BrisCulture

August is almost upon us and there are quite a few intriguing events coming up in the next couple of weeks that BrisCulture folks will be interested in. So welcome to the second edition of our online newsletter.

Events

As always, where I refer to an event that’s advertised on Facebook, please do the organisers the courtesy of rsvp-ing there should you wish to attend. You can follow the links in the post for event details.

Music – and art and festivals and film

One of the fruits of the Q150 celebrations has been the commissioning of some new classical music from some young Brisbane composers. St John’s Cathedral plays host on Sunday night to a performance by the TQO String Quartet and The Brisbane Chamber Choir of specially commissioned works for choir and string quartet by emerging local composers, Joseph Twist and Paul-Antoni Bonetti. Of significance also is the presence of Arvo Pärt’s Berliner Messe on the bill. This is the second time (I think!) one of Pärt’s compositions has been played in Brisbane this year – the first being in March at the Old Museum by Adam Cadell and friends. It’s great to see the boundaries of the classical repertoire in this town being stretched to include an (arguably) postmodern composer like Pärt in conjunction with the cultivation of an audience for original works by young Brisbane composers.

In that vein, next week at the Con, the SOUNDING OUT Composers’ Collective presents THE NEW CHAMBER CONCERT. On Thursday August 6 at 6pm – I’m looking forward very much to checking out “a fresh approach to chamber ensemble fusing electronic and acoustic sounds.”

And don’t forget the third KiLN Classics performance at Paddo’s KiLN gallery next Sunday evening – this time, the Brisbane Chamber Collective goes brassy! You can appreciate Jan Jorgensen’s exhibition and enjoy an artist talk along with nibblies, wine and fabulous music – what could be a better way to spend a Sunday evening?

While we’re on the subject of music, it shouldn’t have escaped anyone’s attention that we’re in the midst of the Queensland Music Festival. Programme details are available here. (And there’s extra festivally goodness, of course, from BIFF, which begins on Thursday.) But, wait there’s more; to follow up on what I was saying last time about the new Friday night Residents sessions at the Powerhouse organised under the banner of our friends at Brispop (among others), it’s well worth exploring the expanded music programme in the Turbine Room – lots of fab stuff, including some excellent jazz and some QUT bands!

Theatre

Another followup on last month’s newsletter: we were very chuffed to sponsor a fundraiser for two emerging indie theatre companies. One of the said companies – The Good Room – is presenting Holy Guacamole at Metro Arts from Tuesday:

In the depths of suburbia, lives Eustace – a half-boy/ half-avocado hybrid of human outcast and exotic fruit. It’s not easy being green when you live on the fringes of good taste and monstrous ‘normality’. In this black-green comic fairy tale, backyard magic and suburban angst collide with mouth-watering results.

Fashion design

Whether or not avocado green is currently a fashionable shade in the realm of streetwear I have no idea (and I’m sure many of us remember 1996 as the year of orange and green jeans… you had to be there, I think) but aspiring fashionistas might want to know about Follow the Fashion:

Aspiring fashion designers around the country are being given the career break of lifetime – the opportunity to win their own boutique in Brisbane’s Queen Street Mall rent free for six months, including utilities, shop fit out and marketing support. A budding designer’s dream prize!

Entering is easy – simply upload your creations to a virtual shopfront via www.followthefashion.com.au and get the public to vote for you. The deadline for designers to upload their wares is 5.00pm on Monday 3 August with the public vote closing on Friday 7 August. The competition is open nationally.

Over 30 designers have entered so far, with two weeks still to go. So get sewing!

Here’s a link to a video we shot when we launched the comp – we placed a clear, perspex cube in the middle of the mall fitted out like a designer’s studio and had a live fashion designer working away inside.

Cultural Policy (and Craft! and Disused spaces!)

Speaking of sewing, Marcus Westbury, one of the speakers at our Creative Brisbane event, penned a column for The Age last week about the confluence of digital culture and craft. I’d wholeheartedly agree that the DIY craft networks on the intertubes are an incredibly promising development in the fields of both creativity and small scale economies. Incidentally, over at West End, the lovely folk at Avid Reader are hosting their regular Little Market on Friday night, selling the handmade wares of all manner of local arty and crafty folk.

If you’re interested in a bit of a good spirited debate about cultural policy, you might also like to have a squizzy at one between me and Marcus (and a few others!) on a comments thread at Terry Flew’s blog. On the table is the thorny distinction between the Arts and Creative Industries, and some vigorous discussion about how we take the cultural policy agenda to the next stage. The 2009 summit by blog comment, perhaps…

Marcus’ Renew Newcastle project is well known for reinvigorating place through the utilisation of empty space. I’d like to draw attention to a similar, if necessarily more dispersed, initiative in inner Brissie – Independent Exhibitions:

IE exhibits new work by emerging Brisbane artists in vacant urban spaces in Fortitude Valley, the CBD and Brisbane’s inner suburbs. We offer funding and support to local artists and provide short term exhibition spaces in highly exposed urban areas.

You can join their Facebook group here.

It would be great to see similar initiatives in the burbs.

Visual Arts, roadtrips and Social Enterprise

And that leads me to an obvious segue – discussion about arts work and an exhibition of visual artists’ work in one place, which certainly isn’t inner city Brisneyland: at 19KAREN Contemporary Artspace at Mermaid Beach. Tales from the Cold Ghost III features “26 new emerging Qld artists and over 90 supadupa artworks + MORE”. Among their number is Brisbane’s own Ms Mandy Beaumont! There’s an opening on Saturday, should you be in the mood for a road trip, an afterparty after, and then there is a range of associated events and discussions co-produced by tinygold and Artworkers Alliance.

Back in town, if you’re wanting to start your weekend off in similar mode, Friday night sees the opening of Hearts of Gold II at Bleeding Heart Gallery in Ann Street. Bleeding Heart is a “profit with purpose” social enterprise, and in this case the profits from the exhibition’s opening night go to ADAWS (Adolescent Drug & Alcohol Withdrawal Service) at South Brisbane.

Social enterprise itself is getting a good talking about in Brisbane these days. I’ll be teaching this semester in Griffith Uni’s social enterprise programme (the new core of the Bachelor of Arts). I’m looking forward to that, and also to sharing some insights from my reading, related events and indeed class discussions.

So, happy BrisCulturating, one and all!