An Art After Hours presentation at AGNSW.
The upcoming Art After Hours program at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) features a range of exciting events inviting all art enthusiasts the chance to explore their thoughts and opinions about art.
‘As Australia’s only weekly late night program and one of the first late night museum programs internationally the extensive Art After Hours programming – most of it free – has been designed to provide new ways for people from all walks of life to appreciate the Gallery’s collections and exhibitions,’ said Art After Hours Coordinator Emma Robertson.
The Wednesday evening programs on offer throughout February and March include exhibition and collection talks led by artists, curators, visiting experts and Gallery staff, film screenings, workshops and live music performances, with the highlight event being the 6.30pm ‘celebrity talk’.
‘As our Epic America film series also draws to a close, we delve further into the artistic practice of Jackson Pollock with Ed Harris’ Pollock,’ said Robertson.
‘It’s the last week to enjoy our pop-up American diner in the Restaurant and be sure to catch spoken-word artist Miles Merrill providing his unique take on some American literary classics inside the exhibition.’
The following four weeks feature a focus on Indigenous art genning with the fascinating Yirrkala drawings exhibition. On 12 February Curator Cara Pinchbeck will host a walk through the exhibition before anthropologist Howard Morphy speaks about his work with Indigenous communities in northeast Arnhem Land.
With a strong theme of collaboration in Yirrkala drawings, on 19 February Peter Garrett will return to Art After Hours to reflect on his musical collaborations with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and his passionate campaigning for their rights. Gallery conservator Sarah Bunn will share stories about the rarely seen Yirrkala works.
On Wednesday 26 February and Wednesday 5 March there will be a spotlight on the Illuminate exhibition currently installed in the Yiribana Project Space in the Yiribana galleries, which is dedicated to the AGNSW’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art collection.
A life sized mission home made from paper with sound and light projections will explore stories and ideas of home and housing, culture and community. A 5.30pm exhibition talk about Illuminate will be held by the Gallery’s Assistant Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art, Emily McDaniel.
‘The highlight for guests is certainly the signature celebrity event at 6.30pm,’ said Robertson. ‘This involves public figures, usually from outside the art world, encouraging everyone to explore their own thoughts and opinions about art. These “celebrities” provide another source of information, often a more personalised response to an exhibition or a broader exhibition theme.’
‘All our Art After Hours programs are always considerately themed around the exhibitions. I think some of the popularity lies in this as the programs provide another angle and access point for people to experience and understand the art’.
Art After Hours is the AGNSW’s popular late-night program where the gallery stays open until 10pm every Wednesday. In September 2013 AGNSW celebrated 10 years of Art After Hours, making it the longest running late-night program of its kind in Sydney.
For more information visit the Art After Hours program on the AGNSW website.
