01 Aug, 2019

Art Around Every Corner in the City of Adelaide During SALA

The South Australian Living Arts Festival (SALA) promotes and celebrates artists throughout the month of August, and during the festival, the City of Adelaide will be filled with exciting, unique and thought-provoking art experiences that everyone can enjoy.

These include an exhibition that looks at the enduring and topical question of what it means to be Australian, an Emerging Curators exhibition that explores connections to place and home, and a creative collection of vibrant artworks from Adelaide High School students.

There are also several fascinating walks that will take participants to the creative pockets of the city, including one that explores political activism and art, and a SALA-highlights wander with the Lord Mayor of Adelaide, Sandy Verschoor.

As a lover of the arts and a supporter of the creative industries for many years, the Lord Mayor urged everyone to get out and embrace the SALA festival.

“Art can stimulate emotion, surprise with the unexpected, and invite people to stop, explore and reflect. Viewing artworks has been shown to enhance and enrich wellbeing and the City of Adelaide is committed to working closely with our artists and creatives to enhance the vitality of the city and the community,” said the Lord Mayor.

“The SALA festival features artwork that goes across all genres and themes, located in varied and unique places. Wrap yourself up in a warm coat and head out to some of the many exhibitions on offer or join me on a tour of the SALA city highlights.”

Already Home at the City Library

Proving that modern libraries are much more than books alone, the City Library will host the Already Home exhibition from 30 July. It will feature works by Australian-born and migrant artists, as well as creatives from within Adelaide’s LGBTIQ, disability and multilingual communities, showcasing a kaleidoscope of visual responses to the question of what it means to be Australian.

Curated by Fruzsi Kenez, Already Home is a diverse exhibition that includes photography, sculpture, painting, jewellery, illustration and more, by some of Adelaide’s most exciting emerging visual artists. This is the second year an emerging curator has been empowered to stage an exhibition across the breadth of the City Library, a diverse and dynamic community hub, and a place of possibility.

Comic fun

For those who have a longing to make comics but aren’t sure where to start, local comic book artist and writer, Georgina Chadderton (George Rex Comics) will give the lowdown on basic character design and storytelling using comics at a City Library workshop. Book at https://bit.ly/2XYoA6p.

Emerging Curator Program

The exhibition Intrinsic, being held at the Adelaide Town Hall, Mankurri-api Kuu/Reconciliation Room, Art Pod and Breezeway, and Adelaide Central Market Arcade is part of the City of Adelaide’s Emerging Curator Program, presented in partnership with Carclew, offering three young arts practitioners the opportunity to curate visual art projects across Council locations.

Curated by Christina Massolino, Jack McBride and Chiranjika (ChiChi) Grasby, Intrinsic seeks to explore ideas of connection to place, land and home. The exhibiting artists are from various cultural backgrounds and they examine feelings of belonging and place.

ARTWORKS collaboration

Local artists, creatives, activists and thinkers can come together to collaborate and share ideas during the ARTWORKS: Negative Space residency program.

ART WORKS is a City of Adelaide initiative delivered in partnership with Guildhouse at the Minor Works Building within the Ergo Apartments. Negative Space is a community art space and activity centre facilitated by Alycia Bennett and Florian Cinco in collaboration with artists from Australia and the Philippines. Join Negative Space Thursday to Sunday afternoons each week for workshops, exhibitions, presentations, films, performances, skills-sharing, free markets, community dinners and more.

SALA runs from the 1 – 31 August. For more information about what’s on at SALA go to www.salafestival.com.

Paula Stevens