Olive Pink Botanic Garden Visitor Centre
Opening: 6 pm Saturday 11th September 2010
Exhibition finishes on Sunday 3rd October
Opening hours 10am – 4pm daily

An exhibition of hand-printed artworks at Olive Pink Botanic Garden. Recent etchings and linoprints exploring dry and arid zone flora, fauna and landscape by Helen Clarke, fine art printmaker.

Helen is returning to Alice Springs to exhibit at Olive Pink Botanic Garden following her successful exhibition last year.

Helen Clarke is a West Australian printmaker who has travelled all around Australia. She grew up in a farming area of WA surrounded by Australian plants which flourish in a relatively dry climate. As an adult she was drawn to the art of printmaking, both for the repetition of the image and the variety of techniques which produce unique marks. Her botanical interpretations are widely collected and acclaimed.

Helen Clarke’s reduction linocuts are noted for their lustrous, textured surfaces and strong colours. She uses only one piece of lino to create the limited edition of prints with up to twenty colours on each print. As the edition is created, the lino is slowly destroyed through the reduction process. She keeps the editions small, with less than twenty prints when using this complicated medium.

The etchings depict parts of plants and landscapes arranged to suit her sense of design. Her works are not scientific botanical drawings, rather an interpretation of the variety of Australian plants from drier areas that fascinate her including, species of plants found around Central Australia.

 Further information:

Ben Convery
8952 2154
0422 920 125

Helen Clarke
08 99233613,
0407 440 616,
fineart@woodypear.com

The desertSMART eco fair is nearly here again. Come along on Saturday the 18th of September for a fun day for the whole family. The will be live entertainment, food stalls,  kids activities, workshops, presentations, plant sales, trade displays, Arts and craft Fair and a whole lot more.

Saturday the 18th of September 8am until 2pm.

‘ The Red Centre through Cold Country Eyes ‘

by

Margaret Shepherd

 Exhibiting at

The Olive Pink Botanic Garden

Tuncks Road, Alice Springs 0871

From

13^th August – 5th of September

Come Along to an evening of fine Music, Food and Friends at Olive Pink Botanic Garden on Saturday the 5th of June. The Event will begin at 5; 30 pm and feature Neil Murray supported by Minority Sun and Drumatweme. 

 Tickets are available through Araluen for $25 or $30 on the gate, with all procedes going towards the Gardens.  

Neil Murray  

 Be prepared for an extended ride into the nether regions picking off shots from a repertoire that stretches back three decades plus a showcase of cuts from his  new album ‘Witness’   

 “At a basic level, everything I write is a result of what I’ve seen, heard and felt. I aim to be clear. I aim to be accurate. The songs are my testimony.”  Murray first appeared in the early eighties as a founding member of the Warumpi Band, which over three albums and twenty years of performing helped make contemporary indigenous music heard in mainstream Australia and yielded such classic songs as ‘Blackfella Whitefella’ and “My Island Home”-( the 1995 APRA song of the year that was performed by Christine Anu at the closing ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympics). 

  He is one of Australia’s most original and respected songwriters and has enjoyed a solo career since 1989 which has seen him release ten albums. His song writing palette is broadfrom the rollicking ‘Good Light in Broome’, the prayerful ‘Native Born’, the busking roots of ‘Long Grass Band’ and the journeyman monologue ‘Lights of Hay.’ Collectively his work describes an inner landscape to the heart and soul of Australia. 

Minority Sun

 You can feel yourself bouncing along a red dirt highway from Alice Springs to the homelands with their uplifting songs of love and life in the desert. Lead singer, songwriter and guitarist Shaun Penangke is a local Arrernte man from Ayampe country located 70 kms north of Mpantwua (Alice Springs) He’s backed-up by talented musicians and haunting support vocals in songs that range in style from rootsy, laid-back rock to reggae and hip hop.

 The message is about celebrating and gaining strength in a contemporary world from an unbreakable connection to country and family. “I’m picturing grandfather, I’m picturing soakages, I’m picturing family and hunting grounds and sacred sites,” says Angeles. “We are also singing about social issues and other things that have hurt our people in the past and now. They’re hard lyrics but true. 
“We’re saying: be proud of culture, be proud to be Aboriginal, be proud of your grandfather’s and grandmother’s country. Be strong.”

 Minority Sun includes Galen Cole on keyboards, lead guitar and vocals, Dale Egan on bass, Jason Ramp on drums and Kenni-Anne Iles on vocals. The band has had a name change for cultural reasons since debuting in Alice just 6 months ago.
Under old name or new they are invariably greeted with rousing enthusiasm and are going from strength to strength with every gig. Minority Sun is fresh, talented and determined to be heard. 

Drum Atweme

Drum Atweme is a drumming group made up of young people from town camps in Alice Springs. The group was established in 2004 and has about 30 core performers, with another 100 students participating in drumming lessons each week. Almost all public events in Alice Springs and many conferences held in Alice Springs include a performance by this popular group. 

 The Drum Atweme group engages young people from Town Camps in Alice Springs, who often experience boredom, depression, low self confidence and exposure to violence and substance abuse. This project enables young people to be part of a positive and publicly popular activity. This has strong benefits in enabling the young people to realize that they can achieve public recognition for their abilities and talents.

Red Hot Arts presents Katie Noonan and the Captains  at the

Olive Pink Botanic Gardens Friday the 16th of May.

Tickets Available through Araluen – pre sale $35 or $40 at the gate

One of Australia’s brightest musical discoveries of the new millennium, Katie Noonan returns to the spotlight with an original album, a fresh sound, and a new band, the Captains.

A five-time platinum recording artist, Katie is in fine voice on Emperor’s Box, a dynamic piece comprising 13 personal, emotive works. Co-produced by Katie and Grammy Award-winning rock specialist Nick Didia (Pearl Jam, Bruce Springsteen, Stone Temple Pilots, Powderfinger), Emperor’s Box marks a return to some familiar territory for Katie.

Emperor’s Box is the sound of a confident, accomplished artist. It’s a lush and at times muscular affair, captured in the studio by a tight unit clearly at the peak of form. And of course, Katie’s vocals shine. “It’s the best thing I’ve ever done,” Katie says. “Music is about freedom for me, I’ve always followed my muse and been very lucky to be able go on and make different records. This is definitely the album I’m most proud of.”

Permiculture Design Course

Visit Milkwood

Drylands Permaculture Design Course

Our Drylands Permaculture Design Courses provide essential skills for understanding and implementation of good Permaculture design. An intensive course with additional focus on the arid landscape which combines theory and practical experience as a comprehensive introduction to Permaculture principles in the context of arid environments.

In a world out of balance, we are all looking for solutions. Solutions to effective ways of growing healthy, organic food in urban environments. Solutions to ways of farming that can both feed a family, earn an income and build soil fertility. Solutions to ways of retrofitting an existing house or property that results in lower energy costs and better health for its inhabitants. Solutions that use intelligent, thoughtful design principles to build sustainable lives, and sustainable communities in a world of Peak Everything.

Permaculture principles, like any really good design principles, can be applied across any biosphere, any property, any landscape, any city. Permaculture is a network of well-grounded theories and techniques that, over time, result in sustainable and productive systems. Systems for living, architecture, food production, land management and community. No chemicals and no excuses. Just good, thoughtful, innovative and effective design for the needs of our species.

All Australian Farmers, Land managers, any sort of primary producer and also indigenous land managers can all do this course for FREE through the FarmReady scheme. There’s even an additional subsidy for travel and accomodation. 

 ”What Permaculturists are doing is the most important activity that any group is doing on the planet.” Dr. David Suzuki (venerated ecologist, geneticist, author + broadcaster)

What is a Permaculture Design Certificate Course?

The PDC is an efficient & cost effective means of gaining the knowledge of Permaculture Ethics & Principles together with amassing skills, techniques & a knowledge base for designing & developing sustainable human settlements – from a small suburban home to a broad acre farm. A Milkwood Permaculture PDC involves daily workshops and active-learning exercises as well as classroom-style sessions, so that students can truly engage with the knowledge content of the course. This PDC delivers the curriculum from The Permaculture Institute of Australia (Bill Mollison). The curriculum is therefore based on Mollison’s

Come along and see the Aria award winning Zulya and The Children of The underground perform at Olive Pink Botanic Garden on the 28th of March at 7:30pm

2010 is the celebration of Olive Pink Botanic Gardens 25th Birthday.  On the 21st of March we will celebrate this milestone launching of our Draft 2030 masterplan and reintroducing of the Friends of the Olive Pink Botanic Garden.Opened to the public in 1985 it has been a colourful journey to where we stand today.

One of the events held at Olive Pink Botanic Garden  is the Up the Garden Path sculpture exhibition which showcases sculptures created by local artists to an audience of over 3000 people. The popularity of this event has encouraged us run it bi-annually and entries are now open for Up the Garden Path 2011.

Download the entry form here.

The Desert Smart Eco Fair will be held on Saturday 18^th September at the Olive Pink Botanic Gardens and will represent the highest profile community environmental event on the Alice Springs calendar for 2010. The overall goal of the fair is to promote desert smart sustainable living lifestyles that can be adopted by the Alice Springs public. It will also be a celebration of the many innovative steps that the Alice Springs community has taken towards sustainability. Encouraging community participation and exchange of ideas is one of the main elements of the Sustainability Fair. Many Alice Springs residents have taken actions towards sustainability and provide excellent role models for other people to follow. Effort will be made to assist these community ‘sustainability champions’ to share their knowledge and experience through displays and activities. 

The Fair will be promoted as part of the Alice Springs Festival, and will incorporate arts and performance linked to the environmental theme. This will extend the appeal of the fair to a greater audience and add to the experiences offered to those attending.