artsConnect art news

DESKTOP CREATE AWARDS 2007

The Desktop Create Awards 2007 are inviting you to vote for the 2007 People's Choice Awards. Vote and go into the draw to win an Apple MacBook Pro!

artsConnect artist NATHANIEL ECKSTROM is a finalist in the ILLUSTRATORS category. Based in Cammeray NSW, Nathaniel is a painter / illustrator whose themes vary from the dark and macabre to richly euphoric.

View Nathaniel Eckstrom's profile on artsConnect

We reckon Nathaniel is a pretty fine illustrator and have no hesitation in voting for this artist as the People's Choice Award. Get interactive and express your opinion!

Click the link below to vote for Nathaniel now:

http://peopleschoice.createawards.com.au/entries/view/694

Theatresports® Celebrity Challenge 2007
8pm SAT 4 AUGUST ENMORE THEATRE

Once a year, Theatresports® forces celebrities into unscripted combat – to raise vital funds for the Starlight Children's Foundation. Now it's time for ‘007. 2007. Armed only with wit and a tuxedo, celebrities must improvise comedy sketches live on stage. They will face savage restrictions, brutal judging and shock suggestions from the most evil genius of all: a Sydney theatre audience!

Like Channel Ten's Thank God You're Here and the Comedy Channel's Whose Line Is It Anyway? this is hysterical, fast-paced comedy with a touch of panic and a license to thrill.

The night is hosted by comedy legend Gary Eck (The Nation, Boytown) and Theatresports® champion Monique Dykstra and includes a "monster" raffle with flying, driving and luxury prizes any spy would kill for. All to help out the Starlight Children’s Foundation.

Confirmed celebrities include  Andrew Daddo,Bessie Bardot,Nikki Webster,Axle Whitehead,Nova 96.9's Cal Wilson ,
Playschool's Benita Collings, Tim (“but wait there's more”) Shaw, Home & Away's Amy Matthews, All Saints' Wil Traval & Virginia Gay, The Comedy Channel's Cameron Knight,Thank God You're Here's Daniel Cordeaux, Comedy Inc: The Late Shift's Rebecca DeUnamuno, The Sideshow's Clare Hooper, The Ronnie Johns Half Hour's Jordan Raskopoulos

Plus Sydney's most dangerous Theatresports® players: Amanda Buckley, David Callan, Ewan Campbell, Michael Gregory, Marko Mustac, Lee Naimo, Josephine O'Reilly and Toby Truslove.

Theatresports®  Celebrity Challenge 2007 raises vital funds for the Starlight Foundation to grant "wishes" to seriously ill and hospitalised children around Australia.

Tickets (including booking fee)
Adult $45.50 Student/Pensioner $38.50 Group Bookings (10 or more) $38.50
Phone 9550 3666 or online at www.Ticketek.com.au

For full details about the night go to http://celeb.improaustralia.com.au

THE SEED by Kate Mulvany @ Belvoir Theatre, Sydney
20 July - 12 August 2007

Based on the real-life story of award-winning playwright Kate Mulvany, The Seed is an insightful, quirky, often hilarious and tightly-woven tale of a very real family and the impact that war has had on their lives.

Three generations of the Maloney’s reunite after thirty years: Brian is an IRA soldier begrudgingly living in Nottingham. On his 80th birthday, he is visited by his long-lost son Danny - a ten-pound pom and Vietnam Veteran, now living in Australia. Danny is accompanied by his daughter Rose – a 30-year-old writer dealing with the repercussions of her father’s involvement in the war and desperately trying to write his story in order to conquer her own demons. As the characters settle in for what should be an afternoon of celebration, the realms of truth and lies, war and peace, family and foes become blurred and the three lives begin to entangle.

Directed by Iain Sinclair (Lord of the Flies, Hurlyburly), The Seed stars Kate Mulvany (Mr Bailey’s Minder, A Man With Five Children, Ruby’s Last Dollar, Buried Child) as Rose, Danny Adcock (The Boyce Trilogy) as Danny, and – coming out of retirement to play the role of Brian – the wonderful Martin Vaughan (Mr Bailey’s Minder, Buried Child).

As the citizens of a country at war, this show is a timely reminder that the effects of combat don’t end on the battlefield. They are simply the seeds laid for many generations to come.

OPENING NIGHT Friday July 20
SEASON DATES Saturday July 21 – Sunday August 12
PLAYS Tues 7pm, Wed-Sat 8.15pm, Sun 5.15pm
WHERE Belvoir St, Downstairs Theatre, 25 Belvoir St, Surry Hills
TICKETS $29/$23 (Preview $20, Cheap Tues Pay-what-you-can min $10)
BOOKINGS 9699 3444 or www.belvoir.com.au

THE MAN FROM MUKINUPIN is a musical celebration of life in a Western Australian wheat-belt town at the time of the Great War.

International Animation Contest : Deadline 24 September 2007

The ASIFA (International Animated Film Association) and Toon Boom Animation Inc. today announced the launch of International Animation  Contest for the Web, open to creative minds worldwide. The contest is open until September 24, 2007 and is calling for animated shorts that are two minutes or less based on the theme, "Global Warming".

Ten movies will be chosen and submitted to a public vote. The three movies that obtain the highest vote will be showcased online for a year on Toon Boom's website. Movies will also be screened in different cities during the evening celebrating the International Animation Celebration Day on October 28th, 2007. The three winners will also receive a copy of Toon Boom Solo.

To join the International Animation Contest go to www.toonboom.com/contest/international2007

Second Life is an online community of over 7.5 million users across the globe. For some time, artists have been using Second Life as a medium to create & promote their art.  artsConnect artist Karen Schreiner is a digital artist who has an art gallery in Second Life, and uses the medium to promote her digital work and collaborate with other Second Life artists.

The Australia Arts Council have recently announced, in partnership with the ABC, the first ever artist forum in Second Life.  The in-world event, to be moderated by ABC’s Sunday Arts reporter/producer Fenella Kernebone, is for the Australia Council’s inaugural Second Life artist residency.

Across The Board @ Wallspace Gallery Surry Hills
3 August to 10 August 2007

Across The Board is an innovative exhibition happening in early August at Wallspace Gallery in Surry Hills Sydney. 100 artists from different creative backgrounds were invited to use a skateboard as their canvas and re-create a non-functional object into an expressions of their personaliy ... an artwork.

Across the Board is not a show exclusively about skateboarding. It’s about freedom of expression and the individual– and it celebrates the idea that art, like skateboarding, can be done almost anywhere.

100% of all sale proceeds will be donated to the Cancer Council NSW. Contributing artists include Ken Done, David Egan, Ricky Swallow, Jeremyville, Kill Pixie, Anthony Lister, Michelle Ussher,had Muska, Natas Kaupas, Mike O’Meally plus many more Australian and international artists.

A couple of artists profiled on artsConnect have supported the event by creating & donating skateboard art for the exhibition : George Hambov (Graffiti Artist), Julian Stayte (Painter / Aerosol Artist) and Mark Rhodes (Painter).

For more information visit www.acrosstheboardart.com.

Wallspace Gallery is located at 25 - 27 Brisbane Street Surry Hills NSW 2010.
Visit Wallspace Gallery website

Top: Skateboard by David Spencer / Bottom: Skateboard by Julian Stayte

A Winter's Tale @ Star of the Sea Theatre, Manly NSW

5 July - 21 July 2007
Star of the Sea Theatre
Cnr Collingwood St & Iluka Ave
Manly NSW 2095
Bookings : 02 9439 1906

A modern look at life, death, the universe and everything. Shakepeare's sublime late masterpiece sweeps breathtakingly from jealousy, rage and loss to redeption, reconciliation and fainlly, wonder. Along the way it visits kings and queens, playful children, a singing street-hustler, dancing shepherds, a most extraordinary statue, and (of course) that famous hungry brea. A profound exploration of the simple miracles in life and the forces that shape them.

A Winter's Tale is presented by Factory Space Theatre. For more information visit www.staroftheseatheatre.com.au