What's on in the Canberra art scene, July 22, 2017

We're loving the tiny waratahs and gumnuts and banksias. But there's a better story too. Gay has dedicated the exhibition of botanical sterling silver jewellery to the late, great Robert Foster, "my dear friend and inspiration". It's been a year since the death of the artist and designer.

"Robert and I shared a great love of nature and he was a true natural scientist who had a extraordinary curiosity and passion for the wonders of the natural world," says Gay.

"His loss has forced me to stop, slow down and take in the minutiae of exquisite beauty in the world around us. I've become completely immersed in the cycles of plants and capturing in time the various stages of fertility and reproduction."

The exhibition runs until August 12, X Gallery, 32 Gibraltar St, Bungendore.

Congratulations to Anita Collins and the The Goulburn Conservatorium who have been nominated as a finalist in the category of Award for Excellence in Music Education at the 2017 ART Music Awards for The Goulburn Concerto.

Held at Llewellyn Hall in April 2016, The Goulburn Concerto was a groundbreaking new work that brought together young disadvantaged musicians and professional orchestral performers.

Students from Goulburn Public School played alongside professional musicians from the Canberra Symphony Orchestra, for most of the students it was their first time in a concert hall.

Ms Collins, who led the project, is an assistant professor of music and arts education at the University of Canberra.

The concerto was composed by world renowned Australian composer Sean O'Boyle and was a collaboration between the University of Canberra, Goulburn Regional Conservatorium and Goulburn Public School.

Winners of the awards will be announced on August 22. The ART Awards are held by APRA AMCOS who represent songwriters, composers and music publishers in the management of licensing rights.

Congratulations too to local artist Jennifer Baird who recently won a highly commended in the Waverley Art Prize for her hand-coloured lino print, George Baldessin meets Andy Warhol.

The image is of the George Baldessin Pear sculpture in the forecourt of the National Gallery of Australia. "A nod to the classic 60s and 70s art and architecture that encapsulate the NGA," says Baird. "And the colours were inspired by Andy Warhol's Mariliyn Monroe screen prints."

Up against 40 finalists, the judges, Archibald winner Wendy Sharp and gallery director William Sturrock, were impressed by Baird's funky little print. And we like it too.

We also like Brenden Scott French's vase Tectonic shift 1 - Roll up, imagining what kind of statement native blooms we might put in it.

Scott French has earned a reputation as one of Australia's most innovative and thought-provoking glass artists and human behaviour, character and narrative are the foundations of exploration his work.

Careful consideration of medium and technique is characteristic of his work, with a lively interplay between formal technical elements and gestural, expressive painterly surfaces. As opposed to its luminescent qualities, it was the strong hues, opacity and density of colour that attracted him to the medium of glass and he enjoys working with its immediate and spontaneous nature.

HIs studio glass is on exhibition at Beaver Galleries until August 6, along with Graham Fransella's paintings and works on paper.

"Touch" is the focus of the annual M16 Artspace Studio Artists' 2017 exhibition, Material World. Artists consider touch - through their choice of materials and how they use them - to convey meaning in unique ways. Touch is a term that implies both physical and emotional experience: to be touched, inspired and/or appeal to the sense of touch through subject, object, medium and method implying touch of the maker's hand.

The exhibition will be opened on July 27 at 6pm by Gordon Ramsay, Minister for the Arts and Community Events, and there'll be a curator's floor talk by Dr Suzanne Moss on Saturday 29 July at noon.

Artists involved include Carmel McCrow, Val Gee, Angela Bakker, Sarah Murphy, Marje Seymour, Tony Curran, Jacob Potter, Bronwyn Davies, Jane Dunn, Phil Page, Fiona Little, Jodie Cunningham, Robin Setchell, Megan Jackson, Katy Mutton, Johanna Butler, Sanne Koelemij, Kate Murphy, Leanne Crisp, Di Broomhall, Derek O'Connor, Nicola Dickson, Rose Montebello, Ella Whateley, Meelan Oh, Kerry Shepherdson, Katherine Campbell, Andrea McCuaig, Elizabeth Faul and Suzanne Moss.

And while you're at M16 check out the exhibition in Chutespace. Let Go, by Caren Florance is a meditation on grieving, using a poem by Rosemary Dobson that speaks of quelling the "dark disorder" of losing friends by stilling the mind and hand through order and "attentive delving" into small rituals, like "putting sides to middles". Every time this work is visible, it takes on a new aspect, just like grief. A big message in a little space.

Escape the cold and warm yourself at Ainslie + Gorman's winter art party Canberra Obscura: Metropolis. There'll be music from Moaning Lisa and DJ Coolio Desgracias among others, and food from Mr Papa and Canberra Magic Kitchen, and beer from Pact Beer Co.

It's an all ages event at the Ainslie Arts Centre, and they promise a night "of enthralling performance and emphatic beats, experimentation and the unexpected".

Bookings at agac.com.au