative partnership between Godinymayin and Katherine Town Council features the diverse faces of our town—and it continues to evolve. Thanks to our friends at Katherine Cinema 3 you’ll now be greeted by over 160 smiling, happy, and (some) serious portraits before every feature film. Take a look at the images above (and below), and you’ll see what we mean.

Get ready for Barbie, Oppenheimer, Mission Impossible, or The Little Mermaid—then settle in for the fun and familiar faces of Katherine! Arrive a bit early, check out your larger-than-life friends, and see what happens when Inside Out Katherine goes to the movies!  And if you can’t wait, just click here for a sneak peek at this special cinema trailer… 

About Inside Out Katherine 

Where did this project come from? Who is coordinating it? Wasn’t there supposed to be a mural? What local businesses are supporting this? Can I still have my portrait made? Enough questions: here’s everything you need to know about this creative community effort…

What is the Inside Out project? 
 
The Inside Out Project is a global public art initiative that began in 2011, and involves dozens of portraits that form a large outdoor mural. It is a community identity project aimed at helping towns and cities transform uninteresting places and celebrate who they are—with faces, expressions, and people! Begun in France, the Inside Out Project has since created over 2500 murals in 152 countries and involved over a half million people. Ours is the first one in the Northern Territory!
 
Why is it happening in Katherine?
 
This process is being led by a small team of Godinymayin and Katherine Town Council staff who hope to celebrate our diverse people and make our downtown (and now the movie-going experience) more interesting and creative. We’re doing it because we love expressive places and community identity. The goal is to install all the portraits as a gigantic mural—on a public wall for all to see. Until we do that, all of the faces can be seen on the silver screen—running as a 6-minute video—before each film screening at Katherine Cinema 3. 

Who else is helping make this project possible?

It takes a village to make a project like Inside out Katherine. We’ve had generous support come from the Northern Territory Government’s Big Rivers regional office, Katherine Sign Management, Zip Print, Hire Power, Top End Repaints, Katherine Oasis Shopping Centre. ad Katherine Cinema 3. In fact, they’ve made it easy!

What happened to the mural?

In early July, our team was set to install 164 portraits on the large exterior wall of the Katherine Cinema building. We made the glue, sourced the cherry picker, wrote a risk assessment plan, and assembled a professional team to install. But the wall just wouldn’t cooperate, and the glue-poster-wall combination failed to take hold. Other surfaces seemed fine, but the texture just didn’t allow for an easy application. So we switched gears and tested the interior floor of the cinema lobby. That worked just fine, so made a temporary installation of around 50 portraits that added some amazing personalities to the space. 

Q: So what’s next?

As the search for another exterior wall began, our team started talking to the owners of the cinema—and began developing an Inside Out Katherine video to screen inside their theatre. Of the 2500 Inside Out projects around the world, none seemed to be using a cinema as an opportunity for public art. And because we love innovation—and because Katherine is a very creative place—we edited all the portraits together into the 6-minute video you will now see before each movie.

Q: Hey, that’s my neighbour, teacher, babysitter, nurse, partner, bus driver…!

We know. That’s the beauty of Inside Out—it shows the diversity of our community, while also revealing connections and familiar faces. These are the interesting and expressive people who make Katherine such a special place. Celebrating all of them is why we did this project!

Q: Will you do this project again? Will there be more photos shoots?

Maybe. We’re still trying to find the right wall, so our team can install the portraits as a public art mural. Once that is done, we can look at any future projects, extending this one to more subjects, planning other fun photos shoots, or thinking up a few more innovations. 

Q: Who do I contact for more information?

For more information about this project, you can click here to contact our Director Eric Holowacz at Godinymayin, or phone him on 8972 3751 to discuss Inside Out Katherine (and other creative projects and ideas).