Australia

Critics slam mining giant after it funds a climate change project by the Science Museum.

Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Open Studios, Photo: 5 Foot Photography

DESIGN Canberra has today (October 20) announced the full program for its “Nurture” program (November 5-28), instead of its annual festival, which has been postponed to 2022.

The program is tailored to focus on the well-being aspects of creativity, making and crafting as tools for health and recovery and is seen by Craft ACT, for which this is the primary outreach program, as an antidote to the stresses brought about by the pandemic.

CEO of Craft ACT: Craft + Design Centre and artistic director of DESIGN Canberra Jodie Cunningham says: “We are so excited to use the tools we know best, creativity, design thinking; and making as ways to help our community heal and transition out of lockdown.

She added that the underlying purpose of the venture, as with the postponed festival, was to embed contemporary craft, making and design at the centre of everyday life in Australia’s capital, which she describes as “a global city of design”.

Highlights from the “Nurture program include “mindful making” workshops covering activities include sensory impressions with Mariana del Castillo, stitching with Clare Mazitelli, weaving with Spinners & Weavers, reflective clay with Fran Romano, watercolour painting with Naomi Zouwer and spoon carving with Hiroshi Yamaguchi.

Daniel Leone, clay workshop. Photo: 5 Foot Photography

A Craft + Design Auction will celebrate experimental, small scale or one-off pieces from leading crafts makers and designers. All artworks have been handmade by Craft ACT members with all the proceeds going directly to the artists, since Craft ACT has removed the usual 30 percent commission on sales.

There’ll also be a professional development online workshops with jeweller Melinda Young and Caitlin Marshall, from Makeshift, a support and education agency connecting creativity and mental health and  with business and marketing expert Michael Oefi.

The “Creative Journaling Month Challenge” will see participants receive a sketchbook in the post, a daily email prompt related to the theme of “Transformation” and have the opportunity to send in their completed journal to be digitised for the online exhibition, with a chance to win a $2000 cash prize for the most innovative response.

And once restrictions are eased, from 4pm-6pm each Friday in November, there’ll be an informal gathering in in the Craft ACT gallery where guests can share a drink, catch up with old friends and enjoy a floor talk at 5pm.

Videos will be available for viewing each week of Nurture here by clicking on the “DESIGN Anytime” tab.

In the “Discover” project, Craft ACT members are invited to submit proposals for a small-scale ephemeral sculpture trail designed to activate City West in Design Canberra 2022. Successful artists will have the opportunity to work with mentors and will receive an artist’s fee of $3000 for concept and a materials fee. Applications will open on November 8 and entries will be due by December 9.

“Nurture” will also present exhibitions featuring more than 70 artists, including  “Transformation Craft ACT: 2021”, the annual members exhibition  and “CO:LAB,” the  culmination of a year-long Craft ACT pilot professional development and exchange program, featuring works by Alison Jackson, Dan Lorrimer and Cathy Franzi.

Book here

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Melbourne bar and restaurant owners have been left angry after a last-minute reopening clarification from the Victorian government, former NSW premier Mike Baird is due to appear at the ICAC inquiry into Gladys Berejiklian and the mother of a missing four-year-old has pleaded for people to come forward with information about her daughter’s whereabouts.

A corruption inquiry has heard then-treasurer Gladys Berejiklian put a controversial funding proposal back on the government agenda after her then-boyfriend Daryl Maguire “fired up” upon learning of its removal.

Composer Sally Greenaway

SALLY Greenaway is holding another free live stream digital concert with flautist  David Shaw, pianist Teddy  Neeman and cellist Samuel Payne performing the premiere of  her whimsical  composition, “The Little Red Fox Friday” at 8pm on Friday (October 22) here . The work  belongs to a set of three works by Greenaway that were commissioned by Stephanie and Ross Burton for their ruby wedding anniversary. 

WITH the extension of the National Portrait Gallery’s “Living Memory” exhibition, voting in the People’s Choice Award has been extended until December 5. the photographer with the most votes receive $5000 from The David Roche Foundation and voters go into a prize pool too.  Vote here

A work from “398”, by Emerging Artist Support Scheme recipient Aloisia Cudmore

PHOTOACCESS is opening three new online exhibitions tomorrow (October  21): “Experiments in Living [Melt]”, by Sammy Hawker, who examines methodologies of co-creation between herself and the more-than-human;  “Light Materials”, by Caroline Huf,  an exhibition of the artist’s experimental weaving of film; “Surface Appearances”, by Eunie Kim, who interrogates the art of liquid light and layering; and  “398”, by Emerging Artist Support Scheme recipient Aloisia Cudmore. The four exhibitors this year are recipients of the Dark Matter, EASS, and Wide-Angle residencies and their exhibitions are accessible here until November 27 and the  Huw Davies Gallery will be open to the public for live viewing from November 2.

ACTING teacher Peter Wilkins is offering  an “Acting and Devising Theatre” course for actors or teachers still needing their Teacher Quality Institute Professional Development points, to run at The Hedley Beare Teaching and Learning Centre, Stirling, from Thursday, November 18 to Thursday. December 9. The short course explores ways of interpreting, adapting and scripting original work or literary sources. This will involve adapting a poem, a children’s story and the story inspired by a  museum collection. Fees apply, inquiries to 0408 034373.

THE 67th Blake Prize is coming up again at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre and entries are open until November 15, with a prize pool of up to $42,000. The prize has evolved over the past 70 years from a focus on religious figures to a space for artists to explore the complexities of spirituality in today’s society.  There is the non-acquisitive Blake Prize of $35,000; the acquisitive Blake Emerging Artist Prize of $6000  and The Blake Established Artist Residency. All prizes are strictly non-sectarian. Entries here

 

 

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The former Australian Test cricketer arrest comes weeks after he was reportedly sacked by Channel Seven as a member of its cricket commentary team.

Design plans for Gwydir Square in Kaleen.

Final design plans for upgrades to local shopping centres in Kaleen, Campbell and Duffy have been released today (October 20), with construction on all three set to begin early next year.

A construction tender has already been released for upgrades to Gwydir Square in Kaleen, with plans to include more car parks as well as new landscaping, seating and a shade structure at the playground.

Contracts for the local shops on the corner of Burrinjuck Street and Glenmaggie Street in Duffy and the local shops on Blamey Place in Campbell are set to go out for tender in coming weeks.

The design plans for Duffy shops include a new playground and bike track, a new toilet, new pathways, new landscaping including more native trees, and new seating and shade structures.

Campbell’s shops are to receive more car parking spaces, new seating and shade structures, new landscaping and upgraded lighting.

“This is the first in a series of substantial works to upgrade 11 shopping centres across Canberra,” said City Services Minister Chris Steel.

Additional shopping centres slated for upgrades include Narrabundah, Evatt, Macquarie, Monash, Calwell, as well as the group centres at Weston, Kippax and Lanyon. 

The final upgrade designs have now been released alongside the community feedback reports for each of the local shops.

The designs for Kaleen, Duffy and Campbell can be found here.

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Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has compared an expected influx of up to 1000 new daily COVID cases to a storm, as the state opens up to New Zealand’s South Island.

The ICAC’s public hearing starts at 10am on Wednesday. The corruption watchdog will hear today from former NSW Premier Mike Baird and his former chief of strategy, Nigel Blunden.

From his vantage point atop Australia’s largest coal reserves, small business owner John Hallam believes the Coalition climate confab in Canberra is looking more like concession than fight.

Olympic rugby sevens star Lachlan Miller was just two hours away from committing to an American rugby contract. Then Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon called.

The prospect of stagflation, which plagued the world in the 1970s, is starting to be seriously debated by economists and policymakers.

 

Monaro Street, Queanbeyan. Photo: Holly Treadaway

THERE have been two new cases of COVID-19 reported in Queanbeyan today (October 20) and one in Royalla.

According to a Southern NSW Local Health District (SNSWLHD) spokesperson, all three of these cases are currently under investigation.

Since the beginning of the outbreak in June, there have been 410 cases of COVID-19 reported throughout the Southern NSW Local Health District.

State-wide, NSW recorded 283 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.

The post Queanbeyan covid numbers continue to stay low appeared first on Canberra CityNews.

All adults in NSW will receive a $50 “Stay and Rediscover” accommodation voucher as part of a $500 million boost to the state’s tourism sector.

The state is expected to hit the 70 per cent double-vaccination target by the end of Wednesday, but it won’t be reflected in the official data until Thursday.

Two men have died after a shooting in Guildford on Wednesday morning seemingly linked to violent tensions between rival gangs.

Bill McKibben says Australia’s “role as a supplier of dirty carbon to much of the world is, at this point in human history, a shameful role”.

Children told us what they wanted to know about the COVID-19 vaccine ... and we asked an expert for answers.

British comic actor Katherine Parkinson stars in the new Australian comedy Spreadsheet as a busy woman who knows what she wants.

The 27-year-old ex-Brisbane Bronco has fronted a Brisbane court for the first time since the disturbance in Fortitude Valley.