Arts

For a small town, they sure can put on a big show. A new initiative has seen an award winning indie folk duo take to the stage in Leitchville for their first and only performance in northern Victoria – and there’s more to come. Saije, an indie folk duo from Bellingen in New South Wales, came to Leitchville off the back of an extensive European tour.

Make Christmas memorable and creative by spending time crafting, dining out, decorating, giving and having fun with your friends and neighbours this December at the Birchip Neighbourhood House.

After years of neglect, the glory days of Babinda’s historic nursing quarters have been returned with a new lease of life, transforming the Art Deco beauty into a popular guesthouse in the heart of nature’s playground ... In carrying on her mother’s tradition of bringing old buildings back to life, Maggie Perpetua Nelson’s daughter, Kim Marsden, undertook the considered renovation of Babinda Quarters, reimagining it into a fresh iteration oozing creativity, character, and a good dose of quirk.

A delightful new addition to Kaniva's streets is soon to capture the hearts of residents and visitors alike. Meet Gummy, a charming children's sheep brought to life by the artistic talents of Heather Wallis, Sally Hicks and Jeanette Feder.

Chris Johnston. Announcing the launch of our new membership program, everyone is invited to come along to the Newstead Arts Hub ... Newstead Arts Hub Inc is a vibrant creative space run by our community for you – locals, artists and visitors – and located in our historic train station. 

Fond memories were rekindled recently at a reunion of Denmark’s John Clark Memorial Band, which officially marked the band’s 60th anniversary ... WA’s longest running public school band has undergone a resurgence in recent years and now has 70 students from the Denmark Primary and Senior High Schools.

Well-known local artists Kerry and Malcolm Nicholson have taken out the top award at Sheffield’s International Mural Fest 2023 held this month in Tasmania. Kerry and Malcolm won the Inder Prize People’s Choice Award with their mural "The Spirit of Adventure".

Skunkworks Community. Music has always been a powerful form of expression, a means of communication that transcends boundaries, cultures, and generations. In Australia, music education has long been an integral part of the school curriculum, nurturing young talents and fostering a lifelong appreciation for the arts.

Once again “Big Red”, Birchip’s famous Mallee Bull, adorns the cover of the annual calendar, prepared for his yearly trip to places and countries around the world, while showing off the many aspects of life in Birchip and district. 

A book written by Greg Riach takes readers on a journey through the history of football in the western and southern districts of NSW from 1920-1976, encompassing groups 9, 10, 11, 14 and 15. Much of the content has been sourced from newspaper reports and photographs of players and teams ...

GrainGrowers has announced the winners of its annual Calendar Competition which provides Australian grain growers the opportunity to showcase the beauty of farm life through photography. This year, a significant number of high-quality entries were submitted from across the country.

Plans to propel the region as a centre of artistic excellence and complement the thriving Queensland screen industry have been unveiled in a landmark report at the recent Sunshine Coast Screen Summit. The highly anticipated Screen Production on the Sunshine Coast Report has been a year in the making, and outlines the strategic direction required for the region to foster growth in the screen industry.

Picture this: a solitary heron foraging in the muted, autumnal half-light of dawn. Or an ethereal gull hovering motionless in mid air. Or a lonely stone-curlew gazing wistfully into the artificial lights of a forbidden destination. These and more are the winning entries of the sixth annual BirdLife Australia Bird Photography Awards, which have just been announced.

Riverlinks and Melbourne Chamber Orchestra (MCO) present Of People and Song featuring Lior. The ARIA award-winner is set to make his debut with the MCO and his performance will feature a major new song cycle celebrating centuries-old sung traditions and folk melodies.

Nancy Whittaker. Have you seen Tracey Koolen’s amazing ceramics? If not, you need to do so when she opens her Koolclay Art Studio for the Australian Ceramics Open Studios 2023 ... the Central Victorian Potters Clay Trail is a chance to visit 17 regional studios and peek behind the scenes into the working lives of the artists.

For Remembrance Day 2023, In Flanders Fields, by John McCrae, recited by Michael Darby.

Honor Auchinleck. The Man From Snowy River Bush Festival Elyne Mitchell Photo Story Awards hopes that you will find great pleasure in creating your entries for the 2024 Awards ... Elyne was a great admirer of A B (‘Banjo’) Paterson. As she was the inaugural Patron of the Bush Festival, it seems fitting that we use a theme that complements both Elyne’s and Banjo’s legacies.

Through the lens of the Allora Photography Club. Now showing at the Warwick Art Gallery, the exhibition will run until 2 December. This exhibition is a reflection of the group’s work to showcase the individuality, perspective and interpretation in various topics of photography.

As he prepares to share Flow, a contemporary and ancient First Nations story about rediscovering culture and identity while utilising the beauty of the Clarence River with his friends and family in the audience for the first time on Yaegl Country, writer and performer Mitch King, a proud Yaegl and Bundjalung man, said he feels incredibly privileged.

Patrick Goldsmith. Warooka's art will come alive when augmented reality takes a hold of a new art project called Moving Murals, next year. Through the project, augmented reality enabled murals will be painted on easily accessible walls and structures in Warooka and further south, in a bid to extend the growth of regional art tourism trails on southern Yorke Peninsula and attract people to the town.

Spaghetti Circus have been on a very special tour. As part of the company’s outreach program their Junior Performance Troupe performed in five pre-schools and four aged care facilities across the Byron Shire last week to foster connection and joy across generations.

Adair Dunsford. A French oil painting which is part of the Naracoorte Regional Art Gallery’s permanent collection has been cleaned and restored. The picture, entitled Marche aux Fleurs or Flower Market by Edouard Cortes has been brought back to life through a grant from mining company, Australian Rare Earths.