EVENT CLOSED – Audio of the panel discussion available here

Blake Prize Forum with John Safran by GreenRoom

GreenRoom is holding a panel discussion hosted by media personality John Safran that is sure to be a candid, robust yet humorous and often raucous debate on whether spirituality has changed shape in young people’s lives with the struggle to find meaning in life with so much choice in this global, consumerist world infiltrated with terrorism, religious fundamentalism and racial conflict. The panellists will also discuss if the arts play a role in expressing this spirituality.

Sound heavy? Don’t be fooled! With Safran around it’s sure to be anything but dull and boring!!

You will also be encouraged to voice your personal views on spirituality, religion and art, and express daring and diverse ideas. Awesome!

Prior to the forum there will be the official opening of the 59th Blake Prize touring exhibition at 6pm in the Artspace Gallery, free entry. The 59th Blake Prize explores contemporary religious and spiritual art.

RSVP here by 3 November. Please confirm if you will be attending the exhibition opening beforehand.

Also don’t forget about the ALMIGHTY COMPETITION valued over $1000! Competition lauched at this forum and ends 30 November 2010.

GreenRoom members are invited to participate in this workshop, and bring someone along with them of an older generation (eg. Mother, Aunt, Grandfather), and together we will share art across generations – just like in the spirit of Namatjira.

Albert Namatjira is Australia’s most famous Indigenous watercolour artist. At the height of his international fame, Namatjira’s artworks sold out within minutes. His beautiful paintings graced the loungerooms of Australian suburbia and introduced the public to the exquisite beauty of our central desert heartland.

This is a very special opportunity to learn more about Namatjira’s life, art and inspiration and create your own watercolour painting. No experience necessary.

Register Now! Email  thegreenroom@adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au or call 8216 8512.

The watercolour workshop is FREE for GreenRoom Members and their guest. After the workshop, participants are invited to a free artist talk in the Artspace Gallery to see the Namatjira exhibition and hear more about his work.

The workshop and exhibition coincides with Big hART’s show Namatjira – an iconic, new Australian theatrical work exploring the extraordinary life of Albert Namatjira. Showing at Her Majesty’s Theatre from 4 – 12 May. For more info click here

REGISTER YOUR INTEREST HERE

The Sessions Stencil Art Project was a new initiative that GreenRoom decided to create for the brand new music season at Adelaide Festival Centre, titled Sessions. You can learn more about Sessions and the great acts that the Space will play host to from 6-21 January here.

In collaboration with acclaimed Adelaide stencil artist and Espionage Gallery Owner, Joshua Smith, we set out with an aim of creating a colossal stencil art work on a large wooden board entrance. This will create a point of entrance for the hundreds of punters to flow through in January for the Sessions music season. We recruited 5 young and dedicated visual artists (Ebony Obst, Elita A’Vard, Nicnic Ansell, Kat Coppock and Ali Brown) who all came from varying disciplines within the visual art field and had years of passion, creativity and knowledge to share with Josh and vice versa.

The creation of the entrance was broken into various parts which included creative briefing, brainstorming, stencil cutting and finally, stencil painting.

Our crew at GreenRoom and the Sessions team were blown away by the fantastic ideas, talent and dedication that was exhibited by all of the artists involved and we hope that we can host many more workshops that can continue to foster ideas into realities.

If you are keen to see the finished stencil art entrance, wander down to the Space Theatre come January 6-21. You will not be disappointed, we promise.

Similarly, if you are interested in learning more about how stencils are created or what stencil art can look like, we encourage you to take the time to visit Joshua Smith’s Espionage Gallery which is located down the alleyway directly across from Body Shop in Rundle Mall. Josh is incredibly detailed with his work and his day to day conversation about stencil art is just as focused. So head over to this local gallery and engage with some great art.

Adelaide Festival Centre’s OzAsia Festival presents Dialogue in Skin, 17 – 18 September, Space Theatre

Experience the exuberant and meditative beats of acclaimed Malaysian drum group Hands Percussion.  Exploring the unique dialogue between drum and drummer Artistic Director Bernard Goh, and his young team of 10 drummers present a program of energy, strength and heart.

Through their magnificent Chinese drums the drummers articulate a story featuring the five elements – earth, water, metal, fire and wood.

Don’t miss this high energy filled performance.

Check out the fun GreenRoom workshop with these guys – no experience necessary, just a love of percussion!

Recitals Australia and Adelaide Festival Centre present Megan Washington and Paul Grabowski, 4 September, Dunstan Playhouse

Last seen in sell out shows at the 2008 Adelaide Cabaret Festival, award winning jazz vocalist Megan Washington and Australian jazz luminary Paul Grabowsky return to Adelaide with their hugely successful 2008 Adelaide Cabaret Festival show.

If you haven’t heard of Megan Washington then you have been living under a rock! She was unearthed by Triple J in 2008 and her popularity since then has gone bezerk! Don’t miss her with the ultra-talented Paul G where they will cross the boundaries of contemporary jazz and indie in a program that will be sure to impress!

“Washington’s entrancing vocals and unique compositions are bound for pinnacles of success.” The Advertiser

Adelaide Festival Centre’s OzAsia Festival presents AFTERNOON absurdiTEA, 26 September, Space Theatre

A delicious kaleidoscope of music from the new and old tea lands.

Combining outrageous humour, divinely beautiful music and quirky poetry, this is afternoon tea like you have never experienced before.

Featuring the blissful interplay of Indian melody and rhythm by the celebrated duo of Josh Bennett (sitar) and Jay Dabgar (tabla); the haunting sounds of shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute) performed by Anne Norman; the virtuosic dexteri-tea of the Australian Chinese Music Ensemble lead by Wang Zheng Ting; and the soulful voice and mesmeric Tibetan instruments of Tenzin Choegyal. This delicious kaleidoscope of music is punctuated with commentary and poetry by Camellia Cha, the very Dei-tea herself.

To read more about Camellia Cha and Anne Norman go to http://camelliacha.com or http://www.annenorman.com/

Adelaide Festival Centre’s OzAsia Festival presents The Dhol Foundation, 2 October, Festival Theatre

The Dhol Foundation opens the floodgates on a torrent of percussive grooves and harnesses the infectious rhythms of the Punjab, unleashing a killer brand of electronic bhangra-infused funk.

Known for their energetic live performances throughout Europe and Australia (WOMADelaide 2006, Festival Melbourne 2006), The Dhol Foundation has become an influential world fusion ensemble, founded on a mission to take the dhol to the wider world. Don’t miss your chance to be elevated by high-powered, live Punjabi beats and turn the Festival Theatre into one big dance party! Dancing seats will be available!

Adelaide

Superheroes, Stone/Castro’s latest contemporary theatre work, is a provocative exploration on globalisation, violence, the future, and war.

Meet six characters in a rest-home. Isolated from the outside world, rivalries emerge as they regain their former strength and the various personalities vie for domination of their new territory. As fiction and reality blur, they turn to saviours and heroes for hope and salvation.  The fight is on to determine how best to steer humanity safely towards a new generation.

Who are the real heroes of the sky? The God’s, the Superheroes, or the fighter planes?

‘a revolutionary, psychologically challenging, daring, dangerous and richly rewarding experience that is Stone/Castro Production’s’ dB Magazine.

For more information on Stone/Castro visit their website http://www.stonecastro.com/

Adelaide Festival Centre’s Adelaide International Guitar Festival presents The Heart of Flamenco, 25 November, Festival Theatre

Direct from Spain, de Luciá and Guzmán combine the freshness and harmonies of modern flamenco with the traditional trilogy of guitar, dance and voice. For this special event, they will be joined by Adelaide flamenco dancer Roshanne Wijeyeratne and percussionist Adrian van Nunen.

Australia’s leading flamenco ensemble Arte Kanela sparks a visceral connection with audiences through extraordinary virtuosity and emotionally charged execution. Offering a new take on the traditional art form, guitarist and composer Richard Tedesco ensures their music is innovative and creative, while choreographer and principal dancer Johnny Tedesco captures the raw, authentic skills of the dance.!

If your mind were a room and your life’s memories lost in a jumble of old boxes, what forgotten treasures might you find?

Enter a world where mops sneeze, storks swoop in bearing gifts, and crunchy apples are plucked from paintings on a wall. Following his internationally acclaimed productions LaLaLuna and The Shneedles, luminous physical theatre creator Wolfe Bowart presents Letter’s End - a whole new box of lunacy that truly pushes the envelope.

With his signature mix of circus and clown theatre, stage illusion, puppetry, interactive film and physical comedy, Wolfe Bowart leads his audience on a dream-like exploration of a magical memory lane. Bowart invites you into the realm of the fantastic – your letter is in the post!

“You will be mesmerized… he will make you laugh, he will make you sigh, and you will be enchanted by his every move.” ArtSound FM, Canberra