Gungahlin Community Centre
A collaborative, inclusive project that will leave a lasting cultural mark in Gungahlin
Gungahlin Community Centre features artworks by Richard Briggs, and the team of Belinda Smith and Ruth Della; both projects were commissioned by Belco Arts, as well as a graffiti mural from our Graffiti Jam project.
For more information about the centre and how to get involved, see: Gungahlin Community Centre – ACT Government
Richard Briggs – The Hands of Time
This large-scale illustrated artwork celebrates the people, places, and stories of Gungahlin. Welcoming visitors at the entrance to the building, the work was inspired by the area’s diversity, community warmth, and natural beauty. Richard visited local groups, restaurants, and spaces, gathering sketches, photos, and stories that shaped this permanent artwork. It creates a welcoming experience that reflects Gungahlin’s identity and invites curiosity, belonging, and connection.
Belinda Smith and Ruth Della – Grounding
Designed by Artist Belinda Smith and Curator Ruth Della, Grounding grew from a participatory event, Walking the Clay Circle, held at Belco Arts Theatre in August 2025. Community members walked barefoot in soft clay, leaving footprints and impressions that were hand-cut into tiles. With support from Strathnairn Arts, these tiles now form a permanent ceramic installation in the Gungahlin Community Centre Courtyard. The circle serves as both artwork and gathering space, inviting reflection, connection, and community activity. Together, these tiles are now a lasting marker of the Gungahlin community’s presence at the centre — a reflection of movement, connection, and the natural rhythms of the shared spaces that shape collective life.
Graffiti Jam Project
Belco Arts is proud to celebrate the Graffiti Jam Project, in which three talented local street artists, Paul Licayan, Lawrence Tan, and Raph Taib, worked side by side with three young people, Billy Garcia, Anael Lukban, and Indigo Colquhoun, to create a fully realised graffiti mural in just one day.
Focused on mentorship, skill-sharing, and building creative confidence, the project invited each young participant to develop and paint their own elements and perspectives alongside established artists, each bringing their own distinctive street-art style to the work.
The resulting mural celebrates creativity, radical ownership, high stakes making, collaboration, material mastery, and the incredible confidence and vulnerability it takes to publicly create a work of art that is immediately seen.
We thank all community members, artists, and collaborators who made these projects possible. Come and see these artworks at the Gungahlin Community Centre on the corner of The Valley Way and Efkarpidis Street.
To find out more about the centre and all it has to offer please email: infrastructurecanberra@act.gov.au
About the Artists
About Richard Briggs
Richard Briggs is an English designer currently based in Sydney. The main focus of his work is small scale residential projects, community-based projects in the Asia Pacific region and art. All three from time to time infuses each other to form creative, practical and robust solutions to client’s briefs.
He is also a practicing artist, with complex and simple line drawings offering a different way at looking at our built environment. Past exhibitions have included studies of cities, streets and laneways.
Instagram: @richardbriggs_artist
Website: richardbriggs.com.au
About Belinda Smith & Ruth Della
Belinda Smith and Ruth Della form a thoughtful and experienced artist-curator team with a shared sensibility for creating meaningful, place-responsive public artworks grounded in community.
Belinda is an Australian artist whose vibrant and expressive practice spans public art commissions both nationally and internationally. Belinda’s practice is founded on creating acutely site-specific artworks that build a dialogue between the artwork, its place and the people who engage with it. Her projects are infused with the joy and beauty she observes in the world.
Ruth is the principal curator at Art Common, a curatorial practice shaped by place-responsive thinking. Ruth’s approach draws on the distinct history, culture, and geography of each site to bring contemporary art to life in ways that represent and resonate deeply with the people and communities of a place.
Instagram: @belindasmith_art @artcommon.au
Ruth Della’s Website: Art Common
Belinda Smith’s Website: Plummer & Smith
About Paul Licayan (PAW)
PAW is a self-taught street artist from Davao City, Philippines, currently based in Canberra, Australia. Known for his signature Petals and Worms motif, his work explores the cycle of life—where petals represent beauty and growth, and worms symbolise decay and renewal. In PAW’s world, the worm that eats the petal also nourishes it, creating a continuous loop of transformation.
Instagram: @pawglhf
Facebook: @pawwadabartist
About Lawrence Tan (RAWS)
Lawrence Tan (RAWS) is a Canberra-based mural artist specialising in large-scale murals for public, commercial and hospitality spaces. His work blends street art aesthetics with cultural storytelling to create bold, engaging wall art that transforms ordinary walls into memorable places. From feature walls to full building facades, Lawrence designs and paints custom murals that bring identity, colour and character to businesses and communities across Australia.
Instagram: @lawrencetancreations
Website: lawrencetancreations.com
About Raph Taib
Raph Taib is a mural artist who works in and around Canberra, painting with a graffiti influenced style. His works combine abstract backgrounds with fonts, characters, and portraits. Originally from Sydney, Raph now calls Canberra home and enjoys using the beauty of the bus capital as inspiration in his works.
Instagram: @picturethismurals
Website: picturethismurals.com
About Billy Garcia
Billy Garcia is a self-taught teenage artist, living with a bilateral profound hearing-impaired disability since birth. His love and dedication to his art practice serve as a powerful reminder of how visual expression can act as a universal and unifying language. His work reflects a unique perspective, shaped by his experiences and resilience. Through his art, Billy communicates emotions and stories that transcend the limitations of his disability, offering viewers a glimpse into his vibrant and imaginative world.
About Anael Lukban
Based in Canberra, Anael is an emerging multidisciplinary artist whose work draws inspiration from nature and abstract emotional landscapes. She holds a Bachelor of Science and Visual Arts from the Australian National University, majoring in Hybrid Art Practice and Psychology.
Instagram: @_axielle_
Website: anael-lukban.myportfolio.com
About Indigo Colquhoun
Indigo Colquhoun is a creative artist and illustrator living in Canberra. She loves to write comics and draw fun characters.
Instagram: @indivangogh
About the Gungahlin Community Centre
The new purpose-built Gungahlin Community Centre is a centrally located, inclusive hub designed for one of Canberra’s fastest-growing areas. The centre offers Gungahlin’s population a place for people of all ages and backgrounds to come together. It will provide modern flexible spaces where people can meet, learn, and take part in community programs.
The centre is located on the corner of Efkarpidis Street and Gungahlin Place in the Gungahlin Town Centre. This location makes it easy for people across the district to access the facility, as well as access to public transport with light rail nearby and a bus stop out the front. There is also nearby parking and bike facilities.
The Gungahlin Community Centre offers a range of inclusive spaces the community can hire for meetings, events, programs, and more. Featuring activity and meeting rooms, a large community hall, creative studios, a café with a commercial kitchen to support gatherings, a gallery room, dance studio, youth hub, and landscaped outdoor areas for play and public events.
The new youth hub will be co-located with the centre. This will offer young people a safe place and better access to important supports. Gunners Place Consortium will operate the Youth Hub, building on the work of the community-driven Gunners Place facility, which will relocate from the Town Centre to the Youth Hub.
Learn more here.
CADC workshops, events and activities are proudly supported by Monarch Building Solutions and Infrastructure Canberra (ICBR).