“BE afraid… entertained, excited, confused… and delighted,” the promo goes. Arts editor HELEN MUSA reports in this week’s “Arts in the City” column that the Spooky Men’s Chorale is heading back to town…

THE ever-popular deadpan group, the Spooky Men’s Chorale, are coming to Llewellyn Hall on August 5. Originally from the Blue Mountains of NSW, they’re now world famous. The “Spookies” have spiced up their list of favourites with a Ukrainian section and a rabble-rousing rendition of Yothu Yindi’s “Treaty”, but otherwise it will be more of the same – “as sly as a wagonload of Spike Milligans and as sonorous as a cloister of monks”. 

MARION, formerly called ACT Writers, has announced the appointment of well-known local artist Katy Mutton to the role of CEO. Previously the organisation’s strategic design manager and interim CEO, she replaces Meg Wilson in the job. 

AS part of National Poetry Month, the ACT Live Poetry Showcase will be held in the Fairfax Theatre, National Gallery, on August 5. Featured poets include “CityNews” writer Barrina South and Andrew Moss, both commissioned to write poems in response to a work in the NGA collection. South has selected Eugene von Guérard’s “North-east view from the northern top of Mount Kosciuszko” and Moss will respond to Fiona Foley’s “HHH”. 

AUSTRALIAN Romantic & Classical Orchestra is on a mammoth national tour and Canberra violist John Ma is in the orchestral lineup. They’ll be at Albert Hall performing “Midsummer Dreams”, works by Beethoven and Mendelssohn, on August 1.

ANCA Dickson’s annual “PIN” show where sculptors, printmakers, painters, ceramicists, silversmiths, machine-makers, photographers, woodworkers and glass artists created wearable pins and brooches is back – August 9-19 – after a break of five years. 

PIANIST Edward “Teddy” Neeman explores the origins of the piano ballade in two of Chopin’s groundbreaking works. The concert also includes the Grieg Ballade Op. 24, late Romantic ballades by Amy Beach and Ignaz Friedman, and premieres by American composers Michael Ippolito and Reinaldo Moya. Wesley Music Centre Forrest, 2pm, July 30.

THE NGA continues to highlight the contribution of Australian women artists with “Know My Name: Making it Modern”, celebrating the works of pioneering women artists such as Margaret Preston, Grace Cossington Smith and Clarice Beckett, with a focus on the period between the 1920s and the late 1940s. Opens August 5.