TWO new exhibitions are opening this weekend at Beaver Galleries. Renowned artist Graham Fransella’s new works are the result of several decades of draughtsmanship and exploration into the theme of figure and landscape, painted on both canvas and paper. Brenden Scott French’s kiln formed glass sculptures and wall pieces are carefully layered and assembled to develop pattern and form, which he uses as vehicles to reflect his experiences. Beaver Galleries, 81 Denison Street, Deakin, from Tuesday to Friday, 10am-5pm, and Saturday and Sunday, 9am–5pm, July 20 to August 6.

Events:

OLD Canberra Inn is hosting Canberra’s very first Mid-Winter Folk Fest, featuring performance poets, musicians and children’s entertainers. The MC is Canberra arts identity Chris Endrey. Old Canberra Inn, 195 Mouat Street, Lyneham, from 12pm, Sunday, July 23. All welcome.

Talk:

ADFAS Molonglo Plains has Sophie Oosterwijk lecturing on “Rembrandt’s Vision: Dutch History Painting In The 17th Century”, at the Comfort Inn, Airport International, 57 Yass Road, Queanbeyan, from 2pm, Thursday, July 20. All bookings and inquiries to Lucy Costas, 0437 538529.

Workshops and classes:

CASP is an annual small grants program administered by Regional Arts NSW on behalf of Create NSW Arts and Health. Its focus is on arts and the environment, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander projects, culturally and linguistically diverse projects and projects by children or young people. CASP grant writing workshops are open to applicants at southerntablelandsarts.com.au until 5pm on Thursday, July 27.

ACTING For the Fun of It presents “The Living Text” – “From Page to Stage”, a six week course for adults (including Year 12 drama students, has been postponed to August 10. The course will run from Thursday. August 10 to September 21 from 7 – 9pm at the Hedley Beare Centre for Teaching and Learning on Fremantle Drive Stirling. All inquiries to course tutor, Peter Wilkins at peterwilkins@grapevine.com.au or 0408 034373.

CIT Adult Short courses are held every first weekend of the month all year round at Canberra Glassworks. Costs apply and to find out more, email education@canberraglassworks.com.au

Arts Business:

GINNINDERRA Wind Orchestra is celebrating 30 years of music making with a reunion dinner at the Hellenic Club in Woden on Saturday, July 29. Tickets for the night are $60 per person and include a premium three course meal. Former members are strongly invited to come along to reminisce and help celebrate this milestone. Bookings to form.jotform.co/70740940058859

LONG-serving studio artist at the Canberra Glassworks, Brian Corr, is about to start a new role in August as associate professor at Toyama Glass Studio, Japan. Before he leaves, he’ll be having a studio sale, with works on display in the Engine Room at the Glassworks, 11 Wentworth Avenue, Kingston between 10am-4pm, Sunday, July 23.

TOBY Cole is holding a “Baroque Challenge” to raise funds to stage “Esther” later in the year. It’s at St John’s Reid, from 7.30pm, Friday, July 21. Bookings to trybooking.com

THE Canberra Men’s Choir is returning to its “spiritual home”, the Harmonie German Club, where it will host an “open night” where any man, irrespective of experience, can sing. Harmonie German Club, 49 Jerrabomberra Avenue, Narrabundah, at 7.30pm on Monday, July 24. Inquiries to 0407 909602 or just turn up.

GARY France’s Groove Warehouse in Hume is expanding its percussion business and now offers daytime adult classes and keyboard lessons at 5/1 Sawmill Circuit, Hume. Information and enrolments to groovewarehouse.com.au

KIRSTY Budding’s venture the Canberra Youth Talent show is back for its second year, giving a stage to talented children and young people between ages six and 19. It will be running at the Belconnen Community Theatre all day on Saturday, August 12. There will be prizes awarded by guest judges and by audience vote. All details at buddingtheatre.com

PIGEONHOLE Theatre’s production “Playhouse Creatures”, seen at The Q last year, has been invited as the only Australian representative at the Mondial du Theatre in Monaco in August. It’s time to chip in and help director Jordan Best and her all-star Canberra cast get there via the crowdfunding site, australianculturalfund.org.au

M16’s Writer in Residence Program 2017 is a supported residency for emerging writers with an interest in the arts. To apply submit an example of your arts writing (review, essay, etc.) no longer than 1000 words and a CV by 5pm, Friday, July 28 to marketing@m16artspace.com

VETERAN pianist and medical specialist, Robert Schmidli, will be holding his annual fundraising recital for “L’Arche Genesaret – community living for people with an intellectual disability”, performing piano works by Scarlatti, Poulenc, Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin. At Wesley Music Centre, Forrest, 3pm, August 3. Bookings to trybooking.com or tickets at the door.

“MAMMA Mia!” The musical, inspired by ABBA’s classic songs, has seen over 60 million people all around the world pack in for the show. Tickets are now on sale for a new Aussie production that will premiere at the Canberra Theatre from November 24 to December 10. Bookings to canberratheatrecentre.com.au or 6275 2700.

YOUNG Canberrans with ideas for projects, events or activities, which focus on social inclusion can now apply for the ACT government’s Youth InterACT grants of up to $1500. The grants are available for initiatives that will support young people in Canberra. Initiatives previously funded include an event celebrating Pacific Island culture and workshops creating art from recycled materials. The grants are open to Canberrans aged 12-25 and organisations that support young Canberrans. Applications will close at midnight on September 3. Information at communityservices.act.gov.au/ocyfs/youth-interact/grants

The National Portrait Gallery is calling on family history enthusiasts and amateur historians to help discover more about the people in its new show, “Dempsey’s People: A folio of British street portraits from 1824-1844”. If you have a family connection to any of the 52 individuals, share your story on social media by tagging @PortraitAu, or send an email to info@npg.gov.au

AINSLIE and Gorman Arts Centres offers supported office accommodation for artists, creatives, as well as arts organisations and music-based organisations and individuals. Inquiries to agac.com.au

Literature:

FORTY original artworks from the never-before-seen CBCA Children’s Book Week collection can be seen in the Clive Price Suite, Building 1, University of Canberra, from 10am-2pm, Monday to Friday to August 30.

Dance:

FOLK Dance Canberra and Canberra International Folk Dancing Association have veteran Dutch dance teacher André van de Plas coming from the Netherlands to conduct a full workshop here from July 23-24. Van de Plas believes the process of learning to dance should be fun at all levels. Details and bookings to folkdancecanberra.org.au

BELCONNEN Arts Centre and Tuggeranong Arts Centre have launched a program supported by ACT Health called “Dance for Wellbeing”. Led by Philip Piggin, Jane Ingall, Gretel Burgess, Debora di Centa and Jacqui Simmonds, it provides dance programs for people challenged by Parkinson’s

AUSDANCE ACT Open Class is continuing with advanced to professional level classes on Wednesdays from 10am-11.30am at the Belconnen Arts Centre. Evening classes on Thursdays run from 6.50pm-8.20pm at QL2’s Dance Studio, for intermediate to professional level dancers of all genres. This Thursday features Vogue Femme with Max Burgess. Inquiries to 6247 9103.

Film:

The 2017 Scandinavian Film Festival will begin tomorrow, July 21, with Finland as the host country this year. The first viewing tomorrow is “Tom of Finland” at 1.30pm, then “The Other Side of Hope” at 6.30pm and “Darkland” at 8.45pm. All at Palace Electric Cinemas, until August 2. Bookings and all program details at palacecinemas.com.au

Concerts and Gigs: 

PIANIST Kotaro Nagano is returning to Canberra for Part II of his “Finding the Chopin Style” program, focussing on the masterpieces and intense emotions of Chopin’s music after the age of 30. Larry Sitsky Recital Room, ANU School of Music, 6.30pm, Thursday, July 20. Bookings to tickets@friendsofchopin.org.au

THE only two Australians to graduate with doctorates from the Juilliard School in the last 10 years both came from Canberra. Now clarinettist Eloise Fisher and pianist Teddy Neeman, will appear together at Wesley Music Centre at 7.30pm on July 22, performing music by Jewish composers and a world premiere of “What Ensor Saw”, a work composed for Fisher and Neeman by a Juilliard colleague. Tickets at the door or bookings to trybooking.com

IRISH singer Carmel Conway features in “From Erin and Beyond”, Canberra Southern Cross Club, Woden, 8pm, July 20. Bookings to premier.ticketek.com.au

HARTLEY Lifecare is holding “A night of opera highlights from Verdi’s ‘La Traviata’”, featuring Sarahlouise Owens, soprano Jaewoo Kim, tenor Colin Milner, baritone and Colleen Rae Gerrard on piano, at the Turkish Embassy Lalezar Hall, 6 Moonah Place, Yarralumla from 7.30pm, Saturday July 22. Proceeds to Hartley Lifecare Integrating the National Brain Injury Foundation. Bookings to trybooking.com/PZFN

WATOTO Children’s Choir, whose song “Signs & Wonders” is billed as a vibrant worship experience, presents the sound of a transformed generation by a family of orphans from Uganda. They’ll be singing in a free concert, at St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, 1 State Circle Forrest, 7pm, Saturday, July 22. All welcome.

HUSBAND and wife operatic artists, soprano Sonia Anfiloff and baritone Ben Connor will join pianist Alan Hicks in performing songs by Barber, Wolf, Fauré, and Tchaikovsky, which are linked by the poetic imagery of the four natural elements earth, fire, air and water, for Art Song’s Season of Song at Wesley Music Centre, 3pm, Sunday, July 23. Tickets ONLY at the door.

THE Hoodoo Gurus and You Am I are touring the country with their brand of Aussie rock – think “What’s My Scene?”, “1000 Miles Away” and “Like Wow – Wipeout!”. Canberra Theatre, Friday, July 21. Bookings to canberratheatrecentre.com.au or 6275 2700.

PHOENIX Pub in Civic has as follows: Thursday, July 20 at 9pm, Piss Weak Karaoke; Friday, July 21 at 9pm, Joseph Liddy & The Skeleton Horse, and The Good Boys; Saturday, July 22 at 8pm, DEN, New Age Group, Lower Body.

Theatre:

DAVID Walliams’ children’s book “Mr Stink” comes to life on stage for children 6-12, showing what happens when Chloe, just about the loneliest girl in the world, makes friends with Mr Stink, the local tramp. Canberra Playhouse, 6pm, July 20 and 11am, July 22, bookings to canberratheatrecentre.com.au or 6275 2700.

SCIENCE meets art and humanity in a hit romantic comedy, “Constellations”, where she, (Lexi Sekuless) a quantum physicist, meets him (Kristian Jenkins), a beekeeper, over and over again. At The Street Theatre, to July 29. Bookings to thestreet.org.au or 6247 1223.

Exhibitions:

A RARE collection, which features 52 portraits of British street people will be on display for the first time in “Dempsey’s People: a folio of British street portraits 1824-1844”. Curated by David Hansen, the exhibition will bring together 51 works painted by little-known itinerant portraitist, John Dempsey. National Portrait Gallery, King Edward Terrace, Parkes, from 10am–5pm daily, to October 22.

TUGGERANONG Arts Centre presents “Ecology, Tradition, Art”, a suite of exhibitions by glass artists Jennifer Kemarre Martiniello, Luritja painter Kayannie Denison and Blue Mountains artist Karen Lee. The exhibitions will be held at 137 Reed Street, Greenway, to July 29.

ANCA’s latest exhibition, “The Meeting Place”, features emerging Canberra artists, Tamsin McLure, Colin White and Rebecca Worth, who look for spirituality in the environment through painting, photography and a glass installation. “The Meeting Place”, 1 Rosevear Street, Dickson, until July 30, 10am–4pm, Thursday to Sunday.

“MELODRAMA in Meiji Japan” features Japanese woodblock (Kuchi-e) illustrations at the Exhibition Gallery on the ground floor of the National Library of Australia, from 10am-5pm, to August 27.

“DEFYING Empire: 3rd National Indigenous Art Triennial” brings the works of 30 contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists to the National Gallery of Australia until September 10.

“INTERLACED” is a new exhibition of handwoven cloth by Belinda Rosee, who helped Canberra weaver, Monique van Nieuwland when she was asked to design and produce fabric for the Hollywood movie “Gods of Egypt”, starring Geoffrey Rush. The exhibition will run until August 6.

PHOTOMEDIA artist Renate Rienmueller has “Lunar Caustic”, her first solo exhibition at Suki & Hugh Gallery, 38A Gibraltar Street, Bungendore. The exhibition showcases an exciting range of old and new photographic techniques and printing processes. The show continues until August 13.

BELCONNEN Arts Centre has scored quite a coup in its July triple treat of exhibitions; “Feast: indulgence, savouring and delectation”, an exhibition by artists from Illawarra Association for the Visual Arts (IAVA), “The 2016 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize Finalists Exhibition” and “Traits”, by Georgia-Rae Byrne-Jameson. All run to July 23.

CRAFT ACT has a solo exhibition by South Australian designer and maker Christian Hall, which includes furniture, sculpture and jewellery. Craft ACT will also feature “Emerging Contemporaries”, the Craft ACT National Award Exhibition for early career artists. At Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre, North Building.

THE Queanbeyan Palerang Regional Council Art Competition show continues at the Queanbeyan Art Society Gallery, under the Queanbeyan River Bridge, until the end of July. 109 works are on show.

THE 2017 “Warm Trees” exhibition, created by the Friends of the National Arboretum Canberra volunteers with the support of staff from the Arboretum, supported by the Embassy of Japan, features giant flowers and brightly coloured scarves, which have been sent to the Arboretum by volunteer knitters from across the country. National Arboretum, until July 30.

“CHANGES” is the brainchild of painter Steve Roper and glass artist Robyn Campbell, who invited poet Lesley Lebkowicz, illustrator Anne Langridge and musician Georgina Bryant to join them in a show that raises the following questions: How does a poet make a pot? How does a musician? What happens when a painter or an illustrator steps outside the frame on the wall or the page of a book? What difference does a change in material make to the work? Gallery floor talk at 6pm on July 28. At Watson Arts Centre, Aspinall Street, Watson, from July 13-30, 10am to 4pm, Thursday to Sunday.

THE Belconnen Community Gallery “RESPECT” series presents “Inner Spirit”, an exhibition of paintings by art students at the CIT Yurauna Centre, in celebration of NAIDOC Week. At Belconnen Community Centre, Swanson Court, Belconnen, 9am-4.30pm, Monday to Friday until July 21.

MEREDITH Hinchliffe has curated an online exhibition of work by tapestry exponent Belinda Ramson, who died in 2014. This exhibition was mounted at the American Tapestry Alliance, visit americantapestryalliance.org/exhibitions/tex_ata/belinda-ramson/

THE Australian War Memorial has as a permanent exhibition “The Holocaust: witnesses and survivors”, which includes over 85 collection items.

CANBERRA Museum and Gallery currently has an exhibition called “Aviary”, celebrating our feathered friends in “Aviary”. The show in the Open Collections gallery is largely drawn from the CMAG collection and includes bird art in painting, drawing, print, photography, sculpture and the decorative arts.

“THIS is not a place” is an exhibition by Canberra artist Clare Jackson of etchings explore personal experience through depictions of reminiscent yet constructed places. The show opens at Megalo Print Studio + Gallery, 21 Wentworth Avenue, Kingston, from 6pm, Thursday, July 6, and runs until July 22.

CANBERRA painter Robert Boynes’ newest exhibition of work, “Modern Times”, curated by Terence Maloon, is at the ANU Drill Hall Gallery, Kingsley Street, Acton, until August 13.

TEN artists living around Bateman’s Bay are exhibiting pastel works depicting wildlife, landscapes and still life, at Ginninderra School House Gallery, Sweet Copper Cafe, Gold Creek, Nicholls, from 10am-4pm, Friday, 8.30am-4.30pm, Saturday and Sunday, to July 31.

M16 Artspace at 21 Blaxland Crescent, Griffith has four new exhibitions opening at 6pm on Thursday, July 6. The exhibitions are: “Figurative Visions: Three Artists; Three Mediums”, by Roger Beale, Rick Cochrane and Chan Dissanyake; “Liminal Landscapes” by Amandeep Kaur, who experiments with digital photomontages that have layers of deliberately constructed liminal spaces in which the concept of the self is explored; “Skating on Thin Ice”, oil paintings interspersed with black and white photos by Keith Bailey; and in the Chutespace, “Timeframe” by Kerry Shepherdson. All shows run Wednesday to Sunday from 12pm-5pm until July 23.

“THE Chandelier Show” is an opulent exhibition of hanging lights curated by Jane Cush, with works by Christine Atkins, Scott Chaseling, Ngaio Fitzpatrick, Jacqueline Knight, Kate Nixon, Tom Rowney, Wendy Dawes, and John and Ruth White. Canberra Glassworks, 11 Wentworth Avenue, Kingston, until August 6.

NANCY Sever Gallery has scored a coup in getting an exhibition by the celebrated Canberra artist, Elisabeth Kruger, whose exhibition of recent works, “The Sea Paintings”, can be seen at the gallery, which is located on 4/6 Kennedy Street, Kingston. The exhibition will be on from Wednesday to Sunday, 11am–6pm until August 6.

THE Canberra Centre has now unveiled the first in a specially-commissioned series of large-scale murals, including an artwork based on the theme of the artwork series, “Beauty Redefined” created in Australian artist Nick Thomm’s photo-realistic style which utilises bright, psychedelic colours in a mixed-media format.

“A Change Is Gonna Come” is an exhibition focusing on the 1967 Aboriginal Referendum and the 1992 MABO land rights decision by the High Court. At the National Museum of Australia, until January 30, 2018.

“KIRSTIE Rea: the land”, a 20-year survey of works by one of Canberra’s most famous glass creators, has been chosen for the reopening of the Canberra Museum and Gallery. The show runs to August 20.

KYEEMA Gallery’s new exhibition with sale is “Margaret Ballard: Works in Resin”, which opens at 13 Gladstone Street, Hall Village. From 10.30am–5pm, Thursday to Sunday.