Amongst this year’s works are a hands-on drawing machine made from a bicycle fork and bamboo, giant images of the male nude hung on silk, and a series of stunning photographic portraits of elderly women with their extraordinary life stories captured on a mobile phone mounted next to them that people can listen to.

The exhibition features art works from each of SOA&D;’s disciplines including ceramics, furniture, glass, gold and silversmithing, painting, photography, animation and video printmedia and drawing, sculpture and textiles and art history and art theory.

Head of School, Professor Denise Ferris, said much of the art and design work “is socially engaged and draws awareness to social issues and the stories of others including intergenerational stories and our shared narratives with Indigenous people.

“They include stories of ageing, the politics of race, identity, the body and domestic labour, expressed in material form. The exhibition, as always, exudes a sense of real materials as well as the technology of the moving image.”

You’ll have to get over there quicksmart, the exhibition ends December 2.

Coda for Shirley is the final verse play in Geoff Page’s sardonic and amusing trilogy about the autumnal romantic connection between Lawrie and Shirley.

First with Lawrie and Shirley, then Cara Carissima and now Coda for Shirley, where we catch up with Shirley reminiscing on her life, contemplating her will, and reflecting on what led to the decisions within.

While there are elements of avarice, resentment, loss and laughter, Coda for Shirley is above all a romantic comedy, written in Geoff Page’s seemingly effortless rhyming verse.

Directed by Kate Blackhurst (Jane in The Acting Company and Shadowhouse Pits’ 2016 production of Cara Carissima), the play features Micki Beckett as Shirley, Nikki-Lyn Hunter as Sarah, Elaine Noon as Jane and Alex McPherson as Jen. Set design is by Ronan Moss, lighting by Ben Pik and sound by Neville Pye.

Coda for Shirley will premiere at the Courtyard Studio at the Canberra Theatre Centre on Tuesday, December 4, until Saturday, December 8, at 7.30pm with a 2pm matinee on Saturday, December 8.

Single tickets range from $20-$35 and are on sale via 02 6275 2700 or canberratheatrecentre.com.au

Quite a few organisations are packing up for Christmas with plenty of end-of-year concerts taking place over the next few weeks.

The Canberra Youth Orchestra finishes off its 2018 concert series with Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade and Britten's Violin Concerto featuring violinist Dale Barltrop. Barltrop is concertmaster of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and first violinist of the Australian String Quartet. Saturday, December 8, 7.30pm, Llewellyn Hall. musicforcanberra.org.au

Canberra Community Chorale’s end of year concert features thought-provoking music on the theme of exile. They include starkly contrasting interpretations of Psalm 137 (By the rivers of Babylon) by Heinrich Schutz and Arvo Part and Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s unexpectedly optimistic Hope there is, which explores the indigenous experience of feeling like foreigners in your own land. December 2, 2pm, North Belconnen Uniting Church, Melba. Trybooking.com

And the Brindabella Orchestra will christen its new permanent home, the Weston Creek Community Hub Neighbourhood Hall, with a listenable program of dance music ranging from exciting dance movements from Tchaikovsky and Borodin to the sad dreamy Ravel Pavane for a Dead Princess finishing off with a “popular music” piece, Danny Boy. Conductor is Peter Shaw. December 9, 2pm. Tickets $5 on the day.