Rapper-writer-actor Briggs will host the APRA music awards online, writes arts editor HELEN MUSA in her weekly column covering Canberra’s latest arts news.

AN hour-long online broadcast of the 2020 Virtual APRA Music Awards will take place from 7pm on Monday, May 25. It was moved from May 26, which is Sorry Day. With one-off performances curated by musical director Kate Miller-Heidke, the host will be Australian rapper-writer-actor Briggs, mobbed in Canberra whenever he appears here. These awards are for all kinds of music and there are always Canberrans among the front-runners. Watch at hyvio.com/apraawards

KYEEMA Gallery in Hall has an exhibition, “The World Around Us”, by well-known ACT artists Isla Patterson, Nell Anderson and Margaret Carr, showing from May 15 until further notice. Capital Wines, where the gallery is located, is open to sell bottles of wine and will continue to show art on their walls as usual, but there won’t be a formal opening. At 13 Gladstone Street, Hall, open Thursdays to Mondays, 11am-4pm.

MEGALO Print Studio in Kingston has a new exhibition, “Relief” running from May 12 to June 13. The show features a selection of contemporary artists working with relief printmaking internationally in woodcut, linocut and wood engraving. 

SYDNEY Eisteddfod has created “Stage At Home”, a new venture in which the talent of the cancelled 2020 event can be seen at home. Absolutely everyone is welcome, whether they’re into dance, drama, music or song. All those who entered, or intended to, should submit new recordings of themselves at home, performing what would have been their competition piece. It’s not a competition though, and there will be no prizes or judging. Visit sydneyeisteddfod.com.au.

THE ABC’s “TOP” scheme has been expanded to artists and arts scholars for the first time, to help train Australia’s next generation of researchers in the art of sharing their wisdom. Applications for this year’s media residencies with the ABC’s RN are open until June 1 to early-career graduate PhD arts scholars and graduate arts practitioners across the visual arts, performance, design, architecture and screen. Information at abc.net.au/top5.

SILLIEST news of the season is that the English National Opera plans drive-in performances at Alexandra Palace in north London, with the audience flashing lights or honking horns instead of clapping.