2024
27 December
Christmas Lights – Second Street, Ashbury
26 December
Madam Tussauds, Darling Harbour
Madame Tussauds Sydney is a journey through interactive zones, encountering over 100 lifelike Aussie icons and celebrities from around the globe.
Madame Marie Tussaud lived in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Her passion for wax modeling began in Strasbourg, France and her talents eventually led to fame when her family moved to Britain and opened a London exhibition.
Sea Life, Sydney Aquarium, Sydney Harbour – a unique marine aquatic environments with 4,000+ animals from over 300 different species – the world’s largest variety of Australian aquatic life. The aquarium features themed zones, including Jurassic Seas, Discovery Rockpool, Shark Walk, and the world’s largest Great Barrie Reef display. Along the way, visitors encounter animals unique to each habitat, including one of only four dugongs on display in the world, sharks, stingrays, penguins and tropical fish.
November
The Cooks River Alliance – Part exhibition, part pop-up office, ‘The River Shopfront’ opens the doors to the Cooks River catchment community to listen learn and discuss the revitalisation of the river.
Pull up a chair, grab a river-related book, make a cuppa and share some of your hopes for the river. A member of the CRA team will be in the ‘shop’ during designated hours during the exhibition. They may be joined by community members from a local group, to answer questions about what’s happening throughout the catchment.
10 November
Symphonia Jubilate is a symphony orchestra organisation made up of students predominantly from primary and secondary schools in the Strathfield education area. Founded in 2013 by Tracy Burjan and Luke Wallace, Symphonia Jubilate aims to provide students with an opportunity to rehearse, learn and perform quality orchestral music from a diverse range of musical styles, as well as to foster a new level of music appreciation and skill.
2 November
A unique garden – with exotics planted underneath and amongst the existing native eucalyptus trees and shrubs in over 18.3 hectares.
Blackheath Rhododendron Festival
19 October
Jazz in Megalong Valley – After a sold out tour across the USA, Andrew Blanch brings ‘Spanish Romance’ featuring Maria Eugenia Nieva to lot101 for an intimate world-class performance, taking you on a journey of Spanish guitar and soaring vocals in a breath taking Blue Mountains setting.
29 September
STRATHFIELD SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
- Smyth – The Wrecker’s Overture
- Marquez – Danzon No.2
- Mahler – Symphony 1 (Titan)
25 September
Maedeup, Korean knots refer to both the technique of interlacing threads and the resulting shape. They can be practical knots used to connect or tie things together or decorative knots used to decorate something beautifully such as accessories crafted to elevate the elegance of the wearer.
They can be seen in clothing, accessories, furniture, household items, religious ritual items and may have symbolic meanings.
4A CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ASIAN ART
ALAM عَلَم
14 September
David Jones Annual Spring Flower Show at their Sydney city department Store.
19 August
Exploring the Royal National Park, New South Wales, Australia, including Otford Lookout, National Falls, Wattamolla Beach and Bundeena.
2 August
THE CORNER GALLERY | ‘A Century of Summers’ by Ted Dwyer, a landscape & seascape painter, drawer and photographer.
29 July
Scenes from Gadigal and surrounds: Tahlia Henderson | Strathfield Library – Ironbark Gallery
The painted landscape compositions are a detailed record of the bushland explored within and surrounding suburban Sydney – Gadigal.
The unique layers of foliage, rock, colours, textures, and biodiversity of each place are forever changing – either seasonally or with the intensity of fires and floods that have increased with climate inaction.
These battered landscapes remain resilient for now and continue to provide and protect inhabitants away from suburbia.
27 July
OMEGA ENSEMBLE ALCHYMIA
PROGRAM:
THOMAS ADÈS Alchymia
Australian Premiere
MISSY MAZZOLI Dark with Excessive Bright
Jaan Pallandi, solo Double Bass
SAMUEL ADAMS Lighthouse
World Premiere commissioned by Omega Ensemble.
CHRISTOPHER CERRONE Nervous Systems
Presented in a new arrangement by the composer commissioned by Omega Ensemble.
6 July
STRATHFIELD SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Adams – Short Ride in a Fast Machine, a thrilling musical joyride embracing the pulse-quickening tempo that captures the essence of speed.
Copland – Appalachian Spring Suite, an exhilarating journey across the Western Plains capturing the rustic beauty and pioneering spirit synonymous with the American frontier.
Price – Symphony 3, feeling the rhythmic heartbeat of African American slave musical traditions on modern music bringing into the classical tradition.
5 July
THE CORNER GALLERY Geoff Hawkins Ceramics
4 July
MORE THAN A FISH KILL is a response to the recent mass fish deaths
Sydney Environment Institute in partnership with the National Museum of Australia screened this documentary that explores how artists, fishery managers, and First Nations custodians responded to the 2019 and 2023 fish death events along the Darling River.
WHITE RABBIT GALLERY Laozi’s Furnace
NANDA\HOBBS GALLERY Christopher Horder and Selma Coulthard
Christopher Horder soaks the canvas in thin washes of handmade watercolours and Indian ink. A method which allows the natural elements—the sun, time of day, humidity, precipitation, and temperature—to influence the drying process. Their innate properties materialise and become a unique record of the environment in which they were created. Each painting continues to evolve organically as oils are added.
Selma Coulthard is an accomplished acrylic and watercolour painter. ‘Remembering the landscape and the way the colours change in different times of the day, sometime I see purple, orange and red. I have always created artwork based on my stories: my work on Mulga Spinifex Country, my country where I grew up and lived – Urrampinyi (Tempe Downs), the oasis in the Desert at Urrampinyi, running Waters at Irrmakara, spiritual keepers of our land, my Dreaming – the Thorny Devil, animals in my country, paintings depicting women’s ceremonial site (business) and more.’
29 June
Altstaedt Plays Haydn & Tchaikovsky
PROGRAM
JOSEPH HAYDN The Seven Last Words of Christ: I. Introduzione
GYÖRGY KURTÁG Of cium breve, in memoriam Andræ Szervánszky, Op.28: Selections
IV. Grave, molto sostenuto
XIV. Disperato, vivo
XV. Arioso interrotto
HAYDN The Seven Last Words of Christ: IX. Il terremoto
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op.33 (arr. Bernard Rofe)
SÁNDOR VERESS Four Transylvanian Dances
I. Lassú
II. Ugròs
III. Lejto�s
IV. Dobbantós
INTERVAL
IANNIS XENAKIS Aroura
HAYDN Cello Concerto in C major 24
I. Moderato
II. Adagio
III. Finale. Allegro molto
26 June
SAUDI FILM NIGHTS – The inaugural Saudi Film Nights were launched in Melbourne and Sydney by the Saudi Film Commission during the week and were aimed at fostering collaboration between the Australian and Saudi film industries.
The Saudi Film Industry is quite a small and all Arabian theatres were closed in the 80s due to religious activism and strict Saudi censorship with reportedly only one single theatre open between 1983 and 2018.
24 June
Exploring Audley in the the Royal National Park which was Australia’s first national park and a 10 minute drive from the Princes Highway and suburbia.
Located where Kangaroo Creek joins the Hacking River and Audley Weir causeway crosses the river as the main road through the park. The area features extensive picnic areas, boat hire facilities, bike and walking tracks.
The Audley Boasted, erected on the shores of the Hacking River in 1891 is still hiring out rowboats, paddleboat and kayaks today. On the opposite side stands the imposing Audley Dance Hall, established in 1948 as a social hall and kiosk and is now a Café and Royal National Park Information Centre.
Audley was surveyed by Lord George Edward Audley in 1863–64, where he set up camp developing into a small village of amusements, surrounded by ‘pleasure gardens’. It was popular with holiday-makers and honeymooners who could stay at the Allambie House guesthouse.
19 June
‘Kindred’ MEET THE DIRECTOR Gillian Moody and Adrian Russell Willis
30 May
CENTRAL TO DARLING HARBOUR via THE GOOD LINE night walk and vivid.
24 May
NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM of AUSTRALIA
Ocean Photographer of the Year and facebook post
18 May
THE LARK ASCENDING Australian Chamber Orchestra
The Pavilion Performing Arts Centre Sutherland
- HUGO WOLF (arr. strings) Italian Serenade
- MAX RICHTER On the Nature of Daylight
- HENRY PURCELL Fantazia upon One Note, Z.745
- ANNE CAWRSE Falling Upward (world premiere)
- RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (arr. Adam Johnson)
- JOSEF SUK Serenade for Strings in E- at major, Op.6 29
- I. Andante con moto
II. Allegro ma non troppo e grazioso
III. Adagio
IV. Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo presto
- I. Andante con moto
- WOJCIECH KILAR Orawa
27 April
FAIRFIELD CITY MUSEUM & GALLERY
Semantics: an evening of language and art + Villawood Launch – Photography by Jimmy Ky
Vintage Village featured in short film ‘Echoes’
18 April
Discovering The Goods Line which is an abandoned freight railway line that has been created into 0.5 km or 0.3 miles of pedestrian walkway between Central Station and Darling Harbour.
” In Between Two Worlds” by artist Jason Wing, Kimber Lane artwork. The Lane dates back to the 1880s and named after the oyster merchant, Pritchard Kimber.
17 April
The latest Korean Cultural Centre exhibition ‘Ottchil: Light from Nature’ includes red lacquer and mother-of-pear artifacts with master artisans preserving traditional techniques as well as contemporary artists reinterpreting these methods on glassware and metal craft and as paintings.
The exhibition features Ottchil which involves forming a lacquer from the sap or ott of rhus trees. Once it is refined to become translucent it is able to be used to create a natural gloss finish on objects.
17 April
Exploring and enjoying the Chau Chak Wing Museum for the first time last month to discover a very interesting variety of displays. The Museum is a free public museum located on Gadigal land sharing the University of Sydney’s extensive collections including art, science and ancient cultures. Located at the main entrance to the University’s Camperdown campus, on University Avenue, opposite the Quadrangle.
The museum includes several Ten Thousand Suns exhibitions as part of the 24th Biennale of Sydney From 9 March – 10 June 2024
14 April
STRATHFIELD SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA – Enigmas
8 April
16 March
Discovering Flinders Street Station, the river, trams, art and cakes on my recent short visit to Melbourne and it was so easy getting around Melbourne’s Central Business District and Docklands with the city’s Free Tram Zone, such a great idea.
National Gallery of Victoria Triennial Exhibition.
ACMI or Australian Centre for the Moving Image is a museum of screen culture and the permanent, free exhibition ’The Story of the Moving Image’ explores the past, present and future of images. Included are toys that were invented to view a series of drawings in rapid succession to create the illusion of motion, some of the first projections capturing movement from many still images, shadow puppets, TVs, video games and smartphones.
When Were Movies Invented? A Brief History of Motion Pictures
‘Marshmallow Laser Feast: Works of Nature’ features large-scale digital works and interactive experiences. We are one species in a shared ecosystem.
7 February
THE ART OF BANKSY “WITHOUT LIMITS”
5 January
STRATHFIELD LIBRARY Ironbark Gallery Exhibition – Cooks River: Yesterday, Today
From its source at Yagoona to its mouth at Botany Bay the Cooks River passes through Wangal, Gadigal and Gameygal lands. It provides an important biodiversity corridor of vegetated habitat in parks, reserves and gardens adjacent to the river. Over the years Cooks River has been fished, dammed, concreted, diverted and polluted – and rehabilitated.
Strathfield Council is custodian of the Cooks River as it meanders through its LGA and partners with other organisations to improve both the health of the river and the liveability of the communities within its catchment.
This exhibition will take you on a journey through the river’s rich history culminating in recent projects and initiatives that protect and conserve the river and its biodiversity.
In Rivers: The Lifeblood of Australia by Ian Hoskins, which I borrowed during the week from the library he mentions the Cooks River as his nearest waterway and the river’s most recent Ecological Health Report Card confirms the Cooks River has no score above D+, the river is sick. Published 2020.
3d art and animation 