E-newsletter - October 2010
Welcome
The past two months have been filled with literature and art!
Literary fans were spoilt for choice in September with the Melbourne Writers Festival and the Overload Poetry Festival. At the same time, art fans enjoyed the Melbourne Art Fair and a spectucular range of exhibition openings across the city.
And if that wasn’t enough, Melbourne Fringe has just ended and the Melbourne Festival runs until 23 October.
It has also been a busy period for the Moving Galleries Poetry Selection Committee reviewing more than 700 poems.
We hope you enjoy the remainder of the festival season as well as the regular art and poetry events around Victoria.
Cheers, Jack Walden and the Moving Galleries Advisory Board
PS. Don’t forget, you can join us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter
Moving Galleries News
Work continues on establishing a separate entity for Moving Galleries
As you may be aware, Moving Galleries is an initiative of the Committee for Melbourne and until now has been managed by the Committee. In order to ensure the ongoing success of Moving Galleries, it’s necessary to establish a separate entity to manage future exhibitions, partnerships and operations.
While we’ve been selecting poetry for the next exhibition, the Advisory Board has been doing the paperwork to set Moving Galleries up as a separate legal entity.
The new structure is almost ready to be established and we will provide you with the full details in our next e-newsletter.
At the same time, we have been talking with other arts, literature and public transport organisations to find new ways of bringing Moving Galleries to you. We’ll share more details about these exciting plans once we’ve confirmed them with our partners.
Poetry Selection Finalised
Thank you to Victoria’s poets for contributing haikus, rookus, long and short poems to the 700 plus poetry submissions we received.
The extremely high quality of poems made it very difficult to narrow the selection down to 30. With themes from loneliness, grieving, gardening and insects to spelling errors and a child’s first taste of passionfruit, we’re sure you’ll find the final selection entertaining and thought-provoking.
Congratulations to the poets who made it through to the final selection, and thanks to everyone for your wonderful submissions.
Commuting with ….Daniel Donahoo
In each e-newsletter, we ask someone involved with Moving Galleries to share their thoughts on the project.
Daniel was the lucky winner of the People’s Choice Award Public Prize. He won $500 for casting his vote for his favourite poem.
How did you find out about Moving Galleries?
Through friends who are writers and poets and have had their work published and presented by Moving Galleries. I have had an obsession with public transport and poetry for sometime. When I was performing spoken word in Melbourne myself (a lifetime ago), I produced a series called "The City Loop Poems" – the concept of words and stories presented in overtly public spaces is a very good one.
Why did you vote?
To support fine words and ideas. And, because of the great respect I have for the work of the individual I voted for. His words hit my core.
What is your favourite part about Moving Galleries?
The fact that poetry and art is taken into such a public space, to be appreciated and read by an audience who might otherwise not think to engage with these art forms. I get a kick when I step onto a carriage with Moving Galleries taking the space where advertising used to be. It must be expanded and take over other public spaces – how much more pleasant would it be with billboards or cinema advertising sharing poetry and art.
Which is your train line?
This shouldn’t be such a difficult question. But it is. For a long time it has been the Bendigo line as I’ve been living in Castlemaine, which means in city terms, any train line to the west that stops at North Melbourne has been my line – Craigieburn, Werribee, Upfield...but, I am in the process of landing back in Melbourne and will be making my way into town on the Belgrave or Lilydale line...depending.
What is your favourite poem/artwork? (outside of MG works)
My favourite poem is local poet Phil Norton’s "This is not a love poem". I heard him read it years ago. I am a tragic romantic.
If you were a book, what would you be?
Anything by Tim Winton...in fact aspects of my life are slightly too similar to some of Winton’s work.
Favourite bookstore/gallery?
Stoneman’s Bookroom in Castlemaine.
If there were one thing you would like to see on Melbourne’s public transport, what would it be?
Public performance of poetry and music. When I was a teenager there was this bloke who used to ride the Hurstbridge line, usually got on at Heidelberg and he would play the violin. When he boarded he would politely ask if anyone minded and if there were no objections he would play – he did not ask for any money, he wasn’t busking, just providing a community service, a music appreciation service if you will. The response from commuters was in most part overwhelmingly positive. It was always a joy when he’d get on and make the 20 minute run from Heidelberg into the city an experience, rather than a journey.
As well as a Moving Galleries appreciator, Daniel Donahoo writes and works with words. You can find his work at http://www.danieldonahoo.com and his recent music/spoken word collaboration at http://www.inbflat.net
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Get moving and check out …
Catch a train or a tram to Northcote and check out:
Arts Project Australia’s Portrait Exchange
24 High Street, Northcote until 16 October
Every portrait tells a story of a relationship and it is these stories that are the focus of Portrait Exchange. This exhibition is the result of a project which has fostered existing relationships and initiated new ones. It translates shared experiences and visual dialogues between not only sitter and portrait painter, but also between studio artist and non Arts Project Australia artist. This visual exchange between artists builds on the popular genre of portraiture, whilst connecting to a broader dialogue of artists who have used portraiture throughout history.
Catch a train/tram to the countless locations across Melbourne to catch a show at:
Melbourne Festival
Various venues until 23 October
Celebrating its 25th year, the Melbourne Festival is one of Australia’s flagship international arts festivals and one of the major multi-arts festivals of the world, in terms of quality of work, innovation of vision, and scale and breadth of program.
Each Festival brings an unparalleled feast of dance, theatre, music, visual arts, multimedia and outdoor events from renowned and upcoming Australian and International companies and artists to Melbourne.
Check out more arts and literate events you can head along to at www.movinggalleries.org/getmoving
And in other arts and literature news
Melbourne Poetry Map
Melbourne has one of the most exciting and diverse spoken word and poetry scenes in the world – and now there’s a map to prove it. Audio Graffiti is a free series of self-guided audio walks through Melbourne’s CBD.
To create the walks, 21 of Melbourne’s finest spoken word performers have mapped the city’s epic architecture and dirty laneways, creating audio paste-ups of tragic loves lost, recording their hearts and leaving their stories like invisible murals against the city walls.
Supported by the City of Melbourne, the maps were launched as a part of the Overload Poetry Festival 2010.
Download the audio tour and map from www.melbournepoetrymap.com and hit the streets.
MG Sponsors
Moving Galleries thanks our sponsors and partners for their generous support:
Thanks to Lou Weis and Jan van Schaik for their permission to use their work OverLogo as our e-newsletter header.
Contact
Moving Galleries
PO Box 640
South Melbourne Victoria 3205 Australia
t: +61 3 9676 9040
e: movinggalleries@melbourne.org.au
