There's a hive of creative activity happening in the centre of town, and most people don't even know about it. In the concealed passageways, tucked-away studios, darkened theatres and hidden courtyards of Gorman House and the Ainslie Arts Centre, musicians, writers, embroiderers, singers, violin-makers, glass-blowers and photographers are busy with their craft.
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All this will be on show at the weekend, as the centres open their doors for the yearly Bloom Festival.
And the whole thing is being presided over this year by the sad, wise eyes of the Skywhale, which will be hovering over the oval at Ainslie Primary from 7am on Saturday.
Gorman House has even commissioned a special Skywhale pastry for the event - a savoury concoction filled with kangaroo meat, although the chef is still working on perfecting the creature's Mona Lisa smile.
The three-year-old Bloom Festival began as an open day at Ainslie Arts Centre, a music-focused event designed to showcase the centre's offerings. But with both centres now run by Gorman House, the time has come to turn the heritage buildings inside out.
Program and marketing manager Yolande Norris said the festival, which opens on Friday night with Mint Bar's spring launch, a sit-down dinner put on by Sage restaurant in the Fireplace Room and a special edition of the variety show In Canberra Tonight, would give the centres' tenants a chance to show off what they do.
''It's kind of a taster of all the activities that happen at Gorman House and Ainslie Arts Centre, in the space of two days,'' she said.
As well as open studios, performances and workshops, there will also be a zine fair, literary readings, artist talks, and an extended version of the regular Saturday markets at Gorman House.
Gorman House director Joseph Falsone said that amid all the upheavals in the centre over the past year, with a new management team and precinct master plan, there was a positive side in events such as the Bloom festival. He said the management team were in the process of reassessing how the building was presented to the public, with plans for a more open approach that demonstrated the building's possibilities while still allowing the tenants their artistic freedom.
''There's a whole level of audience engagement that individually the audiences can't access,'' he said.
Ms Norris also curated the cross-arts You Are Here festival in March, and said many arts organisations were too stretched, financially and in terms of time, to feel confident in showcasing their work.
''You Are Here was about asking what is already happening in Canberra that we can put under one banner … and Bloom is about saying is what is already happening or should be happening at Gorman House that we can put under one weekend banner,'' she said. ''We're not reinventing what these organisations do - this is stuff they do already. We're just helping them make it a bit special and concentrate it all over one weekend, so there's plenty to look at and plenty to do. We're getting to that pointy end of the year where there's just stacks on.''
Bloom 2013 runs at Gorman House Arts Centre and Ainslie Arts Centre over September 20-21. Events are free.
