NewsBite

Arts

December 2024

The public will be charged to enter the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney from January 2025.

Major Sydney gallery to charge entry fee for first time in 25 years

From January 31, visitors to the Museum of Contemporary Art will have to pay $20 to get in. Chairwoman Lorraine Tarabay blames a decline in government funding.

  • Michael Bailey
Australian Museum chief executive Kim McKay.

Why this CEO reckons networking is ‘BS’

For Australian Museum boss Kim McKay, work and life are about having meaningful conversations. Social media chit-chat doesn’t cut it.

  • Sally Patten and Lap Phan
Paris Neilson (left) and Griffin Theatre Company executive director Julieanne Campbell at Stables Theatre, which a Neilson gift - and a last-minute Canberra grant - has helped save.

How a billionaire and government saved a key Sydney theatre

Griffin Theatre Company gave the world Cate Blanchett and David Wenham, but a soaring budget for a much-needed rebuild almost took it away.

  • Updated
  • Michael Bailey

November 2024

Art gallery owner Tim Olsen and the artwork Comedian by Maurizio Cattelan.

‘Too cool, too avant-garde’: This gallery owner is over conceptual art

The son of one of Australia’s greatest landscape painters says the contemporary market is oversupplied with galleries but undersupplied with enduring talent.

  • Michael Bailey

October 2024

Maud Page, deputy director and director of collections at the Art Gallery of NSW.

First woman tipped to run Art Gallery of NSW

The long-time lieutenant of departing director Michael Brand is widely regarded as a worthy successor.

  • Michael Bailey
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Artistic director Anne-Louise Sarks (left) and actor/writer Sheridan Harbridge teamed up to write and direct the Melbourne Theatre Company’s production of My Brilliant Career.

Diary alert: Shows to catch in November

My Brilliant Career becomes a musical, a guest guitarist turns the ACO into house-music hedonists, and a pioneer of abstract art looks back.

  • Michael Bailey

September 2024

Can Yavuz at the new Ames Yavuz gallery, with Dark Emu video artwork by Jacob Nash & Stephen Page, part of the inaugural Memory Myth exhibition. Surry Hills. Sydney.

The Australian gallery making moves on Mayfair

Can Yavuz sets out in his galleries to “challenge, inspire and reclaim”. It’s worked here; now he’s hoping to do the same in London.

  • Stephen Todd
Hannah Gartside has won the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize 2024 with Bunnies In Love, Lust and Longing #19, made from secondhand gloves. 

Gloves beat McNuggets for rich sculpture prize

Gloves reshaped into romantic rabbits have won the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, besting an earrings and necklace set made from Maccas and its packaging.

  • Michael Bailey

August 2024

Gloria Fletcher Thancoupie’s Pot, 1986, estimated at between $4000 and $6000 in Bonhams’ sale of The Morgan Collection on August 27 in Sydney. The stoneware bowl features a ring stand of natural woollen fibre.

A big winner from a 1990s bank sale offloads art collection

After Graeme Morgan made $100 million selling Sealcorp to St George Bank he threw himself into art collecting. Now much of his collection is up for sale.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue
Swinburne University students on the job - taking part in Work Integrated Learning.  

Job-ready skills for the fast-changing workplace

The joint winners of the employability category embed career experience in study programs to give graduates an edge in the competitive job market.

  • Sian Powell
Paul Becker, the founder and CEO of Art Money, has run out of operating capital.

Christie’s-backed art fintech puts finishing touches on recap

It also opened a $US50 million debt book opportunity alongside the equity round and told backers it would be open to a sale or join venture discussions.

  • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport

May 2024

Comedian Nazeem Hussain.

How this comedian built a career while working for PwC

His bosses thought he’d just popped out for a moment, but he was actually working at the ABC.

  • Aaron Weinman
Handpicked Wines boss William Dong with Sydney Symphony Orchestra members Alexandra Osborne  and Tim Nankervis at the Handpicked Cellar Door in Chippendale, Sydney.

Six ways to stay entertained for those staying home this winter

Not everyone is travelling abroad for the northern hemisphere summer. Cosy up in Australia on a rail trip with Journey Beyond, or indulge at The Victoria & Albert Guesthouse in the Blue Mountains.

  • Fiona Carruthers
Michael Brand

Michael Brand’s weekend rituals and favourite restaurants

The Art Gallery of NSW director has a packed weekday – and night – agenda. This is how he lets go on Saturdays and Sundays.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue

April 2024

Boris Cornelissen and Jesse-Jack De Deyne of the A Secondary Eye art gallery.

The $10,000 and $30,000 rules for art that will make you money

With 83 per cent of young collectors buying art for financial reasons, here’s how to make sure you know what you’re doing.

  • Lucy Dean
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Crowd Pleaser: Dale Frank

This famous artist hates questions, and isn’t afraid to let you know

Celebrated Australian artist Dale Frank, whose 10-year survey has just opened at the National Art School in Sydney, will answer your questions. Begrudgingly.

  • Samantha Hutchinson
“Backstage looks different these days”: Frontier Touring chief executive Dion Brandt and chief operating office Susan Heymann

Forget sex, drugs and rock’n’roll: kale and kombucha take over touring

Frontier Touring has a new-look team, but it’s not the only thing in the music biz that has changed.

  • Samantha Hutchinson

March 2024

In swirls of edible hues, the one-off vessels are visually delicious.

The allure of collectable glass

Have we reached peak ceramic? This designer is a forging a new path with glass.

  • Stephen Todd

February 2024

ING chief executive Melanie Evans, left, and Powerhouse Museum chief executive Lisa Havilah.

New-look Powerhouse gets a timely funding boost

Sydney’s newest museum with a rooftop garden on top of a skyscraper will now function as a hub for education on biodiversity, sustainability and conservation.

  • Samantha Hutchinson
Bennelong Presents Sunday Jazz features artists playing every Sunday at the Sydney restaurant.

How to crash one of Sydney’s hottest restaurant events

Fine-dining restaurant Bennelong jazzes up Sydney afternoons, and it’s often full, but there’s a hack to getting in if you haven’t booked ahead.

  • Mary-Ellen Hepworth

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/sydney-arts-62i