It’s so completely boring, the continual demand on the arts sector to state its case and argue to exist. It’s boring and offensive – a total waste of time and energy. I resent writing this now. I resent thinking about it. But since learning of the complete shambolic outcome of the ACT’s most recent arts […]
Tag: Canberra
The Tyranny of Geography
I currently work for an internationally-renowned arts company, on concurrent projects scattered around the country. On any one day I might speak to someone in Adelaide, Karratha, Alice Springs, Hobart, or Sydney or Melbourne or the USA or UK, all from my laptop in the tiny study of my home. I feel that I am […]
Way With Words
The long light, the glittering road. This week I’m looking forward to the launch of an exhibition that I’m a part of – the end result of a project that has unfolded over a number of months. Wordsmith is an exercise in pairing artists with writers, and I was honoured to be invited to take part by […]
Thinking About Galore
I haven’t written about a film before. Partly because I don’t see a great many, and many of those I do can be the kind so ridiculous they leave my mind at the exit of the cinema, if not earlier. Empty calories for the brain. But here we are, and here I go. Thursday I went […]
To Festivals I’ve Loved Before – You Are Here 2014
Usually this time of year I am over-caffienated, harried, hardly sleeping and excited to the point of nausea. Usually this time of the year I am producing a festival. In 2011, 2012 and 2013 I co-produced Canberra’s You Are Here festival. Now the festival continues, but with a new team of producers and new funding […]
For Love of a Bus
Day in, day out, I walk and ride my bike past the yellow double-decker bus in Braddon. I don’t know what it’s doing there. I do know that it’s a Leyland Titan, OPD2. Probably made in the 1940s or 50s. Ex-NSW Department of Government Transport, fleet number 2721. I know that in 1975 it was […]
Good girl, George.
It seems like an eternity ago now that I first wrote about George Rose’s work. I had stumbled across a zine that caught and held my attention – I knew nothing of its maker. But I tracked her down and the rest is history. I worked on three You Are Here festivals with George, as […]
Reviewers of the Future
I have a new gig. A real, full-time, desk-sitting, time-sheeting gig. For two months now I’ve been program manager at Gorman House Arts Centre and Ainslie Art Centre in Braddon. As with most artistically minded Canberrans Gorman House has played a big role in my life, and I’m so excited to be able to help the organisation […]
Cracks In The Masterplan
This is the last piece of writing about Canberra I’m going to do for now. A commission by Neil Hobbs for the Centenary edition of Landscape Architecture Australia magazine, which is out now. I think I’ve said about all I wanted to say about this little place. For the moment. Cracks in the Masterplan […]
Canberra’s Just A Place Somewhere
This time last year, in preparation for the birth of our little one, my partner and I attended a weekend long childbirth workshop in some attempt to de-mystify what is one of life’s most inconceivable (ha) experiences. A great deal of that weekend was spent learning the fine art of relaxation, through breathing, meditation and […]
