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WAL CHERRY AWARD
Melbourne-based writer, Paul Galloway, has won the Wal Cherry Award for 2007, for his evocative play 'Realism'.
The play is set in the summer of 1939 in a small Moscow theatre where a company is rehearsing a new play commemorating Stalin's 60th birthday. Set at a time of deep spiritual exhaustion just after the Great Terror, 'Realism' is described as a comedy of nerves, a backstage farce set in a pressure cooker.
Paul Galloway has previously worked as a copywriter, journalist, publicist, dramaturge and a playwright. His previous works includes: 'Great Leaders of the Twentieth Century', which won Queensland Theatre Company/Courier-Mail George Landan Dann Award in 2001, and 'Low Sunday' which is about the anti-Nazi theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
The Wal Cherry Award honours the achievements of the acclaimed director, educator and theatre administrator, Wal Cherry, who died in 1986. The winner receiving $5,000 and the Victorian Arts Centre will host a free rehearsed reading of 'Realism', on Sunday 31 August at 2pm in the Fairfax Studio.
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CHASS CALLS FOR A NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR DESIGN AND CREATIVE PRACTICE
The Council for the Humanities Arts and Social Sciences has called for the creation of a National Council for Design and Creative Practice.
A new report, issued by the Council, argues that the quality of Australian innovation can be enhanced by bringing design into the mainstream of policy and industry thinking. The proposed body would enable industry, research and government to work together to contribute to innovation policy.
Professor Stuart Cunningham, president of the Council, said that internationally there is a growing convergence of technology, engineering and the applied arts.
"This includes the design of a major airport or the Sydney rail network," Professor Cunningham said. "Design determines how well banks interact with their customers, and how we organise the spaces we live in."
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PICASSO EXHIBITION A HIT IN QLD...
In Queensland, the exhibition 'Picasso & his collection', has welcomed the 50,000th visitor to the show, less than a month after the exhibition opened at the Gallery of Modern Art, part of the Queensland Art Gallery.
'Picasso & his collection' follows the success of the Andy Warhol exhibition that attracted more than 230,000 visitors over its four-month season from December 2007 to March 2008.
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... AND GAME EXHIBITION A HIT AT ACMI
In Melbourne the Australian Centre for the Moving Image is also experiencing record attendances for its exhibition, 'Game On'.
'Game On' is the first and largest exhibition dedicated to the past, present and future of videogames, the world's fastest-growing form of popular entertainment.
'Game On' follows the popularity of 'Pixar: 20 Years of Animation' that was the first exhibition at the Centre to pass the 100,000-visitor barrier, reaching a total audience of 165,000 during its 2007 season.
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AUSTRALIAN FESTIVAL OF CHAMBER MUSIC
Up in Townsville, the Australian Chamber Music Festival, under the guiding baton of Artistic Director, Piers Lane, has enjoyed a bumper season.
Total ticket sales are reported to be up by at least 10% on last year.
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VIVID, THE NATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL
A national celebration of photography was launched at the National Museum of Australia, in Canberra, on Friday 11 July by Michael Bowers, pictorial editor of the Sydney Morning Herald.
The inaugural Vivid: National Photography Festival includes 100 exhibitions at 50 venues across Canberra.
The festival celebrates the role of photography in Australian life and history and showcases a rich variety of historic, commercial, student and community photography.
And the National Museum of Australia will present two photographic exhibitions: 'A Different Time: the Expedition Photographs of Herbert Basedow 1903-1928' and 'Selling an American Dream: Australia's Greek Cafe'.
In addition to the exhibitions, the festival features conferences, projections onto landmark buildings, as well as events for photographers and photographic historians. The Festival closes on 12 October.
For more information about Vivid go to www.nla.gov.au/vivid.
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SINGAPORE BIENNALE
Details of works in the Singapore Biennale 2008 have been announced.
The show will feature a Containart Pavilion, an architectural creation by Japanese artist Ban, constructed using 150 twenty-foot long shipping containers, along with 34 ten-metre recyclable paper tubes. This spacious structure will house three of the Biennale's largest indoor installations.
Works by Australian artist Gary Carsley will also be featured in the form of functional tables and chairs within the pavilion that come completely cladded with floral-themed scenery prints photographed in Singapore's parks and gardens.
The Containart Pavilion will also act as one of the information centres for the exhibition. It revisits Ban's previous contribution to the Singapore Biennale 2006, where he designed the media centre made from recycled paper tubes.
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