Artful-e: Issue 02

A Collation of Opportunities Sent Periodically from
the good folks at Cairns Festival and Community Partnerships Unit
Cairns Regional Council: Cultural Services & Facilities Branch




******************************************************************


THE SOPHOMORE EDITION
of an Electronic Alert for a Growing List of Creative People in and around Cairns
(274 of you, and counting)


*****************************************************************


02.00
SAVE THE DATE, BRING IDEAS
The first Cairns Artists & Producers Show is scheduled for 10 December at 4:30pm. We hope to call together creative people in Cairns, 10 or 20 or more of you doing interesting things, and then meet every so often for refreshments at the Festival HQ in City Place. And at each after-work gathering we hope to show off 4 or 5 upcoming creative projects that are on the horizon. It won't be too formal, although you can expect some casual dog-and-pony action from colleagues and cultural producers. It's not really for the general public, but we won't care if the man or woman on the street wanders in. And then after these so-called A&P shows, everyone can proceed to enjoy the opening at Cell Art Space, refreshments at 12 Bar Cafe on the corner, and maybe a few other surprises in and around City Place. Etch it on your diary, and send more ideas post-haste...




02.01
POST CARD SHOW
Why you should be at the Cairns Regional Gallery on Friday evening (that's tonight) for the opening reception of The Salon: 2010 Postcard Show...a fundraiser and friendraiser for our city's stellar visual arts institution...
http://www.cairnsregionalgallery.com.au/exhibition111.pdf




02.02
HOT DESK AT CAIRNS FESTIVAL HQ
Do you need a desk, or part-time office support? Ever wished for a quiet place to do some office work? Need a computer terminal, printer, fax, phone? The Cairns Festival Headquarters has all of these, and a steady stream of frothy espresso drinks and sometimes even free pastries. Just ask Melinda Norris, the intrepid Busking Festival director who shared the space with us last month. Or talk to locally-loved, nationally-known arts worker, Carrie Bies, who now stations her laptop at a Festival HQ desk several times each week. The space and office resources are limited, but they are here to support creative projects, people, and planning. If you work in the creative industries/arts and have a need for a work space and office support, just reply to this message and tell us your story.




02.03
ARTS JOBS TO INSPECT
DanceNorth General Manager
http://dancenorth.com.au/blog/2010/10/06/position-vacant-general-manager/


KickArts Director
http://kickarts.org.au/opportunities/positions-vacant/


Cairns Regional Council
http://www.cairns.qld.gov.au/content/jobsAtCouncil/jobsAtCouncil.html


Crack Theatre Festival Co-Director
http://cracktheatrefestival.com/


Brisbane Festival Executive Producer
http://jobs.guardian.co.uk/job/1037095/executive-producer/




02.04
MONEY FOR A BIG IDEA
http://www.bigideaqld.com.au/




02.05
LOOK AT THE TANKS
A new exhibition of prints, Trilemma, opens on Friday at the Tanks (yes, that's tonight too). Join artists Carolyn Craig, Paloma Ramos, and Hannah Parker, for a 6pm reception and a look at their most recent works. Their Trilemma is on view through 20 November.
http://www.tanksartscentre.com/home/event.asp?eid=331




02.06
AND FOR GOOD MEASURE
Get your tickets now for the final weekend performances of Tropical Arts production of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, Tanks Arts Centre. it gives the word Japanimation a whole new meaning...
http://www.ticketlink.com.au/events/EventDetails.aspx?ID=1b8042f2-9eab-40a8-bb2d-64bcbb073573




02.07
HUG ART SPACE RECEPTION
Tonight as well! Friday from 6:30pm head over to HUG Art Space at 70 Abbott Street for Above & Below The Surface, a new exhibition by Seamus Whelan and Renee Chanelle. And if you're keeping count, this evening's culture vulture itinerary goes something like 02.01 and on to 02.05, and then 02.07, followed by 02.08. And perhaps it all begins with a late afternoon visit to 02.16. Get out there, and explore the creative side of Cairns...
http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2010/10/28/132445_entertainment.html




02.08
FILM FESTIVAL SHORTS
End Credits Presents a bounty of films at CoCA, the Botanic Gardens, and Palm Cove. The screenings begin this Friday 5 November at 7:30pm with a program of short films from Heart of Gold Film Festival and then Saturday at 4:00 and 8:00pm with shorts from the World of Women Film Festival. And then there's lots more of the flickering light in store. Check out the End Credits schedule here...
http://www.entertainmentcairns.com/promoter.php?id=80
http://www.endcredits.org.au/pages/screening.shtml




02.09
SYDNEYSIDERS SEND FILM FESTIVAL. WE LIKE TO WATCH...
Cairns City Cinema presents the Sydney Travelling Film Festival and eight diverse films on 19-21 November. Learn all about the program and screening times here
http://sff.org.au/cms/default.asp?contentID=72




02.10
ESCAPISM AT CELL ART SPACE
Paintings by Chrissy Dwyer open on 12 November, with a reception at the space and 12 bar Cafe a few doors down from 5:30pm
http://www.cellartspace.com/
http://www.artsnexus.com.au/pages/list.php?details=2259&date=03.11.2010&daterange=31




02.11
SURVEY SAYS?
Cairns Festival HQ has an unlimited annual license to surveymonkey.com, a website that makes it very easy to create, send out, and compile survey data. If any Artful-e readers (local projects, organizations, or events) would like to tap into this on-line resource, we'd be happy to help you make and utilise an audience survey and feedback loop. Please contact us at Festival HQ in City Place for details. And speaking of surveys...


The Festival recently compiled two sets, and would like to share the results with you (click links below). Below many of the numerical results is another link marked "Show Replies (Other)" which contains lots of useful narrative and anecdotal comments. Take a gander...


150 exit surveys taken on site at 2010 Festival events and venues
http://www.surveymonkey.com/sr.aspx?sm=r2_2b7uAKsClFs21l4oDHvqcymxRdGhjiVdcECNqICj5U_3d


210 surveys gathered post-festival from online input from external partners, Council staff, local artists and organizations, and those with closer association with the Festival
http://www.surveymonkey.com/sr.aspx?sm=pGcFi8gk18MLS2HGsRJEdFCiCimC1ASIZ_2bxo83wJvws_3d




02.12
SAY WHAT IN 2010?
Word trends predicted back in December. Attention Joke Poachers...
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/2786184/Trendy-phrases-well-all-use-in-2010-say-word-nerds.html




02.13
SPYING NEW WORDS
In related news, here's a really good blog filled with trendy neologisms and words you didn't know you needed to know...
http://wordspy.com/




02.14
ESPLANADE IS ON FIRE!
Live Fire Show, Saturday Markets, The Hit Fanatics, Drum Up Big, Rock n' Rollers, the Sunbirds, Far Northern Soul Collective. It's all on at the Cairns Esplanade. Check the Esplanade website for details on all the great upcoming November events and activities. They'll give you several dozen reasons to hang down in the CBD, and our favourite public space...
http://www.cairnsesplanade.com.au/events/WhatsOn.aspx




02.15
BRING YOUR DRUM
Local percussionists invite you to Drum Up Big at the Esplanade on the first Friday of each month, 7 to 9pm. All levels and abilities welcome...
http://www.drumupbig.com/foreshore.html




02.16
FOR THE LOVE OF MOFO
Merchants of Fine Objects (and purveyors of culture in Cairns) have another few dozen reasons to hang down town. Craftily designs tee shirts, bags, deck chairs, live music, creative people. Need we go on? Find them all in McLeod Street, and here on rue de la cyberspace:
http://www.mofocairns.com/




02.17
UKULELE'S IN THE BIG APPLE
Uke Orchestra of Great Britain jams in the big city, and the New York Times is there...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/04/arts/music/04uke.html?_r=1&ref=arts




02.18
AND UKES ACROSS THE DITCH
Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra fills the concert hall with catchy cover tunes, and turns creative Kiwis on to the uke craze...
(check out the videos here)
http://www.ukulele.co.nz/index.html




02.19
A CONVERSATION WITH UMI ARTS
http://www.cairnsfest.com.au/content/Article.aspx?ID=4ef4d686-6076-4017-916c-d2655b48743b




02.20
UNFUNNY
Island Comedy Festival Marooned in Sydney
http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/music/flying-the-raucus-powderfinger-skies-20101029-176h4.html




02.21
GIMME CULCHAH
A Sea Change (is declared) for the Arts in Brisbane
http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/music/flying-the-raucus-powderfinger-skies-20101029-176h4.html




02.22
ARTFUL ACCOMMODATION
The Art Hotel Trend is Taking Off in Melbourne, with a decidedly Aussie flair (and is expanding in a very big, impressive way)
http://www.smh.com.au/business/key-leaders/leadership-as-an-art-20101022-16xm5.html




02.23
TRACKING OPRAH
Aboriginal Rock Art is on the Agenda
http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/winfrey-to-promote-aboriginal-art-20101025-170x6.html




02.24
A CONVERSATION WITH PHOTOGRAPHER COLYN HUBER
http://www.cairnsfest.com.au/content/Article.aspx?ID=9230d029-03ec-4fc8-b87b-71c83459b2c3




02.25
I AM THE AMERICAN
The Guardian Considers the Life of Mark Twain
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/oct/30/mark-twain-american-sarah-churchwell




02.26
SOUTH FOR THE NEW YEAR
Get the early news and event info for 2011 Sydney Festival
http://corporate.sydneyfestival.org.au/Media/Festival-News




02.27
REQUIEM
Australia's Cultural Impresario and Advocate, James Murdoch, Died on 25 October in Bali
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/the-man-who-put-our-music-on-the-map/story-e6frg8n6-1225946305340
http://www.balidiscovery.com/messages/message.asp?Id=6440




02.28
BOOST FOR THE STRINGS
The Symphony gets a bonus in Adelaide
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/entertainment/arts/adelaide-symphony-orchestra-musicians-offered-2000-bonus/story-e6freesc-1225943771296




02.29
GETTIN' HIGH WITH THE BAND
Powderfinger Plays a Gig at 30,000 feet
http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/music/flying-the-raucus-powderfinger-skies-20101029-176h4.html




02.30
A CONVERSATION WITH SAM TUPOU OF MOFO
http://www.cairnsfest.com.au/content/Article.aspx?ID=327dfbd7-cddd-4273-94eb-328d77b8c2b8




02.31
NEW STAGE WORKS FACTORY
Wales Conjures up a Theatre Laboratory
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-11658016




02.32
GIVE ME A SIGN
Protests and Placards from the Washington DC Rally to Restore Sanity/Fear
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-100-best-signs-at-the-rally-to-restore-sanity




02.33
NO, REALLY, GIVE ME A SIGN
Cairns Festival has five professionally-made aluminium event signs to loan out to events, projects, and venues. There is no charge, but several are already on loan, so it's first-come, first-served. The free-standing signs have a heavy base and are about 1.6m tall. Each has 4 clip-on poster frames (2 on each side) that will take A3 posters or photographs (landscape/horizontal). Your organization/event's logo can printed to sticky vinyl and placed over existing graphics. If interested in borrowing one or more of these signs, just contact the Festival HQ (address near end of this message).




02.34
WHERE'S SPLENDOUR?
Splendour in the Grass looks for a Festival Home
http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/story/2010/10/28/splendour-in-the-grass-byron-bay-return/




02.35
A CONVERSATION WITH PLAYWRIGHT AVRIL DUCK
http://www.cairnsfest.com.au/content/Article.aspx?ID=a06e2295-f223-46da-9126-990cb9f62d75




02.36
O, SUPERWOMAN
The Los Angeles Times talks to avant garde stage performer Laurie Anderson
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-100-best-signs-at-the-rally-to-restore-sanity




02.37
MUMA OPENS
New Acronym Appears in Melbourne's Cultural Alphabet
http://www.artshub.com.au/au/news-article/news/visual-arts/muma-opens-to-great-excitment-182741?sc=1




02.38
KIWI NATIONAL BALLET BAGS A ROCK STAR
Dancers Ethan Stiefel and Gillian Murphy take on Wellington
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/entertainment/4288734/NZ-Ballet-secures-rock-star-pair




02.39
AUSSIE FILM TO SEE
The Australian Takes a Good Look at Richard Gray's film and the Mildura sun
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/orange-crush/story-e6frg8n6-1225940653025




02.40
SUMMER CODA
Watch the trailer here
http://www.abc.net.au/atthemovies/txt/s3035729.htm




02.41
GOLDEN DAYS IN COOLUM
Saturday 6 November Brings Golden Days Festival to Sunshine Coast
http://goldendaysfestival.com/
http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/story/2010/10/30/the-golden-days-festival-is-just-around-the-corner/




02.42
CHINESE ARTIST AI WEIWEI OFFERS 10,000 RIVER CRABS
Government to demolish new million-dollar studio. Crustacean feast offered in response...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101102/en_afp/chinaartprotestpropertyrights




02.43
MUSIC OUT OF NOWHERE
Spira Mirabils Serves up Spontaneous Live Orchestral Works
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/music/article-23893610-lets-do-the-concert-right-here.do




02.44
AND A MUSICAL MARCHING ABOMINABLE BLITZ
The Story of America's Most Extraordinary Spontaneous Errant Marching Band.
http://www.seedandfeed.org/about_beginnings.php




02.45
A MOST WONDERFUL MANIFESTO
Designer Bruce Mau's commendable "Incomplete Mandate for Growth"...and life, art, creativity. See text at very bottom, or click on this link...
http://www.brucemaudesign.com/112942/




02.46
NEW YEAR RESOLUTION
Have a Look at the Woodford Folk Festival Program here
http://www.woodfordfolkfestival.com/programme/




02.47
MONEY FOR TOURISM STUFF
Arts and Culture Tourism: Do you have a pre-feasible idea that needs funding?
http://www.industry.qld.gov.au/dsdweb/v4/apps/web/content.cfm?id=16243




02.48
AND DOSH FOR THE LESSER STUFF
Are you driven? Minor tourism grant information is here...
http://www.industry.qld.gov.au/dsdweb/v4/apps/web/content.cfm?id=16045




02.49
WELL PLANNED
Have a gander at the Cairns Regional Council's Cultural Plan here
www.cairns.qld.gov.au/content/commCultural/files/CulturalPlan.pdf




02.50
AT THE NEXUS
Join Arts Nexus and reap the benefits (and support our local arts ecology at the same time)
http://www.artsnexus.com.au/pages/join_us.htm




02.51
ABOUT THAT ARTS ECOLOGY
Get a good overview of the Far North cultural landscape, and links to many arts and community concerns, here
http://www.artsnexus.com.au/pages/links.htm




02.52
FOLLOW THE MONEY: RADF
What is RADF? How do I apply for funding? Can I get help for my creative project?
http://www.arts.qld.gov.au/funding/radf-faq.html
and
http://www.cairns.qld.gov.au/content/commCultural/radf.htm
download the application form here
http://www.cairns.qld.gov.au/content/commCultural/files/RADFApplicForm2010.pdf




02.53
BE BLUNT
And be prepared come December, for the return of the Blunt Edge portraiture extravaganza
http://www.bluntedge.info/




02.54
FREE ART, FOR THE PEOPLE
The Festival has a few posters left, from the 2010 Posters to the People project. They are yours for the taking, if you stop by the Cairns Festival HQ in City Place and enquire within. First come, first served, until the posters are all gone.
http://www.cairnsfest.com.au/content/Article.aspx?ID=4d3df5bc-4c1f-47a0-9a81-33984feac0f7




02.55
FOLLOW THE MONEY
Career Development Grants for you
http://www.arts.qld.gov.au/funding/career-dev-grant.html




02.56
CONTACT CAIRNS ARTFUL-E


To be removed from this email list...
To be added...
To submit contents, events, opportunities, or comments to contribute to...
Contact...
e.holowacz@cairns.qld.gov.au






This issue of Cairns Artful-e is a hodge-podge of creative opportunities, links, happenings, ideas, and instructions. Have a look. It ain't very fancy...yet. Take what you will...today, tomorrow. Some of this stuff, it is true, you will not care about. Other items might be revelations. Some will be useful. Please let us know if you don't want to get this regular email transmission. Pester us if you are receiving it more than once at a time. Send us stuff you want us to include. Share with a friend. This is our early attempt to be helpful, and things will get better. Happy weekend...oh, and the first reader who goes to the Cairns Festival Facebook page, and posts a photo taken this weekend, will win something special. The weekend, by the way, starts now...






Eric Holowacz
Festival Producer
C A I R N S F E S T I V A L
Cairns Regional Council
CULTURAL SERVICES & FACILITIES
www.cairnsfest.com.au






In Case You Missed it:
Bruce Mau's Incomplete manifesto for Growth




1. Allow events to change you.
You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you. You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth: the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them.


2. Forget about good.
Good is a known quantity. Good is what we all agree on. Growth is not necessarily good. Growth is an exploration of unlit recesses that may or may not yield to our research. As long as you stick to good you'll never have real growth.


3. Process is more important than outcome.
When the outcome drives the process we will only ever go to where we've already been. If process drives outcome we may not know where we’re going, but we will know we want to
be there.


4. Love your experiments (as you would an ugly child).
Joy is the engine of growth. Exploit the liberty in casting your work as beautiful experiments, iterations, attempts, trials, and errors. Take the long view and allow yourself the fun of failure every day.


5. Go deep.
The deeper you go the more likely you will discover something of value.


6. Capture accidents.
The wrong answer is the right answer in search of a different question. Collect wrong answers as part of the process. Ask different questions.


7. Study.
A studio is a place of study. Use the necessity of production as an excuse to study. Everyone will benefit.


8. Drift.
Allow yourself to wander aimlessly. Explore adjacencies. Lack judgment. Postpone criticism.


9. Begin anywhere.
John Cage tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. His advice: begin anywhere.


10. Everyone is a leader.
Growth happens. Whenever it does, allow it to emerge. Learn to follow when it makes sense. Let anyone lead.


11. Harvest ideas.
Edit applications. Ideas need a dynamic, fluid, generous environment to sustain life. Applications, on the other hand, benefit from critical rigor. Produce a high ratio of ideas
to applications.


12. Keep moving.
The market and its operations have a tendency to reinforce success. Resist it. Allow failure and migration to be part of your practice.


13. Slow down.
Desynchronize from standard time frames and surprising opportunities may present themselves.


14. Don’t be cool.
Cool is conservative fear dressed in black. Free yourself from limits of this sort.


15. Ask stupid questions.
Growth is fuelled by desire and innocence. Assess the answer, not the question. Imagine learning throughout your life at the rate of an infant.


16. Collaborate.
The space between people working together is filled with conflict, friction, strife, exhilaration, delight, and vast creative potential.


17. ____________________.
Intentionally left blank. Allow space for the ideas you haven’t had yet, and for the ideas
of others.


18. Stay up late.
Strange things happen when you’ve gone too far, been up too long, worked too hard, and you're separated from the rest of the world.


19. Work the metaphor.
Every object has the capacity to stand for something other than what is apparent. Work on what it stands for.


20. Be careful to take risks.
Time is genetic. Today is the child of yesterday and the parent of tomorrow. The work you produce today will create your future.


21. Repeat yourself.
If you like it, do it again. If you don’t like it, do it again.


22. Make your own tools.
Hybridize your tools in order to build unique things. Even simple tools that are your own can yield entirely new avenues of exploration. Remember, tools amplify our capacities, so even a small tool can make a big difference.


23. Stand on someone’s shoulders.
You can travel farther carried on the accomplishments of those who came before you. And the view is so much better.


24. Avoid software.
The problem with software is that everyone has it.


25. Don’t clean your desk.
You might find something in the morning that you can’t see tonight.


26. Don’t enter awards competitions.
Just don’t. It’s not good for you.


27. Read only left-hand pages.
Marshall McLuhan did this. By decreasing the amount of information, we leave room for what he called our "noodle."


28. Make new words.
Expand the lexicon. The new conditions demand a new way of thinking. The thinking demands new forms of expression. The expression generates new conditions.


29. Think with your mind.
Forget technology. Creativity is not device-dependent.


30. Organization = Liberty.
Real innovation in design, or any other field, happens in context. That context is usually some form of cooperatively managed enterprise. Frank Gehry, for instance, is only able to realize Bilbao because his studio can deliver it on budget. The myth of a split between "creatives" and "suits" is what Leonard Cohen calls a 'charming artifact of the past.'


31. Don’t borrow money.
Once again, Frank Gehry’s advice. By maintaining financial control, we maintain creative control. It’s not exactly rocket science, but it’s surprising how hard it is to maintain this discipline, and how many have failed.


32. Listen carefully.
Every collaborator who enters our orbit brings with him or her a world more strange and complex than any we could ever hope to imagine. By listening to the details and the subtlety of their needs, desires, or ambitions, we fold their world onto our own. Neither party will ever be the same.


33. Take field trips.
The bandwidth of the world is greater than that of your TV set, or the Internet, or even a totally immersive, interactive, dynamically rendered, object-oriented, real-time, computer graphic–simulated environment.


34. Make mistakes faster.
This isn’t my idea – I borrowed it. I think it belongs to Andy Grove.


35. Imitate.
Don’t be shy about it. Try to get as close as you can. You'll never get all the way, and the separation might be truly remarkable. We have only to look to Richard Hamilton and his version of Marcel Duchamp’s large glass to see how rich, discredited, and underused imitation is as a technique.


36. Scat.
When you forget the words, do what Ella did: make up something else ... but not words.


37. Break it, stretch it, bend it, crush it, crack it, fold it.


38. Explore the other edge.
Great liberty exists when we avoid trying to run with the technological pack. We can’t find the leading edge because it’s trampled underfoot. Try using old-tech equipment made obsolete by an economic cycle but still rich with potential.


39. Coffee breaks, cab rides, green rooms.
Real growth often happens outside of where we intend it to, in the interstitial spaces – what Dr. Seuss calls "the waiting place." Hans Ulrich Obrist once organized a science and art conference with all of the infrastructure of a conference – the parties, chats, lunches, airport arrivals – but with no actual conference. Apparently it was hugely successful and spawned many ongoing collaborations.


40. Avoid fields.
Jump fences. Disciplinary boundaries and regulatory regimes are attempts to control the wilding of creative life. They are often understandable efforts to order what are manifold, complex, evolutionary processes. Our job is to jump the fences and cross the fields.


41. Laugh.
People visiting the studio often comment on how much we laugh. Since I've become aware of this, I use it as a barometer of how comfortably we are expressing ourselves.


42. Remember.
Growth is only possible as a product of history. Without memory, innovation is merely novelty. History gives growth a direction. But a memory is never perfect. Every memory is a degraded or composite image of a previous moment or event. That’s what makes us aware of its quality as a past and not a present. It means that every memory is new, a partial construct different from its source, and, as such, a potential for growth itself.


43. Power to the people.
Play can only happen when people feel they have control over their lives. We can't be free agents if we’re not free.