Alternative Media Group » Gallery & Museums

STILL … LIFE: AN ART AUCTION FUNDRAISER FOR FBI

Angela Bennetts — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:26:04 +0000

With nary a bowl of fruit or wilty flower in sight, FBi’s Still … Life art auction fundraiser promises to pack some serious creative punches. Reading like a who’s who of uber-cool Sydney artistes, the line-up includes: Anthony Lister, Das Monk, Leah Fraser, Elke Kramer, Greedy Hen, Hana Shimada, Edward Woodley, Koji Ryui and We Buy Your Kids, plus pallet-loads more. Like all the FBi fundraisers round town at the moment, all proceeds go to the local radio station, struggling to stay afloat in a downpour of financial doom and gloom. Remember to wear something unique – so the dude with the hammer can you pick you out from the crowd, and a little slice of artistic altruism can be yours. It kicks off from 6.30 at the MCA, Friday July 3^rd. RSVP to still-life@fbiradio.com

AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM OPEN DAY

Amelia G — Mon, 25 May 2009 11:59:32 +0000

From kangaroo skeletons to live snakes, taxidermy pelicans to fossilised cicadas, butterflies to crystals and dinosaurs to DNA, The Australian Museum is home to 16 million bizarre and beautiful natural history specimens and cultural artefacts – but only 3-5% of them are on public display at any given time.

The Museum’s free Open Day next month will be a unique opportunity to see what goes on behind the scenes, as they open all doors to the public for the first time since their extensive renovations over the last few years.

Take a tour of the Museum’s working laboratories and hidden scientific specimens or explore the new Collections and Research Building with its state of the art facilities including a forensic DNA laboratory.

Beyond the public galleries is a team of research scientists helping to track our past, save unique species and plan our environmental future, and visitors will be able to ask them all the anthropologic or paleontological quandaries they’ve always wondered.

An evocative program of talks by Museum scientists is scheduled for the day including ‘The Sex Life of Invertebrates’, ‘Dinosaurs of NSW’, ‘The Case of the Budgie Smuggler – and other stories of wildlife forensics, ‘Birds & The City’ and ‘Pompeii of the Pacific’.

The free Open Day will also an opportunity to see the Museum’s popular current exhibitions Climate Change: Our Future, Our Choice and When Mammoth’s Roamed, as well as explore the permanent collections and interactive spaces.

July 5. Australian Museum, 6 College St, Sydney. 9320 6000 or australianmuseum.net.au

LATE NIGHTS AT THE MCA

Amelia G — Mon, 25 May 2009 11:30:24 +0000

Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art is on a roll. The current exhibitions Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years and I walk the line: new Australian drawing are generating massive public interest and the last two months have seen their highest ever attendance records. The museum welcomed more than 70 000 visitors in April alone.

With such busy days the MCA has a very early bedtime of 5pm. Sadly, for all the nine-to-fivers in the CBD this puts after-work visits to the city’s contemporary art museum out of the question. Can’t they stay up a little later once in a while? They’ve got a prime evening location and even the Art Gallery of NSW has their popular weekly Art After Hours night where they’re open until 9pm.

Well, from May 29 the MCA will be trying it out, staying wide-awake until 9pm for three consecutive Fridays. After hours adventures include spotlight tours of exhibitions and a free program of talks and performances for the Creative Sydney event series. From Wednesdays-Fridays there will also be a bar open from 5.30pm till late. That’s more like it! There’s something very appealing about museums after dark – here’s hoping this will plant some more late night seeds for the MCA’s future.

SmARTarts gets clever in Chippendale

Tracey Lien — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 12:00:59 +0000

It’s a good time to be young. Sydney’s annual youth arts and cultural festival, SmARTarts is set to light up Pine St and its surrounding areas, bringing Sydney’s best youth art, music, performers, markets and workshops to the heart of the city.

Showcasing the creative talent of young people aged 16-26-years-old, the 2009 festival will feature live music on two stages, roving street performers, and live art demonstrations. Pine Street Gallery will be bursting with the latest work, hand-picked for the festival’s exhibition, as well as the designART market, which will be selling hand-made craft.

Located in Chippendale, Pine Street Creative Arts Center is the natural home for the festival. Alongside a permanent program of creative workshops for all ages, Pine Street lends its affordable gallery space to a range of organisations, in line with its goal of supporting creativity in the local community. In the past, Pine Street has supported Chinese New Year festivities and staged the Art & About event in Hyde Park, to great success.

The SmARTarts festival, part of National Youth Week, kicks off this week with the diverse Youth Art Exhibition, and is followed up by an exciting program packed with dance performances, open mic sessions, art and workshops, as well as interactive installations and artist demonstrations.

Festival attendees will be able to get involved with the giant cardboard box mural in Peace Park, purchase and exchange zines, learn to make and bake jewelery, and experience spontaneous rhyming action with a workshop on freestyle rapping.

This is an event worth attending.

25 March – 18 April, main festival day 4 April 12:30-6:30pm. Pine Street Creative Arts Centre & the surrounds of Peace Park, & Beaumont Plaza, Chippendale. Free. 9245 1503, www.pinestreet.com.au/smartarts

GALLERY: RED

Staff Writer — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 14:00:00 +0000

BY LACHLAN JOBBINS

“Sydney isn’t short of artists. It’s short of spaces.”

That’s the word from Allison O’Sullivan, curator of Gallery Red, which opens its doors on Glebe’s gallery strip on July 25th.

O’Sullivan, who studies Art Theory and Administration at COFA, is excited to be involved in setting up a venue that supports new and emerging artists. “I spend a lot of time around young artists, and there’s a kind of ‘catch-22′ when you’re starting out: You need experience to exhibit at most galleries ‘ but you can’t get experience without having a show.”

For the opening exhibition, RED, she approached nearby universities, colleges and art schools, and targeted local artist networks. She was surprised to receive submissions from as far as Avalon and Penrith. “It’s clear that there are far more artists than venues available,” she says. The directors of Gallery Red aim to help redress that balance.

The opening show will feature about 12 artists and 20 works ‘ ranging from paintings to textiles, prints, sculpture and jewellery. Artists include Carolyn McKay, Zoi Papatheodorou, Matthew Syres and JD Reforma.

Future plans are for a mix of gallery and artist-curated exhibitions. The second show, Urban, opens on August 15.

Glebe has traditionally been a hub of artist activity, but with the Blackwattle studios development and the rent hikes in recent years, it’s been more difficult to find spaces for artists to exhibit. Gallery Red will complement the existing spaces ‘ Gallery Adagio, the Glass Artists’ Gallery and GIG Gallery ‘ which operate nearby on Glebe Point Road.

“Galleries are one of the few areas where different businesses can work in synthesis. The more galleries in an area, the more visitors ‘ everyone wins.”

O’Sullivan says Glebe has an interesting population mix of both artists and buyers, making it a great space for this kind of project. “Where Paddington-Woollahra is increasingly the realm of established artists, areas like Glebe and Newtown are where they emerge.”

Gallery Red aims to give artists the chance to build a profile (and a portfolio of shows), and provide a stepping stone to bigger things.

“It’s about helping young artists make a living from what they do,” she says. “The more time they have to practice their art, the more refined they become.”

Gallery Red
Shop 11, 131-145 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe

Mon-Fri 10-5, Sat 10-4

RED exhibition opening July 25, 6-8pm
9692 0030 or www.galleryred.com.au