PAUL Kelly joins Irish-French chanteuse Camille O’Sullivan in paying tribute to the words of W.B Yeats and other great Irish poets with the Australian premiere of “Ancient Rain,” in a mixed spoken word and song-cycle performance in The Playhouse, running until Saturday, November 5. Bookings to canberratheatrecentre.com.au or 6275 2700.

Events:

BELCONNEN Arts Centre is celebrating the area’s 50^th anniversary at the “BelcoNOW” family friendly night festival, a free event where families and friends can enjoy some “community magic”. 118 Emu Bank, Belconnen, 5pm-8pm, Saturday, November 5.

DESIGN Canberra continues promoting Canberra as a global city of design, until November 25. As part of its Open Studios program An open studio special event involving ceramists operating from studios at the Canberra Potters in Watson, hand-blended and hand-packaged tea blends by Tea Garden Co and Field & Coppice, a Canberra-based botanical design studio, will be held at Watson Arts Centre 1 Aspinall Street, Watson, 11am-4pm, Saturday, November 5. Other program information at designcanberrafestival.com.au

Talk:

“CONTOUR 556: Interventions in the Landscape,” the public art festival, turns its attention to the spoken word with “ Contoured Poetry,” poetry by Indigenous writer Samuel Wagan Watson, and readings by Niloofar Fanaiyan, Paul Collis and Paul Magee from their books. At the East Space Gallery (the mirror building to Water’s Edge Restaurant), Queen Elizabeth Terrace, Parkes, 6pm-7.30pm, Saturday, November 5. Then in “Words on the Lake” Collis, Fanaiyan, Magee, Shane Strange and Anika Quayle will read from 20th and 21st century poets, at Bowen Place, Parkes (between the NGA foreshore and the Kings Ave bridge) 2.30pm-3.30pm, Sunday, November 6. Further information at contour556.com.au

MUSE café in the East Hotel has “From Brain to Book: author and publisher”, with Canberra’s LJM Owen talking to her commissioning editor Angela Meyer. 3pm-4pm, Sunday, November 6. Bookings to musecanberra.com.au

Arts business:

“NOTED” Writers Festival is coming back for a third year in 2017 and applications to feature as a festival artist will close at midnight on November 14. Locals, interstaters, internationals, fiction and non-fiction writers, poets, editors, publishers, sculptors, dancers and designers are welcome, applications to notedfestival.com

CHRIS Latham’s “Flowers of War” project has embarked on a crowd-funding campaign seeking especially to defray the costs of the new double-CD portrait of the vocal and piano works of Frederick Septimus Kelly. Total pledges must reach $7000 by November 30 to pozible.com/project/fs-kelly-cd-race-against-time

Film:

CONTINUING this weekend is the Canberra International Film Festival, at the National Film and Sound Archive McCoy Circuit, Acton, until November 6. Highlights include “Driving with Selvi”, about South India’s first female taxi driver, 6pm, Saturday, November 5, and “Hotel Coolgardie”, WA filmmaker Pete Gleeson’s wryly-observed journey into outback Australia, 3.30pm, November 6. All program details and bookings AT ciff.com.au

THE 16th annual Russian Resurrection Film Festival continues at Capitol Cinemas Manuka, until November 16. Bookings to eventcinemas.com.au

THE British Film Festival is at Palace Cinemas until November 16. Bookings to palacecinemas.com.au

Dance:

JAMES Batchelor and Collaborators premiere “Smooth Translation,” commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery as part of Design Canberra. Described as “an ode to master sculptor Barbara Hepworth”, it’s in the gallery’s Gordon Darling Hall at 12.15pm and 1.30pm on Saturday, November 5 and 11am, 12.15pm and 1pm Sunday, November 6. Free event.

Concerts and Gigs:

IN “Slava, Rodrigo & Beethoven VII,” Richard Tognetti will lead an expanded Australian Chamber Orchestra, featuring 36 musicians on stage, starring guest artist Slava Grigoryan. Llewellyn Hall, 8pm, Saturday, November 5, bookings to ticketek.com.au, phone 1300 795012.

THE Alliance Française de Canberra and Wesley Music Foundation, will present “Bleu – Paris on a spring evening”, the third concert in the Spring Series of French music. Wesley Music Centre 5.30pm, Saturday, November 5, bookings to trybooking.com

Theatre:

CANBERRA theatre-maker Zsuzsi Soboslay has created “Anthems and Angels: The Compassion Plays.” She’s been working with members of the local Sudanese refugee community to develop a ‘joyful and thought-provoking’ production. Ralph Wilson Theatre, Gorman Arts Centre 7.30pm, until November 4, bookings to agac.com.au or at the door.

Exhibitions:

 “THE Popular Pet Show” is the summer show for the National Portrait Gallery, and features “PAWtraits” of all kinds of animals. Open to the public from November 4 to March 13.

ON a similar note, “Horse”, new work from Grace Costa, opens at the Nishi Gallery, 17 Kendall Lane NewActon, 6pm, on Friday, November 4, running to November 20. Costa explores her captivation with horses through her lens, photographing unbridled horses.

ANNETTE Barker and her class of seven artists are exhibiting in the Ginninderra School House Gallery under the title “Colour, Light & Landscape”. Sweet Copper Cafe, Gold Creek, Nicholls, November 3-27.

CRAFT ACT: Craft and Design Centre in the North Building, Civic, has just opened Mitchell/Fuller’s “Moving Forward, Looking Back” and “Reclaim”, work by Corr Blimey, Christina Bricknell, Simon Cottrell, Dan Edwards, Nadège Desgenétez, Luke Laffan, Gilbert Riedelbauch, Joanne Searle and Sam Tomkins.

STRATHNAIRN Homestead Gallery has “Shifting Boundaries”, paintings, etchings, mono prints, mixed media and textile art by Ilona Lasmanis, Robyn Diener and Jan Ward, to be opened by artist & print maker Jo Hollier at 4pm this Saturday, November 5. Then running November 27. The 2016 Annual Members Exhibition, “Metamorphosis” continues at Strathnairn’s Woolshed Gallery until November 20.

GALLERY@BCS’s “Piece of Mind” series presents “Surface Vitriolic”, responses to mental health within in their immediate family on a day to day basis by Selena Smith, Karen Silsby, and Robyn Twiss Fisher, running at Belconnen Community Services, Swanson Court, until November 11.