Arts

330 primary school students participated in the successful hip hop dance program run by Stomp Dance Company after a $9,000 donation by cluBarham ... The program included the Cohuna, Kerang and Koondrook schools after Cohuna Consolidated School teacher Michelle Howard saw a need to bring students, families and the community back together in a fun and interactive way...

Vocal duo Adam Bartlett and Roger Davy are TenorUS and they performed at Mallanganee Memorial Hall on Sunday, April 2. The audience of more than 100 people loved the performance and gave the duo a standing ovation twice.

I haven't enjoyed a book more for ages. I am deep into Wild Ride, The story of the Australian Stock Saddle by Fiona Carruthers and have no hesitation in recommending that horse lovers or anyone interested in Australian history should go out and buy a copy today. Calling it magnificent doesn’t even come close.

Greater Shepparton City Council is excited to welcome back the Illuminate festival to the shores of Victoria Park Lake next month. The event creates a full sensory experience, incorporating lights, music and food in a way that celebrates the region and builds Greater Shepparton’s brand as regional Victoria’s abundant, dynamic, cultural capital.

A dedicated push to draw children and young people to enter the Kangaroo Island Easter Art Exhibition has been a huge success, with six times more entrants compared to the 2021 event ... Young entrant, Isla Smith, was asked what inspired her work. "“I did a water colour of Pennington Bay which is one of my favourite beaches. I love the rockpools there,” Isla said.

Dave Oakes. What’s the difference between Rap and Hip Hop? An unlikely place to find this out was the Yipirinya School yesterday afternoon, scene of a Heavy Metal concert for the young ... The youth concert organised by the town council was a focus on the possibilities in life as opposed to anti social behaviour.

It was a lifelong dream of a lifelong sailor and though it was to be a solo journey, his waking and sleeping hours were spent in the ‘company’ of his memories and erstwhile companions and friends ... When at his lowest ebb, along came the ghost of Sam, a friendly old sailor who kept Peter entertained through the long, lonely hours of the dog watch.

Wildlife artist Fiona Lumsden puts enormous amounts of time and effort into crafting and hand-painting intricate bird posters ... "I fell instantly in love with the Island and its birds ... your birds are so cooperative and charismatic!": Fiona Lumsden.

“My whole life journey is in my music and music is my way of letting things out. We cover up too many things and I’m not into sugar coating serious topics. My track ‘Don’t Give Up’ is about depression and like many people I’ve suffered dark times but the best way to deal with it is to talk about it, not bottle it up."

Here’s a heads-up for an imaginative art installation being presented by Maldon Inc. Twelve 1.5 metre high kangaroos, along with some joeys, will be showcased in shop windows during the 2023 Maldon In Winter Festival, which will be running from 23 June to 9 July.

Outback Arts, the Regional Arts Development Organisation for Far West NSW, has launched a brand new interactive website, Creative Country, to showcase and assist travellers and locals discover the art, culture and heritage the region has to offer ... “It’s truly remarkable what this wide, wild outback place has to offer, and Creative Country is the perfect tool to gather this information together": Jamie-Lea Trindall, Executive Director, Outback Arts.

Obviously every good mystery novel has a few twists and turns but even as a regular reader of this genre I didn’t see this story’s twist coming. The fact that this book has lingered in my mind long after I finished reading it is testament to this author’s talent at her craft. I’ll certainly be getting my hands on another of Holly Throsby’s books.

Honor Auchinleck. Timing and circumstances ensure some wartime tragedies are more defining than others and so it was with Malcolm Chisholm. He was the first Australian to die and the first of some 60,000 Australians who lost their lives on the First World War battlefields. His death has resonated through more than a century and well beyond the Upper Murray.

On the weekend, Sarah Jarvis was awarded first place in the 17 Years Open Reserve Graceful Calisthenics Solo competition at George Jenkins Theatre in Frankston ... Calisthenics is a form of strength training consisting of a variety of movements and participants have to perform a set of exercises in competition.

Wet weather may have forced a last-minute venue change, but it was raining talent at the Maclean Bowling Club on March 25 as singers and songwriters from across the region stepped onto the stage and let their vocals and instrumental skills shine during local music festival Clarence Tunes ... A star-studded line up including Isla and Bella, Waiting For Alex, Olivia Hinde, and Kirra Hallam, earned repeated rounds of applause from an appreciative audience, who described the performers as “outstanding”, “awesome”, and “amazing.”

From Saturday 25th March Horsham Regional Art Gallery invites the community to celebrate up and coming Spanish born, Ararat-based artist Juana Beltran in her transformative reflection of her time in the Australian desert. Formed from the desert plains, the human-like figures which form the body of work in the exhibition project shadows that represent a reflection of our other selves.

Rod Moss. Good rains recharged  Lhere Mparntwe (Todd River) drawing crowds to its banks for the infrequent spectacle. When its rushing subsided waterholes became an unparalleled recreational attraction. In full rage it is perilous as friends, Johnathan Rodd and Rowley Hill, would discover, drowning near Wigleys Gorge.

Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (CIAF) has confirmed an impeccable line up of 15 Indigenous fashion designers and wearable art makers from across Queensland whose collective response to the 2023 theme ‘Woven’ will tell a powerful story marking 10 years of fashion performances.

I was ready to lose myself in a fictional world, and this was the perfect escapist genre read. Linnell writes authentically of small town rural Australia, with the characters, landscape and community events immediately recognisable to anyone who has lived in the country ... I learned plenty about flower farming and the sweat and beauty and hope involved. I learned a bit about the path junior cricketers take as they strive to move into senior professional careers. I salivated over Diana’s baking and wished for recipes at the back of the book ...

Studio? Who needs a studio? I paint anywhere the mood takes me. Easel? Who needs an easel?  Margaret Olley.

A new exhibition showcasing works by artists with disability will open in Alice Springs on Saturday, 25 March. Strong Feelings, which will take place at Red Hot Arts, includes a mixture of portraiture and storytelling, using costume, digital art, song, soundscapes, video and photography.

You will most likely know Alexander McCall Smith as the ingenious and inexhaustible author of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series or any number of his more than 80 other titles, but it was art that brought McCall Smith to Maldon last weekend. The cherished Cascade Gallery is currently showing the work of the entrancing and prolific artist Robert Maclaurin ... McCall Smith is an avid admirer - but they were yet to meet.