Arts editor HELEN MUSA wades knee deep into this week’s arts news. It’s “Artsday”.

THE Young Music Society’s 2023 Summer Music School will be running again in January, albeit in a smaller edition than pre-pandemic, but one that is open to children in primary school who want to enjoy general music activities with friends during  summer.  Apply here

CHAIKA Theatre presents ​ “Collected Stories” by Donald Margulies,​ directed by Luke Rogers, with Karen and Natasha Vickery playing two independent women ​engaged in a struggle between mentor and mentee, ACT Hub, Kingston, October 27- November 12.

ANU Film Group joins the Australian Western Sahara Association, the Law Reform and Social Justice School and the ANU Latin American Students Association to screen “Life is Waiting: Referendum and Resistance in Western Sahara,” a 61-minute documentary chronicling experiences of the Sahrawis in Western Sahara, Africa’s last colony. Kambri cinema, ANU, October 25.

AMONG the semi-finalists in the 2022 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize, Australia’s richest portrait prize are Bungendore artist Kerry McInnis’ portrait “Chester Nealie and Friends at Goanna Ridge” and works by  ACT artists, including Alice Pulvers’ “Self-Portrait with Koi”, Fiona Cotton’s “Rosary”, Solomon Karmel-Shann’s “Portrait of the artist with a blank canvas” and Anne Field’s “Barely here or there”.

FRIENDS of the ANU Classics Museum are hosting a guest lecture by Ted Robinson from University of Sydney on the topic “Sicily: The Levant’s foothold in Italy”. RSSS Auditorium, ANU, opposite Baldessin Carpark (free after 5pm) 5.30pm, Thursday, October 27.

Exhibitions

• THE Australian Centre on China in the World at the ANU has “Screen Bodies,” a solo exhibition by Lu Yang, one of the best-known new media/digital artists in China today. Australian Centre on China in the World, Building 188, Fellows Lane ANU. 
• PHOTOACCESS, Griffith, opens three new exhibitions this week: “Terraform” by David Lindesay, “Earth to Images” by Melanie Cobham and “Found Perceptions” by Tessa Ivison. Opening 6pm, October 27, and running until November 12.

Concerts

• IN “The Irrepressible Life Force,” pianist Stuart Long will perform Prokofiev’s
  Sonata No. 7 in B-Flat Major, Op. 83 “Stalingrad” together with a number of Scriabin miniatures. Wesley Music Centre, 12.40pm to 1.20pm, On October 26.
• SELBY & Friends present “Tributes & Legacies”, with pianist Kathryn Selby and her guest artists, violinist Natsuko Yoshimoto and cellist Richard Narroway, performing chamber music by Ravel, Mendelssohn, and Schumann. Llewellyn Hall, October 26.
• TOM Bailey will perform some of the great songs of ’80s hit pop group the Thompson Twins, to which he belonged, including the all the tracks from their hit album, “Into the Gap”. Canberra Theatre, 8pm, October 26.