Arts

A large crowd gathered at the Castlemaine Art Museum last Friday night when Bendigo West MP Maree Edwards announced the winner of the Len Fox painting award. This is an acquisitive prize that is awarded every two years to commemorate the life and work of E. Phillips Fox ... The 2024 Len Fox award winner is Nellie Napa Coulthard for her painting titled Tjuntala Ngurangka - Country with Wattle, which celebrates the beauty of the artist’s country.

The light installations are installed, and following last night’s rehearsal for Calling Country ceremony - Shine on Gimuy kicked off on 3 October 2024 - with a Friday to Sunday program of music, poetry, comedy and conversations and more at the Salt House HQ. The stunning light installations that comprise the Artstory Light Walk will be in place until 13 October.

The Birchip Art Show, now in its 38th year, continues to be a highly anticipated cultural event in Victoria’s Wimmera-Mallee region. What began as a fundraiser for the “Friends of the Library” has evolved into a prestigious biennial celebration of artistic expression and culture, drawing attention from both established and emerging artists across the state.

After its 2023 premiere season and whistlestop tour of Far North Queensland’s small halls,  More than Tea and Scones, the play recognising 100 years of effort by the women of the Queensland Country Women’s Association (QWCA), is back on the road next month, bound for nine stages in the state’s southeast.

From big fish and bigger boats to bananas – and all ports in between – the eclectic story of Coffs Harbour has captured the imagination of the community and visitors alike, and now a major internationally-assessed award.  The exhibition design for Yaamanga Around Here at Yarilla Arts and Museum (YAM) has received a prestigious Good Design Award Winner Accolade in the Architectural Design category for exceptional design and innovation.  

Percy Leason’s iconic cartoon ‘Off to the Show, or The Man They Left Behind Them’ graces the cover of this year’s Kaniva Show schedule. To coincide with the Wiregrass project, Kaniva and District Progress Association will showcase a small temporary exhibition of several of Leason’s never-before-seen cartoons, highlighting various aspects of agricultural shows.

Kaniva's Wiregrass project received a generous boost, with John Carter, a long-time supporter of Percy Leason, donating $2,000 towards its development. John Carter, whose family’s farm was located near the Leason property, is one of several narrators for the Wiregrass Heritage Trail film clips. He has chosen to share a brief history of Lillimur...

Madison Eastmond. Barmera craftsman Owen Cash was able to finally lay down his hammer and paintbrush on a nine-year project of three doll houses last month. Hoping the identical houses now become family heirlooms, Mr Cash began the venture in 2015 for each of his granddaughters, Shelley, Jessie, and Lainie, who are now 19, 17, and 12.

It’s Constable Jamie Hartley’s first investigation since being made a detective and even though the circumstances surrounding the death of unpopular farmer Fred O’Donnell after confrontations with a “cloaked man” seem farfetched he’s determined to do a professional job ... Set in the late 1920s Western Australia, Thorpe’s novel is the second in a series of four books featuring a medicant monk who helps solve the murder.

Quilts but not as you know them. Kyogle Quilters Group has an exhibition at the Roxy Gallery in Kyogle that is full of colour, intricate stitching, imagination and a few surprises. Everything you thought you knew about quilting will be upturned at the  Quilts – we’ve got you covered  exhibition running until October 13.

Former Narrandera resident now painter Tim Snowdon has had a fulfilling life as a talented painter, dipping his brush in many different genres over time: still life, landscape, contemporary, traditional, portraiture – and of course houses. He doesn’t paint pictures of houses, he paints houses. Literally.

A French photographer and a Wahlubal artist have become friends through their admiration of each other’s work. Dave Tabulam (his photographer name) started a Facebook page featuring photos of nature in and around Tabulam ... William Walker saw Dave’s photos and wanted to meet him.

City of Coffs Harbour’s exceptional art gallery and museum has been making waves in its first 12 months and the next major exhibition will be a deep dive into local surf culture.  Swell Chasers: Surf Stories from the Mid North Coast will open at Yarrila Arts and Museum (YAM) [in November] ... the community can get involved right now.  

Surfing became the obsession of a legion of bored and restless teenagers in 1960s Australia, kids looking for adventure and freedom from the stultifying norms and expectations of their straight 1950s upbringing ... The arrival of the exciting new phenomenon and its far-reaching impact are recorded in a thrilling documentary film showing at the Byron Bay Film Festival in October.

Featuring Floodlights and James Range Band - 10 days of live music and workshops through remote communities in the Northern Territory ... Celebrated  live music and workshop program  Guts Touring  is back for another year, unveiling the two bands who will be performing throughout the Northern Territory for their 2024 program.

Sophie Baldwin. It is only 15 days until the curtain opens on the Golden Rivers Theatre Group’s spring production of The Emperor’s New Clothes. And it is going to be amazing according to performer and committee member Russ Allen.

Sebastian Calderon. A highly acclaimed dinner theatre production that is sparking conversation about mental health and wellbeing is returning to Loxton. After last year’s success, ‘Kick off ya Boots’ makes a comeback in 2024 for a new glimpse of the Connor family’s farming journey, with the show organised by Little Town Productions.

The opening at Raillery Saturday, September 21, will feature the work talented artists, Chris Dyson and Stephen MacKenzie ... In the beautiful valley at Stuart Mill live two artist neighbours whose works invite us into a mystical world.

Why is it that school teachers feel the need to torture the parents of their pupils? ... younger son for some reason decided to learn the violin. The teacher even let him bring it home to practice ... Ode to a Violin ...

Muralists are painting up a storm in Nimbin! Lora Flora has been panting rainforest images outside the new Youth Club room; Julie De Lorenzo, Jen Harkness and Gaia Heart are painting in the newly upgraded laneway next to the Bakery, with help from Nimbin Central students Maddie Wilson and Grace Adlington, using Council funding left over from the footpath upgrade.

Nimbin School of Arts has an extensive program of diverse cultural events this Spring, but one of the absolute highlights is the Twilight Recital featuring world renowned pianist, teacher and human rights activist, Roger Woodward. Sydney-born and now based in the USA, Roger Woodward’s international career began in the early 1970s and, over the subsequent decades, he has performed in orchestras around the world, and under the baton of some of the most famous conductors.

A new play by Cathouse Players is set in France and will be performed in Kyneton, but its star performers are Maldon and Castlemaine locals. ‘Trap for a Lonely Man’ is an intriguing mystery featuring familiar faces ... The Hitchcockian suspense is high in this 1960 comedy-mystery by French playwright and actor, Robert Thomas.