HELEN MUSA previews what’s happening in Canberra this weekend. 

MANDOLIN virtuoso Carlo Aonzo and his trio will join forces with the Canberra Mandolin Orchestra and the Dante Musica Viva Choir for an evening of Italian music. The trio, made up of Aonzo on mandolin, Lorenzo Piccone on acoustic guitar and Luciano Puppo on double bass, is visiting Australia to present their latest CD “MandoItaly” at the Italian Cultural Centre, 80 Franklin St, Forrest, 7.30pm, January 23. Book at eventbrite.com or at the door.

THE National Film and Sound Archive has announced that it is open following the thunderstorm that hit Canberra, with “the most fun you can have in the air-con in Canberra”. The program for late January (including the Australia Day public holiday) is full of special events and screenings and the ongoing playable “Game Masters: The Exhibition”. Bookings nfsa.gov.au

BBC Radio Horizon Award winner for 2019, Brighde Chaimbeul, will be in Canberra as part of the Year of Scotland in Australia. A native Gaelic speaker, raised on the Isle of Skye, her style is rooted in her indigenous language and culture. Smith’s Alternative, 6pm, January 24, book at smithsalternative.com

COLLECTOR Anneka Losik will discuss her love of pop culture and passion for collecting, including how Harry Potter has changed her life, and which are her favourite boardgames out of a growing 120 titles. Canberra Museum and Gallery, Civic Square, 1–2pm Thursday, January 23, free.

THE National Gallery of Australia is hosting a morning of fun for children aged 0-5 years to share with parents or carers, with art making, storytelling, dance and sound activities inspired by the “Belonging: Stories of Australian Art exhibition”. Tim Fairfax Learning Studio, Level 2, 10am-noon, Friday, January 24. Free and no bookings required.

ALSO at the National Gallery is “Night Shift”, the gallery’s new free monthly up-late program of talks, music and art making. Come early for talks and art making and stay late to dance. NGA, 5-9pm, Friday, January 24. All ages (children to be accompanied) free and no booking required. Admission applies for ticketed exhibitions.

AN audio-described tour of key works in the National Gallery’s “Matisse & Picasso” for people who are blind or with low vision will be held from 11am-noon, Sunday, January 26, meet at the NGA information desk. Free but bookings essential to nga.gov.au

SERBIAN pianist Jelena Stojkovic, a lecturer at the Leopold Mozart Centre of the University of Augsburg, Germany, is taking a musical journey through the cultures of the East with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsako’s Scheherazade, some Ravel and works by Marko Tajcevic, Dorothea Hofmann, Arno Babajanyan, Miroslav Štatkic and Fazil Say. High Court of Australia, Parkes Pl, Parkes, 1.30pm, Sunday, January 26, free but registration essential at hcourt.gov.au

BELCONNEN Community Gallery’s Springboard Series has opened with “Pinned and Stitched”, textiles by four 2019 graduates of the ANU School of Art & Design’s textiles department, Angela Coleman, Portia Lawson, Anna Roufogalis and Rosie Armstrong, winners in the gallery’s emerging artist support scheme. Belconnen Community Centre, Swanson Court, Belconnen, Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm, until February 14, with an opening celebration 5.30pm Wednesday, January 22.