http://www.seitoutbackaustralia.com.au/Evenings-in-Alice

Coming of age and celebrating 21 years of short-film excellence, FLICKERFEST is on again and coming to the Olive Pink Botanic Gardens, Alice Springs in March 2012.

After searching through a record number of over 2200 entries, the top 100 flicks have been carefully handpicked to represent the most innovative, creative and cutting edge short films being produced in the world today. This impressive and unprecedented number of contenders from all round the world confirms FLICKERFEST’s reputation as Australia’s largest and most respected short film competition and its profile as Australia’s only Academy® Accredited and BAFTA recognised short film festival.

The competition categories for 2012 include International and Australian short films and short documentaries, GreenFlicks, a program of eco-friendly themed films as well as the ever-popular FlickerUp, a competition open to primary and high school student filmmakers across Australia. Special showcases screening out of competition include FlickerKids specially curated for a younger audience, GreenFlicks, a program of eco-friendly themed films, Comedy and Horror Shorts, a fun and whacky Animation program and a celebrity- filled Oscars program.

 Exhibition ’The Roundtuits’   – Alice Springs artist Iain Campbell will open the exhibition at 2:00pm on Sunday 23rd October – Olive Pink Botanic Gardens 

The Roundtuit’s are a group of local Alice Springs people who are finally doing something they have wanted to do for years – paint. Most of the artists have played around with a variety of media for a number of years but only in the last 12 months have they concentrated on watercolour, producing some wonderful work with the guidance and inspiration of local artist Carol Adams.

The artists are: Meg Chabrel, Margaret Williams, Heather Romeo, Carol Adams, Carmel Vandermolen, Petina Franklen, Alan Russ, Joy LaFranchi, Elsa Corbett

Botanical Artist and Illustrator Mali Moir from the National Herbarium of Victoria will be presenting a series of workshops covering the skills and techniques used in this beautiful art form. Mali has exhibited widely in Australia and internationally and her works are held in private, public and corporate collections. The Advanced Courses will be held at Olive Pink Botanic Garden 21/22/25 September, with an emphasis on Scientific Illustration showing the botany of a plant/specimen. Bookings Essential, (limited spaces available). For bookings and information: Contact Jo Boniface on 89528116.

CONFIDENT TO ADVANCED ARTISTS
21 SEPT 2011 WED 7pm-9pm – venue – OPBG visitor centre
Confident to Advanced artists
Botanical Illustration
(focus on Scientific Botanical Art)

22 SEPT 2011 THURS 7pm-9pm -OPBG visitor centre
Confident to Advanced artists
Botanical Illustration
(focus on Scientific Botanical Art)

25 SEPT 2011 SUN 10-3 (1hr break 12-1)
Confident to Advanced artists
Botanical Art: Watercolour Painting Techniques.
Bring in your painting projects for technical and
artistic advise. People from beginners course very welcome.

Course fee: $145 includes materials
(Single workshop fee $55 inc materials)

Bookings essential contact Jo Boniface on 89528116
With thanks to the valued support of Olive Pink Botanic Gardens and REDHOT ARTS
Workshops made possible with thanks to funding support from Arts NT

‘The First Garden’ a play by Chris and Natasha Raja brings to life the extraordinary women, that was, Miss Olive Muriel Pink. Come along to this season of theatre in the Olive Pink Botanic Gardens to celebrate the story of a central Australian Icon. The production is a key event in this year’s Alice Desert Festival and will be running over 6 nights, premiering on Saturday the 17^th of September. For further information and enquiries please contact thefirstgarden1@gmail.com or call 0427 275 925. Tickets are available through the Araluen Art Centre $32 or $27 concession. Limited numbers so don’t miss out!

This years ecofair gets into full swing with an opening night concert featuring Tijuana Cartel , Dr Strangeways and The Treason Coalition.

Tickets available from Araluen Box Office $25 Presale or $35 on the Gate.

www.tijuanacartel.com , www.myspace.com/drstrangew​ays

Central Australia’s premier sustainability event, desertSMART EcoFair, is on again!

This educational community event engages us in the social, ecological and economic challenges of living sustainably in central Australia.

And we want you to be a part of it.

The third desertSMART EcoFair will be held at Olive Pink Botanic Gardens August 19-21. With more than 1100 people attending previous events, 2011 will see the EcoFair grow to festival proportions.

The event is being organised to coincide with National Science Week and will be held over 3 days (August 19-21). The Friday will see the introduction of a day specifically designed to cater for schools, local and regional students are invited to take part in a series of hands-on sessions to facilitate learning of key local environmental and sustainability topics including geology, ecology and meteorology, water, energy, waste, built environment and food production.

The weekend program will include 2 night programs with music, food, environmental comedians, Central Australia’s-own Environmental Q&A and Environmental Film Festival.

The days will be jam-packed with workshops, speakers, children’s activities and up to 60 green business and community stalls.

If you’re interested in having a stall, conducting a workshop, discussing an environmental or sustainability-related topic and/or promoting your business’ green credentials, products or services – then this is the event for you.

Please fill in the application forms here.

Please note: Stall fees have been added this year to assist us in making the event financially sustainable. If you are interested in running a workshop or presenting on your project, campaign, organisation or business -  we will waive the fees. Please fill in and return both forms together in this case. If not, just fill in and return the Stall Holder form – we’ll sort out stall fees closer to the date.

Thank you. We look forward to your participation.

If you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to contact either Ben or Jimmy.

Cheers,

Jimmy Cocking
Arid Lands Environment Centre
(08)8952 2497
info@alec.org.au

Ben Convery
Olive Pink Botanic Garden
(08) 8952 2154
garden@opbg.com.au

Performing 6:30pm til 9pm – Friday the 29th of August at Olive Pink Botanic Gardens

Food and Bar by the Bean Tree Cafe

Matt Southon is an emerging blues player from the far south coast of New South Wales. Having settled in the small country town of Wyndham five years ago after many years in the Illawarra, Matt has been concentrating on his ‘Australian Verandah Blues’. A unique blend of music – inspired by the passion and fire of old style bluesman like Son House, Charlie Patton & Leadbelly.

With a resonator crafted from old corrugated iron, and a powerful singing style, Matt can’t hide the fact that his love of the old blues has combined with a love of stuff like the Ramones or the Dead Kennedy’s. Influenced also by modern legends like Hat Fitz, Jeff Lang, Lloyd Spiegel and Geoff Achison; a Matt Southon performance has been described as frightening in its intensity, but still raucous, fun and entertaining.

Matt’s verandah and his bush property have played home to much of his stomping about, with his style developing through absolutely no need to turn it down!
Matt has produced two EP’s. ‘Stone Cabin Sessions’ a six track EP completely recorded in the stone cabin by Matt (and very lo tech); and ‘Hollerin!’ which contains eight original tracks and was recorded at Pirate Studios in about seven hours. Both EP’s are attempts to capture the energy of Matts live performance style.

Matt’s latest, ‘Australian Verandah Blues’ is a real step up in his musical development. Songs of murder and drought, war, beer, burning pumps and fires all reflected in a raw, real style that harks back to early colonial jigs and pre war blues.

Recorded at Pirate Studios by Dave Sparks (of seminal Aussie bands the Lime Spiders & Saints) Australian Verandah Blues promises to see Matt gain a solid foothold in Australia’s Blues scene, with a style that whether you love it or hate it – you cant ignore it

‘Skyline’

an Exhibition from Studio 12 Artists Collective

Olive Pink Botanic Garden – Opening 6:30 Friday the 22nd of July

Skyline; the line at which the earth and the sky appear to meet…the outline of buildings land and trees…seen against the sky.

This exhibition is essentially an exploration of the local skylines. It aims to emphasise the value of what we see when we look up from our involvement in the minutiae of day to day existence. Its purpose is to bring the viewer the desire to search their skyline – to consider what would change if the physical space were to change dramatically. The proposed changes to building heights in Alice Springs will change the skyline for everyone.

The works are two dimensional and in reflection of the diversity of the collective members, will present a variety of styles in a range of media on paper, board and canvas.

Tangentyere Artists exhibition - Olive Pink Botanic Garden

Opening Friday the 27th May @ 6pm – until Sunday the 12th

Still Reflections of Town Camp Life

Tangentyere Artists is an Aboriginal owned and directed art centre enterprise in Alice Springs and part of one of the oldest Aboriginal owned NGO’s in Central Australia: Tangentyere Council first emerging in 1974.

As a grass roots enterprise, Tangentyere Artists is an initiative proudly created by the Aboriginal people of Central Australia for themselves, comprising artists whose homes lie within the eighteen Alice Springs Town Camps.

The art centre provides a platform from which artists can express themselves, their lives and cultural values, while enriching their community well being and family livelihoods.

For too long, media representations of the Alice Springs Town Camps have maligned the lives of their residents dismissing them as bad news stories of crime and dysfunction. In the face of great disadvantage, however, for the several thousand people living in them, town camps are actually home: intimate places filled with family, where children grow and play, rich lives are lived with grace and dignity, and all the stories whether happy, sad, joyful or tragic, are shared.

Increasingly Tangentyere Artists is becoming known for figurative paintings with textual references; accounts of everyday life and the reflections of life in Alice Springs Town Camps.
For example, the town camp homes of Sally Mulda and Margaret Boko, as well as Amy Napurulla and Sylvia Drover provide the inspiration for their beautiful figurative paintings: intimate scenes of family sitting by the fire on old bed frames, always out in the open; talking, eating, watching children at play, while the dogs run free.
There are many wonderful stories that rise out of the sometimes difficult living in the Town Camps for those interested enough to stop and listen. And we are very pleased to be able to share them with you to show that Town Camp homes are important places in which real people live their lives, positive places, worthy of the respect that any person and their home deserves.