Opening 6pm Thurs 24 Aug

Exhibition runs Fri 25 Aug – Sat 16 Sep

Push, Pull, Press looks at the practices of three contemporary Tasmanian artists, all of whom have national and international standing in the medium of printmaking – Jennifer Marshall, Milan Milojevic and Dr Yvonne Rees-Pagh.

From the traditional to the digital, the process of printmaking offers an infinite range of possibilities. Imagery and ideas are layered and evolve through various states, celebrating the power and diversity of the graphic mark. These three artists explore the intrinsic qualities of print through political, historical and fictional themes.

The exhibition showcases the artists’ diverse approaches to the medium and process of printmaking, through individual series of works and one large collaborative piece bringing together a range of printmaking media.

Join the artists for a monoprinting workshop at MAC 1 – 4 pm Sat 26 Aug, $20. More information and bookings…

Image: Milan Milojevic, States of Play (detail, 6 of 36 panels), 2017, Digital print with multi-plate overlays

Opening 6pm Thurs 24 Aug

Fri 25 Aug – Sat 16 Sep

Stories of the Brooker Highway celebrates the rich histories and stories that surround the Brooker Highway.

Unearthed with the help of the Story Island Project during early 2017, these stories and images capture some of the overlooked, the surprising and the unusual features of a stretch of road that is so familiar to us all.

The stories and images featured in the exhibition have been collected from and created by communities across Hobart’s northern suburbs.

Stories of the Brooker Highway also includes creative stories and illustrations from young people who attend schools on the Brooker Highway, reimagining the life of the highway in new and exciting ways.

The Story Island Project is a non-profit organisation based in Hobart’s northern suburbs. The organisation is dedicated to supporting young people to improve their literacy skills through writing stories. Its activities are based on the belief that storytelling is at the heart of literacy, and story connects people to community.

MAC’s music concert series is back for 2017 with a stellar line-up of Tasmanian musicians!

This beautifully eclectic program of performances promises something for everyone.

Doors and bar open at 5:30pm

All shows start at 6:30pm

$5 on the door

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HARRY EDWARDS TRIO

Fri 1 Sep

An eclectic mix of original acoustic compositions, drawing on gypsy jazz, modern jazz and classical repertoire.

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View the whole Friday Nights Live program here…

MAC’s music concert series is back for 2017 with a stellar line-up of Tasmanian musicians!

This beautifully eclectic program of performances promises something for everyone.

Doors and bar open at 5:30pm

All shows start at 6:30pm

$5 on the door

THE BOOTLEG GIN SLUGGERS

Fri 8 Sep

Back by popular demand! The Bootleg Gin Sluggers perform music from the 20s on trumpet, banjo, bass and percussion. Bring your dancing shoes!

View the whole Friday Nights Live program here…

MAC presents a new series of films and shorts! Screening a range of films with diverse genres, eras, subject matter and places of origin; each evening explores our world through the screen.

Sessions are programed by a mix of in-house and special guest curators. Check for film titles closer to the screening date.

Doors and bar open at 5:30pm

All shows start at 6:30pm

$5 on the door

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BEST OF BEC’S BACKYARD FILM FESTIVAL

Tue 12 Sep

Twice a year Bec’s backyard is taken over by a big and boisterous party, where all the guests are challenged to make a short film in a given genre. See some of the crackers they’ve come up with! Hosted by Rebecca Thompson.

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View the whole Real to Reel program here…

MAC’s music concert series is back for 2017 with a stellar line-up of Tasmanian musicians!

This beautifully eclectic program of performances promises something for everyone.

Doors and bar open at 5:30pm

All shows start at 6:30pm

$5 on the door

***

SISONGKE & BEULAHSONG

Fri 15 Sep

A celebration of voice! Sisongke is a joyous and dynamic choir up to 30 voices strong, singing songs from all around the world. And, BeulahSong, a local 5 piece band playing all original gospel/indie/folk songs.

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View the whole Friday Nights Live program here…

Come and learn some beats from Boubacar Gaye, an amazing drummer from Sengal, West Africa!
Drum Up Big students are highly encouraged to attend. Beginners are welcome!

SCHEDULE:

10:30 – 11:30am Community Rhythm Circle – Music making in-the-moment with Bouba

12:00 – 1:30pm Deep Rhythm #1 (African drumming class), $40

1:30 – 2:00pm Lunch (Please bring your own lunch)

2:00 – 3:30pm Deep Rhythm #2 (African drumming class), $40

All Day Pass $80

Book online…

8pm Sat 16 Sep
$25 presale or $35 at the door

Miss Kitty’s Meow is back with your bi-monthly dose of burlesque!

Buy tickets online…

Opening 6pm Thurs 21 Sep

Exhibition runs Fri 22 Sep – Sat 14 Oct

Becoming Home considers how exchanges, interactions and relationships with wild nature in and around the home influence, disrupt and enrich our lives.

The exhibition emphasises the frequently overlooked, embraces opportunism, and re-evaluates the familiar for its potential to inform our ecological awareness. Dean Chatwin’s work responds to lived experiences of wild nature within and around his home to develop aesthetic strategies that embody human ecology.

Becoming Home is about engaging, reflecting and creating to reveal and emphasise interrelationships between people and place to generate an ecological appreciation. In a contemporary world it is more relevant than ever that we become home to an awareness of how we share the environment and what the myriad connections are that link us to our surroundings.

Image: Dean Chatwin, Adjusted Habitat (detail), 2016, salvaged timber desk, limb wood prunings from the artist’s garden. Courtesy of the artist.

Opening 6pm Thurs 21 Sep

Exhibition runs Fri 22 Sep – Sat 14 Oct

Misunderstood and tormented into extinction at the hands of humans, the Thylacine now stands as an example of the disconnect between humans and nature. In the emerging era of the Anthropocene – a time when human impacts on the planet are driving massive, irreversible destruction and loss – the Thylacine is a reminder of our need to recompense.

A creature of myth and legend in Tasmania, there are many that cling to the hope (and many that wholeheartedly believe) that the Thylacine still exists, deep in the untouched shadows of the island.

Clinging to this hope parallels a clinging to the future. Gabbee Stolp’s exhibition Homage to a Burdened Creature serves both as tribute to the lost, and an attempt to educate and encourage hope for the future.

Image: Gabbee Stolp, Thylacine Ghost III (Woman) (detail), 2016, calfskin leather and cotton. Photo: Isaac Panaretos

MAC’s music concert series is back for 2017 with a stellar line-up of Tasmanian musicians!

This beautifully eclectic program of performances promises something for everyone.

Doors and bar open at 5:30pm

All shows start at 6:30pm

$5 on the door

***

TASTE OF THE FUTURE I – ASIA

Fri 22 Sep

5.30 PM – Doors/ Bar Open

6.30 PM – Pushpanjali (Neeralaya Dance School)

6.35 PM – Chinese Music  (Shuang Shuang and Chinese Students)

6.55 PM – North Indian Dance (Dancing Divas)

7.00 PM – Carnatic Music Singing by Adhi

7.30 PM – BREAK

7.45 PM – Indian Folk Dance Based On Drums – Dancing Divas – Collaboration with Santhanam Vaidhyanathan

7.50 PM – Wedding Sequence Dance (Neeralaya Dance School & Adhi)

7.55 PM – Chinese Dance – 2X (Shuang Shuang team)

8.05 PM – Tamil Cultural Dance (Neeralaya Dance School)

8.15 PM – Indian and Chinese cross cultural dancing (Dancing Divas & Shuang Shuang)

Pushpanjali

The Neeraalaya School of Dance is Tasmania’s premier Bharatanatyam dance troupe, an ancient style of divine classical dance with origins in the Tamil Nadu region of South India. Arthy Raja formed the Neeraalaya School of Dance in October 2016 after arriving in Australia in 2009. She has studied and practised Bharatanatyam for 17 years, first as a disciple of Kavitha Vijayakumar in her hometown of Chidambaram (India), and later with Vrinda Ravi in Newcastle (NSW).Arthy now shares her expertise, teaching classes promoting this ancient, elegant form of dance and performing the unique South Indian Classical dance style to Tasmanian audiences. Their natural, relaxed performances connect intimately with the audience, expressing music through sophisticated footwork, elegant hand gestures and facial expressions.

Pushpanjali(folded hands full of flowers) is the first dance in Bharatanatyam performance. It is the salutation to the lord of dance Nataraja, Mother earth, the Guru, the musicians and the audience. Solo performance by Arthy.

Chinese Music by Shuang Shuang’s group

A medley of songs from different eras of chinese culture. A mixture of traditional and pop. The instrument you will see live is the erhu (chinese violin)

Shuang Zhang is a conservatorium trained Chinese opera singer and dancer, now living in Hobart, Tasmania. She has been singing for more than a decade, specialising in traditional Chinese Opera.

Shuang arrived in Australia with her mother in 2012, and has been living and working in Tasmania ever since. She sings with a band and has been performing at various festivals and concerts around Tasmania. She is also an accomplished dancer, trained in traditional Chinese, jazz and hip-hop styles. Shuang is excited to share her love of classic Chinese performances with the Tasmanian community she has fallen so in love with. She is joined tonight by Sam, (Er Hu) and members of the Chinese Students association

North Indian Dance by Dancing Divas

The Dancing Divas are an Indian dance group established by Bhuvana Veeramani. They perform a fusion of classical, Bollywood, folk and western dance styles, presented with passion and exuberance, the dances express joy and happiness.Bhuvana has always loved dancing and has developed her own unique style,which is the inspiration behind the establishment of the Dancing Divas. She has been dancing since she was eight and was trained in a traditional style called Bharatanatyam.

This piece is a fusion of folk dance and Bollywood style of dancing. The music is predominantly from the North of India and comprises of beats, simple lyrical style and fusion music.

Carnatic Singing by Adhi

Adhi means beginning, and our group is the first Carnatic music group in Hobart and Tasmania.

Singer Sakthi Ravitharan is accompanied by Santhana Gopala Krishnan Vaidhyanathan. Our genre is South Indian classical music known as “Carnatic” music. It is an ancient form of music based on śruti (the relative musical pitch), swara (the musical sound of a single note), rāga (the mode or melodic formulæ), and tala (the rhythmic cycles). Our group consists of a duo: a vocalist who is trained in both Carnatic and western classical styles of music, and a percussion player who plays an instrument called “mridangam” (double-sided drum). A tambura, which acts as a drone throughout the performance sets the reference musical pitch.

Indian Folk Dance With Live Drums – Dancing Divas and Santhanam

This piece performed by the Dancing Divas with live drumming from Santhanam is a tribute to the thousands of women who carry water for many miles for their families. The lady in the performance has been searching for water and becomes very tired. As she takes rest, she dreams that she finds a statue who dances with her and gets her spirits up again.

Wedding Sequence Dance by Neeralaya

This piece of dance is to narrate the wedding sequence of Prince Rama and Princess Seetha adopted from one of the largest ancient epics in world literature ‘Ramayana’.  Swayamvar was a practice of wedding in ancient India in which the girl chooses a person from an assembly of suitors who wins the competition arranged by her father. she garlands him and a marriage ceremony is held immediately. In Hindu epic Ramayana, King Janak  tells that he has promised to marry his daughter princess Seetha to the person who can lift god Shiva’s bow and string it. Kings from all over gathered to attend the competition and marry Seetha. Some got scared even to touch the bow, some failed to lift the bow including the great demon king of Lanka ten head Ravana. With Shiva’s blessings, Rama lifted, stringed and broke the bow and married Seetha. Seetha Rama swayamvar  is performed every year at temples to sustain the life on the earth with the belief that Lord Rama brings spring rains and the goddess Seetha who is born to mother earth gives us the fertile land to cultivate for the best crops to feed the world. Singer: Sakthi , Miruthangam: Santhanam, Prashanthi as Princess Seetha and Arthy as the competing kings.

Chinese Dancing  by Shuang Shuang group

Vikky and Cassie duet

Traditional dance by Duet. Ancient dance for the court from Middle china.

Tamil Cultural Dance (Kavadi Chindu) by Neeralaya

Kavadi chindu is a generic name for a variety of Tamil folk songs. They are light compositions in Tamil which are popular for their simplicity, emotional content and appeal. The Song we perform today  was popularized by Annamalai Reddiar, a great composer from Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu in praise of Lord Muruga of Kazhukumalai near Tirunelveli. Kavadi Attam (“Burden Dance”) is a ceremonial sacrifice and offering practiced by devotees during the worship of Lord Murugan,the Hindu God of War.The kavadi (“burden”) itself is a physical burden, the bearing of which is used by the devotee to implore Murugan for assistance, usually on behalf of a loved one who is in need of healing, or as a means of balancing a spiritual debt.Devotees process and dance along a pilgrimage route while bearing these burdens.Kavadi attam is performed mainly at a festival called Thaipusam  which is celebrated in many different countries outside of India mainly in Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Singapore, Malaysia, Reunion island and by their diasporain western countries such as Australia, UK, Germany, France, Italy, South Africa etc.

Indian and Chinese Cross Cultural Dance by Dancing Divas and Shuang Shuang and Friends

This piece is a tribute to both Indian and Chinese forms of dancing, where in the dancers are dancing to both kinds of music. It is a piece which shows that dance transcends across the continents and what unites us all is the love for music and rhythm.

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View the whole Friday Nights Live program here…

Image: Neeralaya School of Dance, Arthy Raja. Photo: Oliver Berlin