Intimate in Manuka
Local artists Hayley Lander and Kael Stasce are getting intimate via experimental art in a new exhibition at CCAS in Manuka. The show, featuring sculpture and painting installations, focuses on “the act of creation and deconstruction” using two different approaches. “While working to a common theme, both have unique approaches in their practice: Stasce’s constructions deal with the experience of the machine whilst Lander portrays her interactions with sites of anthropogenic change in Canberra”. Intimate Obsessions, by Kael Stasce and Hayley Lander, is showing at Canberra Contemporary Art Space, 19 Furneaux Street, Manuka, until June 22.

Canberra’s own design fest
Do you know a designer, gallery, artist, entrepreneur, curator or anyone linked at all to the creative sector? Tell them to head over to craftact.org.au to express interest in DESIGN Canberra, a four-day design festival in November. Celebrating Canberra’s thriving design community, the event, from November 10-23, will involve lectures, launches, workshops, exhibitions and a high-end market. Design Canberra is calling on entrepreneurs, galleries, organisations, businesses, cultural institutions, educators, curators, students, artists and designers to be part of the festival and “change the way people think about design, innovation and creativity”. Expressions of Interest are open until July 11 for practitioners, groups and organisations wanting to get involved. For more information, visit craftact.org.au.

Travelling scholarship
Ah, that time-honoured occupation of jobbing artists the world over – applying for grants. And here’s another: applications are now open for the 2014 Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship for Emerging Artists, offered by the National Association for the Visual Arts. The 14-year-old scholarship is designed to help young people building a career in the visual arts, broadly in the areas of painting, photography or sculpture, and gives five talented young artists $5000 each to travel overseas (preferably for the first time) for formal study. Applications close on June 23. Visit visualarts.net.au/grants for more information.

Claybodies at Strathnairn
The Claybodies show at Strathnairn was such a hit in February that it’s back, with an exhibition by local ceramic artists, showcasing “a diversity of materials and techniques, from majolica and terra cotta to fine and delicate work highlighting the translucency of porcelain”. The Claybodies network was formed last year with just six members. It has since grown to 25 members, who meet regularly each month. Exhibiting this month are Melinda Brower, Pam Crossley, Liz Crowe, Linda Davy, Erin Kocaj, Monika Leone, Anne Masters and Jo Victoria. There’ll also be the opportunity to meet and speak with the eight artists as part of a Meet the Makers program from June 15 to 29. The artists will be available at the gallery on Saturdays and Sundays to discuss the works in the exhibition and the processes involved. Claybodies@Strathnairn is showing at Strathnairn Arts, 90 Stockdill Drive, Holt, until June 29.

Stories at the Museum
If you’re one of those diehard Doug Anthony All Stars fans – or even just a Tim Ferguson fan – there’s a chance to hear him speak next weekend as part of a new speaker series at the National Museum, Where Our Stories Live. The series will give the chance for people to hear well-known Australians tell their life story through a collection of personal objects. Ferguson is the first guest in the series, and will be in conversation next Saturday, June 21, at 7pm. Tickets $20/$18/$16. And we have two double passes to give away! For the chance to win, email arts.editor@canberratimes.com.au with “Tim Ferguson” in the subject line.

Masterclass with an artist
If you’re looking to develop and refine your watercolour technique, and if you yearn to create an animal portrait of your own, consider booking into the masterclass being run at the Goulburn Regional Art Gallery with regional artist Cherry Hood on July 5. She is renowned for her watercolour portraits, and her work has leaned more towards land and lifestyle since she moved to the Southern Highlands. The class is on Saturday, July 5, noon-4pm, and costs $50 per person. For bookings, call 4823 4494 or email artgallery@goulburn.nsw.edu.au Places are limited and are secured by payment.

Watercolours in the school house
The Ginninderra School House Gallery is showing landscapes and still life by Canberra artists Camelia Smith and Isla Patterson, throughout June in the old classroom. Smith’s work focuses on the beauty of colour in everyday objects, fruit and flowers, while Patterson prefers landscapes, water scenes and bird life. Works by Camelia Smith and Isla Patterson are showing until June 30 at Ginninderra School House Gallery, Old Ginninderra Village, Gold Creek, Nichols (entry via Sweet Copper Café).

End of an era with Soursob Bob
Singer and songwriter Soursob Bob will be helping close a chapter in the Queanbeyan art scene this weekend with one of the last shows at the Artists Shed. He’ll be bringing his “fringe brilliance”, with “anthems of Australia inspired by travelling through ranges and out into deserts, suburban ballads and disturbed personal insights, possibly cathartic and humorous”. The supporting act is Queanbeyan singer Juliet Ward, from the 80s band the Lighthouse Keepers. The shed will be closing its doors for good after this weekend (with plans for new premises around the corner from September), with extended Sunday Sessions with Shed regulars from 2pm onwards. Tickets are $15/$12. Bookings: music@artistsshed.com