Michaela Burger in “A Migrant’s Son”.

Annalouise Paul in “Flamenco for Everybody”.

“Valley of the Molls”. Photo: Sam Townsend

Queenie van de Zandt… a show of comedy, anecdotes, songs and trivia.

Rechelle Turner’s “Ngadhu bandali ngurambang gu”.

Tom Molyneux in “The Mission.

Christine Lowry’s “Food Security”.

Glitz, glamour and intellectual curiosity are at the heart of Tuggeranong Arts Centre’s newly-announced program, writes arts editor HELEN MUSA.

WITH Karena Keys at the helm of the Tuggeranong Art Centre as acting CEO following the sotto voce departure of Rauny Worm, there’s a new staff line-up and a program running from February to June that ushers in a new era for the valley’s arts scene with 11 exhibitions and nine shows, now open for booking.

Keys, who has been visual arts program manager at the centre for the last few years after heading up ANCA Gallery, clearly has a sense of theatre fun too, seen in a line-up that glitters with acts, including Shawnah Cady’s collaboration with Ross Fowler and First Nations drag queens in “After the Glitz & Glam” and Canberra drag performer Venus Mantrap’s (Sam Townsend) show “Valley of the Molls”, billed as “a coming-of-age tale set deep in the Tuggeranong Valley.”

As if that weren’t enough, Canberra-raised musical star Queenie van de Zandt will be home to host a cabaret winter workshop, Tasmania’s First Nations Drag Queen, Anna’mal Tuckerbox. Melbourne’s Finucane & Smith return to the centre with an ensemble of Australian cabaret notables in “Finucane & Smith’s Dance Hall.”

Planned performances include Sydney’s Annalouise Paul in her dance-talk show “Flamenco for Everybody”, Melbourne’s Tom Molyneux with more storytelling in “The Mission” and Adelaide’s Michaela Burger in “A Migrant’s Son”, a real-life story exploring migration from Greece to Australia. 

String quartets and jazz ensembles present Sunday afternoon and Thursday evening concerts in the first half of 2022, with performances by Dan Russell’s Phoenix Collective in February, and an afternoon of jazz by Canberra ensemble the Fringe of Squaredom in March and the Acacia Quartet’s Borodin, Shostakovich and Wells concert in May. 

The Woden Arts program of free lunchtime concerts in Woden Town Square on the last Thursday of each month, the brainchild of Woden arts officer Blaide Lallemand, was postponed because of covid but now starts on February 24, featuring duos and trios drawn from the Woden area. 

As you’d expect from Keys and acting gallery curator Lily Platts, the visual arts are to the fore, with Christina Lowry’s studio still-life photography, “Memento Vivere: Remember to Live”, Emma Crocker and Elspeth Rowell’s individual and ensemble ceramic works “Secure Escape” and James Farley and Lachlan Brown’s “Walking in Isolation” first up from February 5.

The last of these three is the result of a collaboration between photographer James Farley and poet Lachlan Brown who, in 2020 and 2021, found solace in daily walks through the same streets and trails in the suburb where they live. 

In April, Hong Kong-Australian artist, Natalie Quan Yau Tso opens her first solo exhibition, “I have arrived at Yellow”. Quan investigates yellow as the layered colour of both racial identity in Australia and democracy in Hong Kong. The provocative installations, sculptures and performances are intended to “evoke slippages between political and personal trauma.” 

Alongside Quan’s show, Karri McPherson’s striking geometric artworks in “More Than Meets the Eye,” and LUCAs Daughters’ immersive show, “Ventra”, where visitors will be invited to join the artists, even while the show is being installed.

First Nations’ art is explored in Jessika Spencer’s exhibition, “Nginha Ngurambang Marunbunmilgirridyu”, which reveals the symbolism in Ngunnawal-Ngambri country through three woven installations combining traditional and contemporary techniques. 

As well, Aidan Hartshorn’s “Nganygulia Murunwiginya, Nganygulia Murundhu, Nganygulia Dhuluyarra” shows how country holds within its landscape the memory of the past.

Hartshorn’s show opens alongside Rechelle Turner’s “Ngadhu bandali ngurambang gu”, the result of her experiments with indigenous-inspired artisan paper, cut up to make animal collages. The project came about when Turner created “paper” using Wiradjuri words and definitions straight from Stan Grant’s influential work, “A New Wiradjuri Dictionary”. 

There’s much more. Under the motivational theme “Participate”, a new enterprise, “Youth Theatre Company @ TAC”, intended to link young artists into the professional industry, will be directed by community arts and cultural development program manager, Kristy Griffin. The Messengers arts-based youth support program is now headed by Roger Jillard, alongside the “Make Art at TAC” program, visual art workshops for all ages, the “Contemplation Cloth” workshop series and a senior citizens program to create an art installation in Central Park at EPIC during the National Folk Festival at Easter.

Bookings for the February-to-June program and “Participate” are now open at tuggeranongarts.com