New Artistic Director Barry Keldoulis unveils his inaugural season leading the annual festival of visual arts.

Art Month Sydney has just announced its 2016 programme, continuing the annual exploration into the vibrant creative and cultural industries of the NSW capital. This year a specially curated feature exhibition titled Green Eyed Monster Eating its Own Tail will also be presented, along with new openings to previously unseen corporate art collections. 2016 is the first Art Month to be curated by new Artistic Director Barry Keldoulis and the celebration of Sydney’s art scene will light up Sydney’s creative hubs and historic hotspots with a busy lineup of tours and talks alongside the popular Collectors’ Space and Art At Night events.

“It’s often said that artists aren’t artists because they want to be, but because they have to be,” says Keldoulis. “If it’s the artists’ creative juices that are the fuel, what are the pistons that fire, the drive shafts that crank, and the wheels that turn to get this engine of creativity moving?” Keldoulis will address these questions in a series of workshops curated as part of the seventh Art Month Sydney, held from 1-20 March this year. 


The Engine of Creativity

The Engine of Creativity explores Sydney’s expanding artistic culture by discussing what elements make the city such a thriving eco-system for creative development. Speakers Barbara Flynn (City of Sydney Public art consultant), Glenn Barkley (curator and artist), Jess Cook (Managing Director of 107 Projects) and artist Lindy Lee will discuss the city’s driving artistic energies in a panel moderated by Executive Manager of the Creative City of Sydney, Alex Bowen, on Thursday, March 3 at Creative Space 99.


Starting A Collection 101

Starting A Collection 101 is a free event at on Saturday 5 March featuring artistic leaders discussing the process of purchasing art. Speakers include CEO of Art Fairs Australian and Art Month 2016 Artistic Director Barry Keldoulis, and Chief Executive at Screen NSW Courtney Gibson, among others. For those asking Can you Collect Performance Art, art critic Andrew Frost will moderate a discussion on the process involved with commissioning, reimagining and representing performance pieces on Wednesday, March 9 at The Bearded Tit in Redfern.

Another popular type of emerging art is that of creative food, with entire menus inspired by artistic ideas or designs. THE FLORAL GIFT is a one-night dinner on March 11 at MOP Projects, hosted by artists Anna McMahon and Sarah Ryan in collaboration with bloodwood restaurant chef Claire van Vuuren, presenting a colourful menu based entirely upon flowers. A free panel discussion held on Tuesday, March 8 titled Disrupting Tradition will examine and analyse the return of traditional art in a modern context, with AGNSW curator Suhanya Raffel moderating a discussion between artist and curators Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, Liam Benson and Toby Chapman at Gallery 9 in Darlinghurst.


William Street Creative Live Work Spaces

Art Month Sydney also offers the chance to see inside the creative process with The City of Sydney’s William Street Creative Live Work Spaces. Six apartments that professional creative artists call home for a 12-month residency are opened to the public, and the artists will be there to talk about their works in progress on Thursday, March 3. On the weekend of Saturday and Sunday, March 5-6, fifty-three studios, galleries and artist-run initiatives based in Marrickville will open their doors to the public as part of M.O.S.T (Marrickville Open Studio Trail). There’ll be opportunities to see the artists at work, talk with them about their creative practice, buy art, and join in talks, workshops and tours.


What the Kids Think

What the Kids Think captures what it’s like to grow up surrounded by art, with a panel comprising children of prominent art figures. Celia Bradshaw, Evan Hughes, Anna Shapiro and Maddie Love will talk about the influence of such an artistic upbringing in shaping their views of the world. The secret address is yet to be announced on the Art Monthly website, but the event will be held on Saturday, March 12.

Curator and artist Glenn Barkley will host a panel talk on Sunday, March 6 at the Kil.n.it Experimental Ceramics Studio to explore how someone becomes an artist. Following the discussion, the studio will be open for a tour, featuring the resident artists who are currently planning their own careers.


Newtown Graffiti Tour with Culture Scouts

Art Month Sydney actively connects the city with its art by curating walking tours to explore undiscovered gems of location art, and for the first time they’ll be showcasing the private holdings of corporate collections in The BresicWhitney collection tours in Darlinghurst and Balmain Newtown Graffiti Tour with Culture Scouts, on Saturday, March 12, and Curated Bus Tours are on offer to explore the diverse and rapidly expanding artistic centres outside of Sydney. These include a tour of the north with Barry Keldoulis on Saturday 12 March from 1pm-7pm, an exploration of the inner west and Parramatta on Saturday 5 March, and a wander through Sydney’s artistically-booming eastern suburbs on Saturday 12 March at 10.30am.

Artists Jenny Green and Rebecca Pierce will present the city through their eyes with an exhibition tour and talk at Traffic Jam Galleries on Saturday, March 12. Sebastian Goldspink will lead a walking tour of Kings Cross from 4.30pm-6.30pm on Friday 18 March, and artist Joan Ross will meander through Sydney’s city on Saturday 19 March, 2pm-5pm.

Artcycle explores different artistic hubs during the day and night from 3-20 March – by bike. Artists Salote Tawale and Diego Bonetto will lead the way, stopping to talk with gallery curators and artists along the way in a variety of Sydney’s vibrant art neighbourhoods. 

 


Sculpture Walk – Circular Quay and Botanic Gardens

Sculpture Walk – Circular Quay and Botanic Gardens explores a selection of works curated in response to the city’s unique characteristics and natural artistic beauty. The guided walk is part of a larger series of City Art Tours exploring the art collections in neighbourhoods such as Chinatown and Redfern.

Green Eyed Monster Eating its Own Tail will showcase artists that make art about art and the world of art. Tracey Moffatt, Tom Polo, Heath Franco, Grant Stevens, Elvis Richardson, Gordon Bennet (John Citizen) and PJ Hickman will explore the creatively circular concept with works in the exhibition.  

For all details and the full Art Month Sydney 2016 program, please visit the website here

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