Here’s arts editor HELEN MUSA’s latest Arts in the City column, a weekly wrap of what’s on where. 

Andrew Farriss, co-founder of INXS, now a cattle farmer, will be in town with his Something Stronger tour, combining famous hits with material from his new album, The Prospector. No stranger to Canberra, Farriss held a Coombs Fellowship at the ANU in 2015. He was inducted into the Australian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2016 and was Eurovision Australian judge panel member last year. He will perform Live at the Polo, David Street, Turner, October 25. 

A life of Rosalie Gascoigne, by Nicola Francis, is now out with ANU Press and free online. This biography explores the celebrated Canberra artist’s tale of finding herself later in life and traces her experiences of the dramatic social changes of the ’60s and ’70s and the growth of cultural life in Canberra.

Soon after its recent debut production of The Cut, The Seeing Place theatre company founded by Sammy Moynihan and Marlene Radice, encountered copyright challenges with the name, and will now be known as Shwa Shwa, based on a mythical figure imagined by Augusto Boal. 

Qais Essar, a contemporary Afghan composer, instrumentalist and producer, will perform alongside tabla player Murtaza Damoon at Ainslie Arts Centre, Braddon, October 26.

The hotly sought-after Collie Art Prize is back for 2025 in southwestern WA, with more than $60,000 in prize money. Since its inception in 2018, Canberra region artists have been shortlisted and at least one Canberra critic involved in the judging. Entries close on December 12 at collieartgallery.org.au 

The Canberra Symphony Orchestra will perform outdoors at the Lanyon Homestead, Tharwa, on October 26.

The Crossroads Festival will raise funds for Rebus Theatre’s mental health programs. Highlights include Salving Solos at Pulp Book Café on October 19, and Recital Remedies, an instrumental recital featuring Alec Randles, Demetri Neidorf, Wayne Kelly, and Duncan n Sargeant, who has been organising concerts to promote mental health awareness for 20 years, at Gorman Arts Centre, October 27.