What's on in the Canberra arts scene, September 23, 2017

artsACT has unveiled a series of stunning sculptures, showcasing local and national talent. See Floriade upside down and in reverse through the amazing Horizon, or catch a ride on a camouflaged boat.

There are numerous workshops on flower design, from a Moxom + Whitney terrarium lesson, to a floral frames workshop with the CIT School of Floristry. There are also photography workshops to help you get the best out of your snaps. Lady Larissa is running a series of workshops, including one on styling flowers and food which should be popular.

Keep an eye out too for the stunning art works from Sydney artist Jenny Fusca which are on display in the Vista Cafe. Fusca won her first art competition at the age of six and at 15 was offered an art scholarship but life took her instead into a successful career in the corporate world. Studying art over the years meant she stayed in touch with her creativity, but she didn't seriously consider switching careers until an accident with a glass bowl resulted in microsurgery on her hands.

She remembers looking down at the deep cuts on her hands and thinking "What if I can never paint again?" It was a startling realisation that set her on her new path of becoming a full time artist.

She's exhibiting the Fiori collection at Floriade, inspired by the classic beauty of Italian gardens. Opulent, abundant and layered they encourage you to linger, transporting you to another place of velvet petals, heady fragrance and warm sunshine.

Floriade runs until October 15, 2017.

Canberra Glassworks is pleased to announce 2017 Art Group Creative Fellow, Harriet Schwarzrock, has been successful in an application for a project grant from the Australia Council for the Arts. Schwarzrock's application sought funding to assist in the making of an interactive installation of more than "60 exquisitely blown, neon-filled glass hearts", which is proposed for presentation as a satellite exhibition in the Smokestack Gallery during Canberra's Enlighten Festival in March, 2018.

"Exploring notions of interconnectivity and embodied electrical impulses," says Schwarzrock, "the individual forms will be sculpted and subsequently filled with neon gas. Each object will be responsive to human touch, enriching a darkened space, internally illuminated."

Schwarzrock says the project will expand her technical expertise both in the hot glass studio and with neon tube bending.

We can't wait to see the finished result.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Ivan Southall's books for young adults – including Ash Road (1965), To the Wild Sky (1967) and Josh (1971) – sold in the hundreds of thousands. National Library of Australia Fellow in Australian Literature Dr Gabrielle Carey explores the hundreds of letters sent to Southall from his devoted readers and attempts to understand this unique reader-writer relationship. September 26, 5.15 or 5.30. Free but bookings essential.

Following 2017 seasons at Edinburgh Fringe, George Town, Art, Not Apart, and Adelaide Fringe Festivals, contemporary classical duo and new Ainslie Arts Centre resident Tess Said So reimagines their own award-winning score and provide a rare opportunity to see Nosferatu, one of the most iconic and influential silent movies of the 1920s, as it was originally intended – with live music.

For one night only at Ainslie Arts Centre, Tess Said So presents their highly original score in a brand new setting, rewritten and arranged to showcase the stunning voice of mezzo-soprano AJ America. Together, Tess Said So with AJ America will perform Schallen, a live remixed soundtrack to the film's eerie, gothic visuals, providing atmosphere and vital emotional cues – the sound and aura of Nosferatu – in a modern interpretation mixing voice, piano, electronics, and a massive labyrinth of drums, shakers, bells, cymbals, gongs and percussion. October 7, 8-9.30pm, Ainslie Main Hall, Ainslie Arts Centre, Elouera Street, Braddon. Tickets: $30 full, $20 concession, $15 children under 12.