Festival Conversations features a selection of the finest local and international artists in town for Brisbane Festival 2010 including Sutra choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Danza Contemporanea de Cuba guest choreographer Rafael Bonachela, photographer Dougals Kirkland and others.

Pointe to Pointe

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui (Choreographer: Sutra, Sadler’s Wells) and Rafael Bonachela  (Choreographer: Danza Contemporánea de Cuba)

How is dance shaped by heritage, and how does movement define a culture? Two internationally renowned choreographers consider the impact their multiple cultural roots have had on their work.

Shutter Speed

Douglas Kirkland (Douglas Kirkland: A Life in Pictures)

Join renowned film, celebrity and fashion photographer, Douglas Kirkland as he delves into his life.

The Past Is Always With Us

Conor Lovett  (Performer, First Love, Gare St Lazare Players Ireland) and Matthew Lutton (Director, Works In Progress: Die Winterreise by ThinIce)

Hear about the motivation and process behind adapting a classic short story for modern audiences from theatre-makers who continue to be drawn by the power of classic texts.

Creating Shanghai Lady Killer

Rachael Swain and Tony Ayres (Director & Writer, Shanghai Lady Killer)

The two co-creators of this exciting new work share their insights into the development of a ground-breaking Australian performance, fusing cinema, cabaret, physical theatre, Western and Asian pop cultures.

Read more about Brisbane Festival.

Image credit: Good Clean Fun by Caravan of Dooom. Max Milne.Brisbane Festival’s annual homage to all that’s weird and wonderful about theatre and street performance – UNDER THE RADAR – is back in 2010 with a bumper programme of artists to dazzle, delight and surprise audiences.

UNDER THE RADAR shines the spotlight on new theatrical and contemporary performance works by emerging artists. Over 22 days the work of more than 100 independent, experimental and emerging artists will be showcased in theatre at Metro Arts and outdoors for Street Feats with a programme of roving and site specific works across Brisbane’s CBD.

UNDER THE RADAR:

Birdmachine

Cheer Up Kid

Design and business educators and professionals share new ideas and approaches around tackling the pressing issues of today.

In 2010 we’re discussing innovation and problem-solving through Design (Thinking).

We seek to ignite the nexus between Business and Design and to inform an applied teaching and learning culture for our Industries and educators.

We invite you to join this conversation. Together we seek to inspire and elevate applied design education and demonstrate the value of design.

For more details please visit www.billyblue.com.au

ABAF (the Australia Business Arts Foundation) is a national industry organisation that aims to promote private sector support for the arts and creative industries. 

Wed, July 21 2010

Building Relationships and Securing Donations

Boardroom, Macquarie Group Foundation, Level 26, Central Plaza One, 345 Queen Street, Brisbane
A workshop to connect with donors and manage donor relationships.  View event details and book online.

Tue, 03 August 2010

2010 Arts and Public Life series - breakfasts for the business community - Getting it Right: an arts board's role in succession planning

Lyrebird Restaurant, QPAC, Cnr of Grey and Melbourne Streets, South Bank. 
Arts and Public Life series - breakfasts for the business community. View event details and book online.

Thu, 05 August 2010

Managing Effective Partnerships: Level 3

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia Central Plaza 1, Level 32, 345 Queen Street, BRISBANE QLD
A level 3 workshop on partnering with business. View event details and book online.

Wed, 18 August 2010

Exhibition Planning and Budgeting

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia Central Plaza 1, Level 32, 345 Queen Street, BRISBANE QLD
A topic specific workshop for visual artists. View event details and book online.

Thu, 16 September 2010

Seeking Sponsorship: How to approach business

Macquarie Group Foundation, Level 26, Central Plaza One, 345 Queen Street, Brisbane
A topic specific workshop for visual artists. View event details and book online.

Wed, 06 October 2010

Effective Annual Giving

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia Central Plaza 1, Level 32, 345 Queen Street, BRISBANE QLD
Explores annual giving programs for arts organisations. View event details and book online 

Thu, 28 October 2010

Developing Successful Partnerships: Level 1 & 2

Macquarie Group Foundation, Level 26, Central Plaza One, 345 Queen Street, Brisbane
A combined level 1 and level 2 workshop on partnering with business. View event details and book online.

Optimism will be held 11 to 17 October. AGDA was presented this opportunity in late 2008 so it has been quiet a journey for this design association.

Optimism is to be a catalyst for change, to highlight the need for the designer and for design to be seen beyond just the aesthetic.

The international conference speakers list come from the US, Canada, Berlin and from Australia. In addition to the conference, the event will also have a portion dedicated to creative industries businesses and even design tour.

There will be a screening of Typeface, the film, for type fans (!).

October will be the month for design! Good work Tanja Hall, the AGDA team, ICOGRADA and the Optimism supporters.

Russel Kennedy explains what ICOGRADA is which is an industry association that represents design groups around the world. Russell stresses that design advocacy and conversations is the way for the future and we hope that through this live blog post we can help out in initiating and driving the online conversations in the lead up to Optimism in October.

The performers for THE DARK ROOM just about to start

On July 2 to 3, Queensland Theatre Company held their annual THE WORKS programme which was a season of public performances by upcoming playwrights in order to support their theatrical projects. 

This year was the first time that I attended and I really do hope that next year Qld Theatre Co can present more than two and hold it over the course of a week rather than a weekend.

A brief history of The Works:

The Works began at Queensland Theatre Company in 2000 with six play reaings over one week.  Over the past decade, a wide range of classics and new writing from Australia and all over the world has been developed and presented.  Artists and projects involved in Queensland Theatre Company's The Works are selected partly on the basis of the potential they show for future involvement in the Company's mainstage season.  In December 2008 The Works presented readings of David Williamson's Let The Sunshine and Tom Holloway's Don't Say the Words.

I was surprised as to how much I enjoyed listening to BULL by Matthew Ryan and THE DARK ROOM by Angela Betzien.  The time went by really quickly and next thing I know, it was the end of the playreadings and I felt disappointed that it was time to go home.

Some livetweets during BULL:

A livetweet during THE DARK ROOM

NB: Livetweets may or may not reflect actual content, script etc.  And "the chick from The Little Dog Laughed" during my BULL tweet is Melanie Zanetti.

My three stand outs were Jason Klarwein (looking forward to watching him in Macbeth and I really enjoyed Thom Pain!), Melanie Zanetti and Kerith Atkinson.

THE WORKS 2 will be in November 2010 and include finalist presentations for the Queensland Premier's Drama Award 2010-2011.  This award is the only playwrighting award in Australia that guarantees a fully staged production to realise their play on stage. 

You can also support emerging playwrights by attending Qld Theatre Company's Young Playwrights Program as part of the Brisbane Writer's Festival on September 1 2010.

Participant: David Burton

David Burton is a playwright, lecturer in children’s and young people’s theatre (USQ), and director of the Empire Youth Theatre in Toowoomba. David is writing Captain Pathos and his Army of Imaginary Friends for this year’s USQ Children’s Theatre Festival, following his acclaimed Spirits in Bare Feet for last year’s Festival. His one-man play Furious Angels will premiere at the Metro Arts Independents season, 2010.

This JUMP mentorship is for the development of Furious Angels for the Metro Arts independent season in November 2010 followed by a showing at the Empire Theatre in Toowoomba.

Participant: Ray Bourne

Billed as ‘a watershed in local hip hop’, Rainman (Bourne) has attracted some hefty praise following his debut album Fire in the Belly. Rainman has been hailed as ‘Queensland’s best kept secret with ‘an eloquence for song-writing rarely seen in hip hop’. Descriptions of Rainman’s music is consistently praiseworthy – ‘ what we have here is hip hop that is honest, thoughtful and fun.’

The JUMP mentorship will enable Bourne to work on his next album tentatively titled The Bigger Picture. Bourne will draw on drafted demo recordings to be refined with Levinson. He will create and record additional tracks and work with Levinson to choose a design concept and designer for the album along with mixing, mastering and manufacturing stages.

Participant: Vivian Ziherl

Vivian Ziherl is a 2009 Queensland University of Technology visual arts honors graduate majoring in exhibitions practice, aesthetics and online phenomenologies. Her graduating project Total Nowhere Emotion Expansion was presented by Brisbane Festival 2009 in the form of an online gallery accompanying offline mobile gallery fashion from a converted semi-trailer.

Through the JUMP mentoriship, Ziherl will create a hybrid performance/installation/text/ethnographic/contemporary art project in collaboration with the Fauxist International.

Participant: Jeremy Neideck

Jeremy Neideck is a performance artist, dancer and composer with a strong focus on exploring the convergence of extreme physicality with extended vocal techniques. Since graduating from QUT (Performance Studies), he has trained in physical theatre and Buto with Yumiko Yoshioka, Zen Zen Zo, Dairakudakan, Sankai Juku and Yum Umiumare.

The JUMP mentorship will help Neideck coordinate an international collaboration of Korean, Japanese and Australian artists culminating in a work of site-specific performance to be staged in Brisbane.

Participant: Jasmin Coleman

Jasmin Coleman is an emerging artist who lives and works in Brisbane. Since completing formal studies in Fine Art she has invited to exhibit at many group exhibitions both locally and interstate. In 2009 Jasmin was selected as a finalist in The Churchie National Emerging Art Exhibition and LAUNCH, the Clayton Utz Travelling Scholarship, Metro Arts, Brisbane.

Colman’s primary goal with the JUMP mentorship will be to build one major new body of artwork, which will take form as a series of metal relief wall paintings along with producing either one large sculpture or a series of smaller three-dimensional sculptural works.

Participant:Rafael Karlen

Rafael Karlen graduated from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music with a Bachelor in Contemporary Music Performance in saxophone. He is an active as a musician and composer.

Karlen’s mentorship with Mike Nock will help develop and refine his skills and artistic concepts as a composer, arranger and performer. Karlen will also create a body of new work for performance under the guidance of Nock.

Participant: Nerida Matthaei

Nerida Matthaei has a Bachelor of Creative Industries (Dance) and completed an Honours degree in 2006 with distinction at the Queensland University of Technology.

Matthaei has worked as an educator, performer, choreographer, tour manager, rehearsal director and arts marketer in Australia and internationally. She co-founded the award winning Phluxus Dance Collective and their first work, the machine that carries the soul, won the Critics Choice Award for Best Choreography at the 2007 Short Sweet and Dance Festival.

This JUMP mentorship project is to develop a new choreographic work for presentation within Ausdance Queensland's Bell Tower II Program.

Participant: Natalie Masters

Natalie Masters was born in Nambour, Queensland in 1982. In 2003 she graduated from the Queenland College of Art, Griffith University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, and in 2005 she completed a duel degree with a Bachelor of Education (Secondary).

Masters’ JUMP mentorship will be used to produce a new body of work for exhibition – a showcase in her first solo exhibition.