ICYMI: The week’s top news in the arts

QUICK NEWS BITES

Our most-read stories this week were:

FUNDING NEWS

ADVERTISEMENT

Funding flows for Australian tours

The Morrison Government will support 30 arts tours across Australia during 2021, providing a major boost to contemporary music, theatre, and dance. Tours will focus on performance in regional and remote communities, taking in 268 unique locations across the country.

The $3.6 million investment has been made through the latest rounds of two touring programs: Playing Australia: Regional Performing Arts Touring Fund and the Contemporary Music Touring Program.

One of the largest grant recipients is Bangarra Dance Theatre, which received almost $500,000 in funding to tour their work SandSong to eight venues in regional WA and NT.

For the full list of successful recipients visit the Australia Council website.

The Federal Government has also announced almost $400,000 to support a series of six national strategic projects through the Regional Arts Fund. The projects will be delivered by Regional Arts Australia in 2021 and include a regional arts fellowship program, and sector wellbeing and online studio programs supporting the regional arts network.

$302,850 announced for regional artists across Victoria

Recovery Grants have been awarded in Victoria to 13 applicants, receiving $302,850 in funding through the Australian Government’s highly competitive Regional Arts Fund Boost Program, delivered in Victoria by Regional Arts Victoria.

Among the successful applicants are Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation (Heywood) for Brambuk: Renewing our Arts Program and The Village Festival of New Performance Inc (Fryerstown) for Our Village programmed in the 2021 Castlemaine State Festival.

Visit Regional Arts Victoria for the full list of recipients and project descriptions.

$700,000 in Lotterywest grants awarded

Almost $700,000 in Lotterywest cheques have been presented to two WA arts organisations. The Chamber of Arts and Culture WA received $323,351 to support the sector’s response to crisis (the Chamber has a membership of approximately 750 organisations and individuals) while CircuitWest received a $376,000 grant for a year-long professional development program as well as a capacity building program to 30 community theatres across the state.

Not for profit offering dollars for bushfire relief to artists

Toolo, a not for profit arts organisation in the Blue Mountains (NSW) is offering five artists $20,000 each, funded through the bushfire relief fund, to reactive tourism through creative projects. EOI’s close at the end of April. Toolo is a very different arts model focused on sustainability in the arts. Learn more.

FESTIVAL UPDATES

Literary program announced for Perth Festival

With just two weeks until Perth Festival 2021 kicks off, organisers have announced their full Literature & Ideas Program, which will be presented across Perth Concert Hall, His Majesty’s Theatre and Perth Zoo from 13-28 February.

Highlights include the Literature Weekend in the City, 21-22 February, with more than 30 events, including such heavy hitters as former Prime Minister Julia Gillard, acclaimed US novelist Brit Bennett, Oscar-winner Shaun Tan and Booker Prize finalist Maaza Mengiste.

The Literary Program closes with a focus on kids on 28 February. Check out the full program.

Japanese films from surreal to horror to classics

The Japanese Film Festival (JFF) returns to cinemas in Brisbane (until 27 Jan) and Sydney (6 February – 3 March) with a free classics program exploring Provocation and Disruption: Radical Japanese Filmmaking from the 1960s to the 2000s, as well as a Sydney-exclusive talk event on Queer & Transgender Visibility in Cinema (20 Feb). From revolutionary Japanese New Wave cinema to surrealist psychedelic expressions and experimental horror, the program features boundary-shattering masterpieces from avant-garde Japanese auteurs.

AROUND THE GALLERIES

Guest Curator Trish Barnard has created the exhibition Old Shields, New Ways at onespace (VIC). It presents contemporary artefacts and interpretations of the elaborate traditional historical shields that are decorated with important totemic designs. Artists from Tropical North Queensland include: Michael Boiyool Anning (Dulgu-barra Yidinji), Paul Bong Bindur-Billin (Yidinji), Abe Muriata (Girramay) and Napolean Phillip Oui (Djabugay). 5 February – 13 March.

Laminae, Chris Booth. Image supplied

Sculpture by the Sea Cottesloe has announced New Zealand artist Chris Booth will exhibit as the Tourism Western Australia Invited International Artist at the popular sculpture event, from 5-22 March. He will create a new, large-scale work titled Laminae for the exhibition, inspired by fungi coral.

Bunjil Place, in partnership with National Exhibitions Touring Support (NETS) Victoria, presents FEM-aFFINITY – an exhibition of female artists from Arts Project Australia (APA). Curator, Associate Professor Catherine Bell, seeks to uncover related variations of female identity and perspectives on historical feminist concepts through an interdisciplinary approach, to offer a nuanced way of thinking about embodied knowledge and how it aligns with identity politics in contemporary art. From 30 January-14 March.

The 14 exhibiting artists are Fulli Andrinopoulos, Jane Trengove, Dorothy Berry, Jill Orr, Wendy Dawson, Helga Groves, Bronwyn Hack, Heather Shimmen, Eden Menta, Janelle Low, Cathy Staughton, Prudence Flint, Lisa Reid, and Yvette Coppersmith.

Sue Beyer, installation view Transformer, fortyfivedownstairs gallery. Image supplied.

Using a multidisciplinary approach, Sue Beyer’s practice primarily examines place and space. Her new exhibition at Melbourne’s fortyfivedownstairs gallery (2 – 13 February) entitled Transformer is a series of paintings and digital works that explore ideas relating to liminal space through the transformation of well-known Australian landscape paintings. Beyer is the director of Sandbox Studios Melbourne, a set of professional art studios and independent artist run gallery.

Long awaited Margel Hinder retrospective to open

The much anticipated exhibition Margel Hinder: Modern in Motion (postponed due to COVID) will open at Art Gallery of New South Wales (30 January – 2 May) before touring to Heide in Victoria (30 June – 10 October).

It is the first retrospective of one of Australia’s most important and dynamic, yet underrated, modernist sculptors of the 20th century. From the solidity and volume of her wood carvings in the 1930s, to the ‘space age’ kinetic and wire works of the 1950s and her major public commissions in the 1960s, this exhibition is a must see.

Anne Wallace, Fire in the Hills 2019. Part of IMA exhibition On Fire. Image supplied courtesy the artist.

The Institute of Modern Art (IMA) in Brisbane will unveil its newest contemporary art exhibition, On Fire: Climate and Crisis – launching one year on from the devastating 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires. It features work by 15 Queensland artists and interrogates the state’s image as a subtropical paradise by considering the themes of global warming and climate threat (20 January – 20 March).

On Fire has been curated and art historian Tim Riley Walsh and will feature outstanding Queensland artists, Gordon Bennett, Naomi Blacklock, Paul Bong, Hannah Brontë, Michael Candy, Kinly Grey, Dale Harding, Tracey Moffatt with Gary Hillberg, Erika Scott, Madonna Staunton, Anne Wallace, Judy Watson, Warraba Weatherall, Tintin Wulia and Jemima Wyman.

Scott Chaseling, Sanctury 2020, Installation view Canberra Glassworks. Courtesy the artist.

Glass sculptures offer hope through colour in our greywashed world

From architecture to fashion, has contemporary life become too monochrome? Scott Chaseling investigates our complex relationship with colour and what colour symbolises today in his exhibition The Redemption of Colour at Canberra Glassworks (until 11 April). Chaseling’s glass sculptures have an interactive quality as the viewer moves around them, challenge us to discover the potential of colour and how it makes us feel.

This body of work is a culmination of 12 years research, starting with a commission for the Frauenau Glass Museum in Bavaria Germany, which used 75 coloured tubes. It is Chaseling’s largest exhibition to date in Australia, despite his 30-year career internationally.

Ponch Hawkes, 500 strong. Image supplied.

‘Learning to love our bodies after the age of 50 is a personal challenge we all face,’ says curator Jane Scott. Her exhibition Flesh after Fifty will be presented from 7 March – 11 April  at the Abbotsford Convent’s Laundries building (VIC). A public program of forums, performances and events presented alongside the exhibition, will be announced in early February. Through the mediums of photography, video, sculpture, painting and prints the exhibition celebrates positive images of women over the age of 50.

The cornerstone of the exhibition is 500 Strong, a collection of nude images of Victorian women photographed by Melbourne photographer Ponch Hawkes, an ambitious project 12 months in the making.

150 years of Children’s Hospital celebrated with art trail

Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC) is proud to host Me and UooUoo: The RCH150 Anniversary Art Trail launched this week. To mark the 150th anniversary of The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) Melbourne, the project will display 100 colourful UooUoo (pronounced you-you) sculptures in laneways, streets, parks, beaches to form walking trails throughout Melbourne and Geelong. (until 21 March). UooUoo is an imaginary creature created by award-winning Melbourne artist Alexander Knox.

Hossein & Nassiem Valamanesh, What Goes Around 2021, One channel vide0. © the artists Light Source commission, Buxton Contemporary, The University of Melbourne, 2021.

Buxton Contemporary is delighted to announce the launch of its fifth Light Source commission What Goes Around (2021), a work by Adelaide-based artist Hossein Valamenesh in collaboration with his son, Melbourne-based filmmaker Nassiem Valamanesh.

This film-based work, which will initially be presented online and then in a large-scale video format at Buxton Contemporary, evolved from a sculpture that Hossein Valamanesh crafted from items he serendipitously found in his studio during the 2020 lockdown. Upon re-finding materials that he hadn’t worked with for some time, Hossein decided to use them to make a series of new forms that engage with ideas around chance and coincidence.

The accompanying sound to Nassiem’s film is mysterious, somehow simultaneously musical, industrial and sci fi and yet is actually a recording by Nassiem of Hossein at work in his studio. What Goes Around is described as a hauntingly poetic, enigmatic and resonant work, and launches on Friday 22 January.

Digital animation meets quilts in new Jess Johnson project

If you are a fan of Jess Johnson work or quilts then this show is for you. Johnson has partnered with her mother Cynthia Johnson, for the exhibition Quilts, opening 30 January at Darren Knight Gallery in Sydney. Jess Johnson is perhaps best know for her works translated into video and immersive installations in collaboration with Simon Ward and Andrew Clark, in particular TERMINUS, a major five-part virtual reality commission and solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia.

She said: ‘Working in a traditional textile medium was quite a departure from the tech-heavy, virtual reality collaborations with Simon Ward that I’m mainly known for. However, the digital artworks are premised on my drawings, which are entirely done by hand. I share this affinity to making things by hand with Mum.’

Johnson grew up observing her mother’s textile practice. ‘She always had a work area in the home while I was growing up where she would be hand dying, cutting, arranging and piecing material. I think this patterning and process really sunk into my own art-making, which you can see in the repetitive geometries, elaborate borders and use of templates in my drawings’

ON STAGE

Four Winds at Bermagui on NSW’s South Coast will plays host to Survival Day Celebrations, in their Sound Shell stage, on Tuesday 26 January from 11am to 4pm. The event is free. Performers include Richard Luland, Ronnie Thomas and the Gadhu Dreaming Band, Ronald Callaghan, Robyn Martin and band, the Djinama Yilaga Choir and Dr Lou Bennett, Dale Huddleston and Gabadoo. Register here.

After the forced postponement of the much-anticipated Gold Coast production of MAMMA MIA!, Matt Ward Entertainment (MWE) has announced that the smash-hit musical will return from 19 June – 11 July at The Star Gold Coast.

THE TWINS, a new Australian play starring Greg Fleet and Ian Darling, will have its world premiere season at The Studio, Holden Street Theatres for the 2021 Adelaide Fringe. Two old school friends re-unite 40 years after playing the twins in Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors, to rework it as a two-hander (16 February – 21 March).

Live at the Bowl has officially kicked off with a season of open-air performances at the iconic Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne. This week it announced it will extend its program through to the end of April. So far, over 39,000 tickets have been sold to events

‘Live at the Bowl was just an idea back in September and to see it come to life with the Victorian Government’s support in such a rapid period of time is nothing short of remarkable. There have been so many people involved in getting this season up and running and each has contributed to making our first live performances since closure in March last year a reality,’ said Arts Centre Melbourne CEO Claire Spencer AM. Tickets for the new program went on sale this week.  

Symphony meets digital projections

The world premiere of Music in The Sky, featuring pianist Luke Howard and The Nano Symphony will be presented by Roundhouse (at University of New South Wales). Described as ‘a kaleidoscopic music experience’ and transport audiences into an ethereal realm of sound and light as they perform as a six-piece ensemble reimagining popular classical works including Debussy’s Rêverie and contemporary compositions. Choreographed digital projections will create an immersive musical, beamed through six 10k projectors (29 – 30 May). 

Nicholas Brown, Douglas Hansell, original Australian company for Come From Away. Photo Jeff Busby.

Internationally acclaimed musical COME FROM AWAY reopens in Australia with its first performance worldwide at Melbourne’s Comedy Theatre (from 19 January), ahead of seasons at Lyric Theatre, QPAC Brisbane (from 26 March) and Capitol Theatre in Sydney (from 3 June).

COME FROM AWAY follows the incredible real-life journey of 7,000 air passengers who became grounded in Gander, Newfoundland in Canada in the wake of the September 11 tragedy.  The small community that welcomed them into their lives provided hope and compassion to those in need.  

The Apologists explores the power of words and actions

Unlikely Productions presents The Apologists (pictured top) at Old 505 Theatre, Sydney. After two highly successful London seasons, The Apologists turns the spotlight on our obsession for words – whether empty, truthful or even justified. (20–31 January).

A Secretary of State for Health and Social Care makes a racist comment to her attending doctor when her child is rushed into hospital; a prominent travel writer is held responsible for a suicide after a scathing review; an employee of an aid organisation demands the recompense she truly needs from the CEO after a disingenuous public apology.

The Apologists presents three topical stories which combined provide a powerful examination of the meaning of the act of apology, the complex power play at work between the giver and the receiver of an apology, and whether we are responsible for the context of our actions. Each solo story focuses on a female character, a high-profile woman, and the issues raised also shine a light on gender inequality and social justice.

Cabaret returns to Brisbane

In great news for cabaret fans, Queensland Performing Arts Centre’s (QPAC’s) Club Cremorne is back by popular demand from 28 January to 6 March 2021. Offering a true cabaret experience, complete with signature cocktails and nibbles, internationally renowned Brisbane-based comedian Damien Power is back to lead audiences down the rabbit hole and introduce a variety of stellar artists including versatile beatbox guru, Tom Thum, bewitching burlesque star, Jacqueline Furey and Circus Company 2 (featuring Chelsea McGuffin, Danik Abeshev, and Phoebe Armstrong).

Six performances matched to six fragrances

This summer, Sydney Art Quartet invite you to Remember Me: an indulgent, multi-sensory experience created by SAQ Artistic Director James Beck and Grandiflora founder Saskia Havekes, that brings together six performances matched to six fragrances. Set in an ethereal private ballroom, Remember Me weaves together live performances by the Sydney Art Quartet, scent from Grandiflora Fragrance from overscale botanic installations, attire from Jac+Jack (5 – 6 February).

More news you may have missed.