ARTLANDS DUBBO 2016
Innovative Regional Dance Performance Groups to Feature
ARTLANDS is a 4-day celebration of Australia’s regional arts and culture that is held every two years in a regional hub. Returning to NSW for the first time in 14 years, ARTLANDS will be held in the vibrant city of Dubbo from 27 to 30 October.
ARTLANDS DUBBO 2016 will host an arts-focused conference and a diverse festival program of art, dance, education, music, theatre, circus and more under the backdrop of big open skies and fresh air.
Presented by Regional Arts Australia and Regional Arts NSW, ARTLANDS will be one of the largest art gatherings in Australia that will draw arts enthusiasts from across the country.
The festival program was launched on March 10th at the Sydney Opera House under the tagline, Part Conference, Part Festival, All Arts. Early bird tickets are already on sale.
The biennial event’s conference will feature national and international keynote speakers and panels, and facilitate forums, workshops, and discussions surrounding three key themes within the arts sector: Regeneration, Connectedness and Emergence. Each theme will explore contemporary issues, challenges and opportunities through research, exploration, debate and collaboration.
Deputy Premier and Minister for the Arts Troy Grant said the NSW Government is proud to be supporting ARTLANDS, which is a great opportunity to showcase regional NSW’s vibrant arts and culture to a national audience.
“Our Government has provided funding support from its tourism and major events agency Destination NSW, and $250,000 from Arts NSW,” Mr Grant said. “This is in addition to more than $400,000 funding from the Federal Government.”
“As the Member for Dubbo, I’m delighted the city has been chosen to host ARTLANDS based on strong support from Dubbo City Council and its central location in NSW.”
The local economy, as well as the local arts scene, is expected to thrive during the event as more than 1,000 visitors and delegates are expected to converge on Dubbo for the event.
Following the official opening there will be an opening ceremony performance, choreographed by Jo Clancy, of a kind rarely seen in Regional NSW involving dance, giant puppets, weird machines, original contemporary music, fantastic projections and fire effects!
Featuring alongside the Conference, the ARTLANDS 2016 Festival will see a line up of works rarely seen together in regional NSW. Curated by festival director, Greg Pritchard, some of the program highlights are:
- Musicians Heath Cullen, Radical Son, Mikelangelo and the Black Sea Gentlemen, Dave Mason, Brendan Gallagher and Mojo Juju.
- a new exhibition of visual artwork by regional NSW Aboriginal artists curated by Djon Mundine.
- Street parade and theatre by local circus company Circus West.
- We Will Come to the Rescue by fLiNG Physical Theatre youth dance company explores the role of heroes and villains in our world through contemporary dance, physical theatre and gymnastics.
- Sound Art by The Wired Lab
- Lingua Franca Dance & Physical Theatre explore the theme of environmental sustainability with their latest full-length show, Unsustainable Behaviour, pushing the body to extremes in 60-minutes of breakdance, physical theatre and contemporary dance that forces us to ask if humans are ‘progressing’ ourselves into extinction?
- Performance group Branch Nebula will produce their skatepark residency project Snake Sessions, and other works, at the Dubbo Skate Park in Victoria Park; where touring artists collaborate with local skatepark users to create a show for their local skatepark, and locals perform alongside the touring professionals in the culminating performance. Branch Nebula works across disciplines in performance, dance and design to challenge mainstream cultural conventions. They often work with non-conventional performers to collaboratively devise work that defies categorization.
fLiNG Physical Theatre. Photo Paul Hopper
The regional city of Dubbo is located 600kms west of Sydney and its 40,000-plus residents are preparing to host 1,000 conference delegates and festival-goers, showcasing the city’s taste and enthusiasm for the arts in all its forms.
The ARTLANDS DUBBO 2016 full program information and tickets are available at artlands.com.au
