Writers Festival
Getting my girl squad together now for A Girls' Night In: Live and Dangerous at the Canberra Writers Festival. Featuring Maggie Alderson, Kathy Lette, Jane Caro and Jamila Rizvi, hear women who love being women, aren't afraid to say what's on their minds, make their point poignantly and with poise, and share with grace and good humour the awkward situations that got them to where they are today. Sunday August 27, at 7pm.
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The event is just one of the special events announced this week for the festival, which runs from August 25-27 at various locations.
And getting the food squad, which really is same girl squad, together for the opening night dinner with chef and author and old Canberra boy Matthew Evans.
The festival promises great things this year. Featured authors include Maggie Alderson, Richard Fidler, Julia Baird, Nikki Gemmell, Robyn Williams, Jack Heath, Graeme Simsion, Dr Nicola Gates, James Phelan, Gabrielle Williams, Allan Gyngell, Cameron and Samantha Bloom, Jeff Maynard, Gary Ramage and Anne Buist, with more to come.
Another special event is a talk with award-winning science journalist and author Dava Sobel, in conversation with the ANU's Professor Brian Schmidt, as she tells the amazing tale of women who mapped the universe well before man landed on the moon.
For more information head to canberrawritersfestival.com.au
Winter warmers
The Scandinavian Film Festival will feel right at home in the winter chill of Canberra. Screening from July 18 to August 2 at Palace, the festival opens with The Other Side of Hope, a joyous internationally-acclaimed new film which drolly reflects the modern day experience of one immigrant in Finland. Wikström is a man wanting to change his life, and decides to invest in an unprofitable restaurant. Meanwhile, a Syrian refugee named Khaled arrives in Helsinki, desperate to seek asylum. After his application is rejected, Khaled decides to remain illegally and seeks refuge behind Wikström's business, sleeping in the storage space. When eventually discovered, an unlikely friendship is formed, one that will change both of their lives irrevocably. Other highlights of the festival include The King's Choice, Heartstone, In The Blood and Handle with Care. Book early, many sessions are already filling fast.
International connections
Artists working from Canberra Glassworks have long held a strong connection with Japanese glass artists, bolstered in recent years by the Asialink Reciprocal Residency - where an artist from the Glassworks and an artist from Toyama Glass Studio have in turn spent six weeks working from each other's studio.
On Wednesday July 19 from 5pm, Canberra Glassworks and the Embassy of Japan in Australia are presenting the Japanese Australian Glass Forum, facilitated by renowned artist Scott Chaseling, to celebrate the existing bond and to encourage future collaboration and exchange between the two cultures.
The night will also feature the exhibition opening of Ayano Yoshizumi, currently in residence as part of the Asialink Reciprocal Residency program, exhibiting work created during her residency - exploring the influence of Australian culture on her conceptual art work.
Sake and sushi will be served. More information at canberraglassworks.com
Woven with heart
InterLaced is the result of 12 months spent behind a loom. Belinda Rosee says she forced herself to step out of her comfort zone, and to explore the infinite possibilities that exist within the magical world of yarn interlacement.
From the dyeing of the fibre, creating original drafts, sampling and the completion of each piece, the journey has been a surprising one. The main lesson the artist has taken away is there will always be joy woven into the heart through this practice. Opening Saturday July 15 at 4pm, the exhibition runs to August 6 at Strathnairn homestead galleries.
Changes
Gather a painter, a musician, an illustrator, a glass artist and a poet together and what do you get? A ceramics exhibition of course. Georgina Bryant, Robyn Campbell, Anne Langridge, Lesley Lebowicz and Steve Roper have collaborated for the exhibition Changes. So how does a poet make a pot? How does a musician? What happens when a painter or an illustrator steps outside the frame on the wall or the page of a book? What difference does a change in material make to the work? These questions are the implicit theme of Changes. To be opened by former Canberra gallery owner and curator Helen Maxwell at 2.30pm on Saturday July 15. There will also be an artist gallery talk at 6pm on Friday July 28. Changes runs until July 30, open 10am-4pm, Thursday to Sunday, at Watson Arts Centre, Aspinall St, Watson.
Date with the stars
Come along to the Sunday afternoon performance of Constellations and enjoy the extra bonus of an onstage conversation with The Street's artistic director Caroline Stacey and Joe Hope, ANU Professor of quantum theory and physics.
In Constellations, every moment Roland and Marianne share is at the mercy of the infinite and unknowable universe. A beekeeper and a quantum physicist – the odds of them getting together are astronomical. But when their worlds collide, they keep on colliding, and colliding, leading to a romantic journey that was inspired by one of the most profound theories of physics: the idea that we live in a bundle of universes where all possibilities exist. Book your show ticket and RSVP to be a part of a conversation about the multiverse, what we know and what we don't know and how it captivated playwright Nick Payne's imagination. Sunday July 23, 3pm. Show starts at 4pm.
