Adelaide curator to head Aboriginal art museum in US
An Art Gallery of SA curator will leave to head the only overseas museum specialising in Australian Indigenous art.
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Tarnanthi Festival artistic director Nici Cumpston will leave the Art Gallery of SA for a new role in the US, heading the only overseas museum dedicated to Australian Aboriginal art.
Cumpston will become director of the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, in May.
Kluge-Ruhe specialises in the exhibition and study of Indigenous Australian art, with more than 3600 works in its collection.
“I see this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me to extend the work I have been doing for the past 17 years at AGSA into an international context,” Cumpston said.
A Barkandji artist and educator, Cumpston was appointed as AGSA’s first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander curator in 2008, and has directed its national Tarnanthi Festival of Indigenous art since its inception.
Cumpston will continue as artistic director for Tarnanthi’s 10th anniversary program in October, ahead of a nationwide search to fill the role.
Second cabaret solo show for UK music sensation
English multi-instrumentalist Jacob Collier has added a second solo show to his Australian exclusive appearance at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival in June.
Tickets for Collier’s performance at Her Majesty’s Theatre on June 7 have almost sold out, with another performance now added at the same venue on June 8.
Tickets for the new show go on sale Thursday, January 23, at noon from Ticketek.
Collier, 30, says his Adelaide shows will be filled with improvisation, audience participation and never-before-heard arrangements.
The performer has amassed 1.8m followers on YouTube, where he started posting split-screen videos of popular songs in which he performed all the different vocal parts about 15 years ago.
“I cannot wait to set foot in Australia once again this year, for this special one-of-a-kind solo
show in Adelaide,” Collier said from the UK.
“To improvise a show alongside the audience is one of my most favourite things to experience in the world, and to get to do so in Adelaide, one of Earth’s finest cohorts, is a joy.”
Collier’s latest album, Djesse Vol. 4, features audience choirs recorded on his 2022 tour of Australia and has been nominated for Album of the Year as well as two other categories at this year’s Grammy Awards.
Festival artistic director Virginia Gay said cabaret was about showcasing “a very particular kind of personal, magnetic, incandescent central performance”.
“There’s really nobody doing this with the joy, the ease and the scale of Jacob Collier,” Ms Gay said.
“What a way to crack open the festival’s 25th birthday celebrations with style.”
When he was just 18, Collier’s fusion of pop, jazz, classical, electronic and a capella styles caught the ear of industry giants like the late Quincy Jones and Herbie Hancock.
In 2022, Collier melded recordings of 100,000 audience members’ voices on his US tour to create a stunning rendition of the Elvis classic Can’t Help Falling In Love.
Last year, he sold out Radio City Music Hall in New York, and he recently performed at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Book at adelaidecabaretfestival.com.au
Adelaide Fringe partners with national insurance group
National company NRMA Insurance has partnered with Adelaide Fringe in a six-figure deal to match community donations made through ticket check-outs and the Pay It Forward program at this year’s event.
Donations made through Adelaide Fringe’s foundation, Arts Unlimited, help ensure communities experiencing disadvantage have access to Adelaide Fringe events.
NRMA Insurance chief customer officer Michelle Klein said the partnership would support local communities and that its customers would also receive free Fringe memberships.
“We are proud to be supporting South Australia’s thriving arts sector and helping remove barriers to participation,” Ms Klein said.
NRMA Insurance already partners with SA’s State Emergency Service on preparations for storms and floods.
Fringe director Heather Croall said the partnership would help it “achieve our mission of becoming the most inclusive festival in the world”.
adelaidefringe.com.au/arts-unlimited
Adelaide professor’s $500,000 gift to arts organisation
The former chairwoman of Australian Dance Theatre has made a parting $500,000 donation to the Adelaide based company, the largest philanthropic gift in its 60-year history.
Arts and cultural leadership Professor Ruth Rentschler, from the Business School at UniSA, made the gift on completing her eight-year tenure on the ADT board, which included the past two years as its chairwoman.
An advocate for arts organisations across the state and the country, Professor Rentschler received an OAM for her efforts in 2012 and said serving on the ADT board had been an honour.
“The company is important to Australia’s dance ecology, and I’m thrilled to have played a part in its success,” she said.
“I look forward to supporting the company for many years to come … and seeing its continued evolution into the future.”
ADT is celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2025, which will include the world premiere of artistic director Daniel Riley’s work A Quiet Language as part of the Adelaide Festival in February-March.
Executive director Nick Hays said Professor Rentschler had brought decades of experience working across the arts, management and non-profit sectors to the ADT board and her gift would go towards ensuring the company’s future success.
“It’s rare to find a chair that has such a deep understanding across all areas of management and governance, alongside such a broad range of experience in the arts,” Mr Hays said.
“To have her support the company in perpetuity with her bequest is extraordinary and illustrates her commitment to seeing our company, and the arts in this country, flourish.
“It has put us in an amazing position as we head into our 60th anniversary year in 2025.”
Grief for high-profile family as beloved artist dies
The Yirrkala community is in mourning after the artist and didgeridoo expert, and relative of Yothu Yindi’s front man, died last month.
$50,000 award for mid-career artist
Arts wrap: A leading South Australian sculptor has been awarded the annual $50,000 Guildhouse Fellowship. Plus – your first look at next year’s must-see Fringe acts.