Canberra arts & the National Gallery

9th September, 2009.

Off to Canberra with host Lorna Crane. It was a beautiful sunny day and the drive picturesque.

First stop was a morning cuppa with Artists Wendy Teakel at ANU, who recently held a workshop with the art group. We were privelidged to get a glimse of the sculpture students at work which was awesome as these young minds are really working out of the box.

The whole day following was indeed inspiring. We met with Artist Maryann Mussared & Micheal Winters at Strathnairn Homestead Gallery and Arts Association. This arts precint is situated in the outskirts of Canberra amoungst rolling green pastures. The community of "huts" are artists run spaces with a large gallery on site. A fantastic concept with a multitude of possibilities for the Artists amongst grounds with sculpture and landscape to inspire.

Then like a kid in a lolly shop I entered one of the best art shops ever. Much to Lornas dissapointment she had 2 trips to the parking meter.

The next arts spaces I visited were Ancor, a Studio gallery Co-op and Megalo Access Arts.

Megalo was particularly interesting as it was a facility that allowed artists to hire out large arts equipment. We were given a great tour and I was particularly intriqued with an exhibition useing books.

Ancor is a similar, but smaller than Strathnairn, city based studio space combination gallery. This space allowed students / artists to work in a private space of their own, also not necessarily live there with options for exhibition space.

After a meeting with the friendly staff of Belconen Arts Centre and a great sites tour of wonderful Canberra we were exhausted. Canberra was much more than I had expected.

There is a lot to learn from these thriving arts spaces and there also seem to a thriving cafe / arts culture evolving in Canberra. There are cafes such as Tillys who have arts entertainment like poets, singers and just to add to the flavour nearby there is a artists coffee lounge, decked with sofas(not tables), an exhibtion in an additional room and artists all conversing about arts, writing, painting, books.

Broken Hill eat your heart out.

Tomorrow, I could not leave Canberra without a visit to the National gallery.

But for now sleep, sleep boy I needed sleep.

Watch for more news soon.

Cheers

Dee