MEDIA INFORMATION G’DAY USA 2013
Artistic and cultural inspiration
SPOTLIGHT ON SYDNEY Sydney is a powerhouse of artistic excellence. Its rich blend of cultures, the natural beauty of the landscapes, climate, energy and appetite for life make the harbour city a prime source of creativity and innovation that can be seen in art galleries, shows, dance, theatre and music.
SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE Universally applauded as one of the most visionary, exciting and innovative buildings of the modern era, Sydney Opera House is the city’s premier showcase for all the performing arts. The home of the Australian Ballet and the Australian Opera Company, its theatres host symphony concerts, dance, films and plays as well as opera. The building also houses the celebrated Guillaume at Bennelong, one of Sydney’s finest restaurants. The House is also one of the focal points for Sydney Festival, when the city shifts into party mode for the entire month of January. Guided tours depart at frequent intervals from the tour office, on the lower forecourt level. Built on the site of a former tram depot, the Opera House was conceived by visionary Danish architect Joern Utzon, whose dazzling, dramatic, entrancing building captures the spirit of Sydney. The building overcame formidable engineering challenges before it opened in 1973. Today, the Opera House is urban Australia’s most potent icon, and a much- loved symbol for the city of Sydney. sydneyoperahouse.com
CARRIAGEWORKS Formerly the Eveleigh Rail Yards, this sprawling complex of railway workshops just south of the city center has been given an artistic makeover. Carriageworks is now a bold multi-purpose space for visual and performing arts, with theatres, galleries and rehearsal spaces that harness the vast dimensions of the factories and workshops to creative use. For the first time in March 2013, Carriageworks will host Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia, a week-long celebration and showcase of Australian fashion design talent. Adjacent to Carriageworks is Eveleigh Market, a weekly Saturday Farmers’ Market held in the Blacksmith’s Workshop, home to more than 80 regular stall holders featuring a vast array of seasonal produce including organic, bio dynamic foods from farmers and artisan food producers across New South Wales. carriageworks.com.au Top: John Kaldor Family Gallery. Middle: Aboriginal Heritage Tour, Royal Botanic Gardens. Bottom: Sydney Theatre Company. ART ON THE RADAR culture to orchestrate powerful performances that explore contemporary Aboriginal social themes. bangarra.com.au One of the state’s leading public art galleries, the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) has five floors of creative Sydney continues to refine its powerful, pithy Australian brilliance that showcase the blockbusters of the artistic theatrical tradition that has produced many talented world. The Gallery is currently hosting Francis Bacon: five writers, directors and performers. Russell Crowe, Mel decades as part of the Sydney International Art Series, one of Gibson, Cate Blanchett and Nicole Kidman are just some the most significant international art exhibitions held annually who have progressed from Sydney to stardom. Under the in Sydney. inspired direction of Andrew Upton playwright husband of Cate Blanchett, the Sydney Theatre Company continues Any visit to AGNSW must include a walk through the new to make its mark with commanding productions that takes John Kaldor Family Gallery which is the largest single its performances onto the stages of the wider world. donation to an Australian public gallery. Its 200 pieces of sydneytheatre.com.au contemporary art are valued in excess of AUD$35million. Always exciting, always fresh, Sydney Dance Company From 9 February to 19 May, the fashion of Helmut Newton is Australia’s premier contemporary dance company, and Bettina Rheims will be on display featuring 50 works with a world-class reputation for its ground-breaking by these two significant figures of the fashion photography performances. sydneydancecompany.com genre. Although Newton established an international reputation during his time in New York, he began working as ART, THEATRE AND FLAIR AT a fashion photographer for the Australian edition of Vogue SYDNEY’S NEW BOUTIQUE HOTEL magazine. artgallery.nsw.gov.au Latest arrival on Sydney’s hotel scene, QT Sydney sits within Australia’s bespoke venue for modern art, the Museum two of the city’s most iconic buildings – the historic Gowings of Contemporary Art is the only public museum in the department store and heritage-listed State Theatre. While country dedicated to exhibiting, interpreting and collecting the exterior might pay homage to the past, within the hotel is contemporary art from across Australia and around the another story. Acclaimed designer Nic Graham’s bold design world. Until 1 April, the gallery will be exhibiting works by reaches a pinnacle in the lobby, where historical features Anish Kapoor, the first major exhibition in Australia by this are set off by an imposing LED wall of digital art by Daniel celebrated artist which is also part of the Sydney international Crooks. An audio-visual piece playing between levels creates Art Series 2013. a sensory adventure as it adjusts to the mood of the elevator From 15 August to 27 November the gallery will host String and its occupants. All the art work was exclusively selected Art, focusing on works by Aboriginal and Torres Strait by curator Amanda Love, creating a playground for those who Islander artists who use string as an integral part of their love of art, design, fashion, music and food. qtsydney.com.au compositions. From 14 November 2013 to 23 February 2014, the MCA will exhibit War is Over (If You Want It), by Yoko Ono, MUSICAL DELIGHTS: THE ADDAMS FAMILY five decades of artworks across a range of media by this In recent times Sydney has played host to some of the legendary artist, musician and activist as part of the 2014 world’s most colourful and toe-tapping musicals such as Sydney International Art Series. mca.com.au Legally Blonde, Chitty, Chitty Bang Bang and Mary Poppins. In March 2013, Sydney welcomes the Broadway smash hit WALSH BAY ARTS PRECINCT musical comedy, The Addams Family, to Sydney’s Capitol Once the core of Sydney’s shipping and stevedoring Theatre, introducing Sydneysiders to the scarilicious industries, the cargo wharves and warehouses of Walsh Bay, world of Gomez, Morticia, Uncle Fester, Grandma, close to the south side of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, have Wednesday, Pugsley and Lurch. Australian actors John now become the centrepiece of a thrilling arts precinct and Waters, Chloë Dallimore and Russell Dykstra will star in the base for some of Australia’s major performing arts and the show, which makes its Australian premiere in Sydney. dance companies. addamsfamilythemusical.com.au
Exciting and innovative, Bangarra Dance Theatre is one of the AUTHENTIC INDIGENOUS EXPERIENCES most electrifying contemporary Aboriginal dance companies working in Australia today. Backed by an all-Aboriginal cast of Indigenous tourism is steadily building momentum in New writers, directors and performers, Stephen Page, Bangarra’s South Wales. Using the knowledge of the landscape and its choreographer and artistic director, digs deep into his plants and animals gained over thousands of years as well as their intense spiritual connection with the land, Aboriginal Showcasing the strong link between Aboriginal people, Australians are now offering an array of unique experiences their culture and wildlife, Taronga Zoo’s new Nura Diya to visitors. In Sydney, these include Aboriginal-guided cruises Aboriginal Discovery Tour leads visitors through the zoo on Sydney Harbour, bush tucker tours, cultural performances with an Aboriginal Guide. Learn about the shared history and specialist galleries dedicated exclusively to between animals and the land and hear stories of the Aboriginal art. Dreaming, describing the creation of animals and the landscape. Be introduced to centuries-old traditional uses Waradah Aboriginal Centre is a landmark tourist facility in of plants for food and medicine while enjoying interactive the Blue Mountains that celebrates Australian Aboriginal experiences with unique Australian wildlife, including koalas, life and culture. Dance performances take place at regular kangaroos, wallabies and a vast array of Australia’s birds. times throughout the day. Audience members are able to taronga.org.au/NuraDiya witness Aboriginal Dance and Didgeridoo performances, with explanations of the stories that accompany each dance. The Aboriginal Cultural Cruise with Tribal Warrior is an Didgeridoo Show is an interactive and fun way of explaining Aboriginal owned and operated cruise that views Sydney the instrument, its history and its distinctive sounds while the through indigenous eyes. The tour includes a visit to a Sydney Corroboree (dance) showcases four to five authentic dances, Harbour island and a traditional welcoming ceremony with performed by Aboriginal dancers in traditional paint and dance and didgeridoo. Throughout the tour, the guides point costume. The Centre also houses an Aboriginal art gallery out the Aboriginal names and interpretations for significant and a shop where visitors can purchase authentic Aboriginal harbour landmarks. tribalwarrior.org artworks. waradahaboriginalcentre.com.au Set among the palms and statuary of Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens, Aboriginal Education Officer Clarence Slockee takes visitors on an Aboriginal Heritage Tour to taste the bush foods that were part of the diet for the Cadigal people, the original inhabitants of this area. The Gardens’ Cadi Jam Ora is a display garden that features food and medicinal plants used by Sydney’s Cadigal people. These plants are contrasted with the plants farmed by the first European settlers, who established the colony’s earliest gardens at this spot. rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au The Yiribana Gallery in the Art Gallery of NSW is one of the largest spaces in the country dedicated exclusively to indigenous art and sculpture. Highlights of the collection For more information go to Sydney.com include traditional works on bark and some spectacular For images go to images.destinationnsw.com.au pieces from Arnhem Land, in far northern Australia, one of the wellsprings of Aboriginal art. The permanent exhibition Twitter: #Sydney, @sydney_sider also includes works by some of Australia’s leading Aboriginal Facebook: Tag ‘SydneyAustralia’ artists, such as Rover Thomas, Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Instagram: #Sydney, @seesydney Long Tom Tjapanangka and Ginger Riley Munduwalawala. MEDIA CONTACT: artgallery.nsw.gov.au Laura Davidson The Rocks Dreaming Tour is an authentic walkabout that President, Laura Davidson Public Relations uncovers a fascinating history of Sydney through Aboriginal 72 Madison Avenue, 11th Floor eyes. The tour provides insight into the area’s original New York, NY 10016 inhabitants, the Cadigal people, their heritage and their O: 212-696-0660 deeply spiritual connection to the natural world of Sydney’s F: 212-696-9804 harbour and surrounds. Visitors can gain an understanding [email protected] of ancient indigenous beliefs and how these weave daily www.twitter.com/lauradavidson relevance into Sydney’s contemporary Aboriginal society. www.ldpr.com therocks.com/sydney-Things_To_Do-The_Rocks_Dreaming