Listen to Cats, musicals, looking glasses, awards, and films! SmartArts goes out with a bang!46:0226 November 2020

Ireland in the mid-1800s was not a particularly happy or pleasant time as it was the period of the Great Hunger. Tom Sullivan, writer and director of the film, ARRACHT joins Richard to chat about the impact of the great hunger on Irish Culture and the way it's explored in ARRACHT.

Every year, Creative Partnerships Australia gives out awards to celebrate philanthropy in the arts sector. Richard is joined by the CEO of Creative Partnerships Australia, Fiona Menzies, to discuss the 2020 awards winners, plus provide an overview of the awards and why philanthropy is an important part of the arts sector.

Waanyi artist Judy Watson and Kokatha and Nukunu artist Yhonnie Scarce share recent and personally painful histories of the destruction, exploitation, and degradation of land and of colonisation. Curator of the TarraWarra Museum of Art, Hetti Perkins discusses with Richard Judy and Yhonnie’s latest exhibition Looking Glass. Detailing Australia’s secret and dirty war—a battle fought on many fronts from colonial massacres to Stolen Generations, from the Maralinga bomb tests to the climate emergency. Looking Glass is being exhibited at TarraWarra from November 28th to March 8th.

The Melbourne Fringe Festival is a mix of wacky and wonderful shows. Two such shows are CATS: The Movie, the Musical, The Production, The Artist & Lousical The Musical, created by Jean Tong and Lou Wall respectively. One is a mockumentary that punches down on a musical that has been “piss taken to the ends of the Earth and back,” whilst the other is a pop music comedy, part stand up, part song, and part “online meme content”. Both shows were available to stream online as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival’s 2020 programming.

ARRACHT (Trailer) | YouTube

Ireland Picks ‘Arracht’ for Oscars’ International Feature Film Race | Variety

Meet our 2020 Creative Partnerships Award recipients | Creative Partnerships Australia

MATCH Lab | Creative Partnerships Australia

Plus1 | Creative Partnerships Australia

Looking Glass | TarraWarra Museum of Art

CATS: The Movie, the Musical, The Production, The Artist | Melbourne Fringe

Lousical The Musical | Melbourne Fringe

About this program

Visual art, theatre, film and literature. Segments include:

  • 'Art Attack' - fortnightly visual arts reviews with Ace Wagstaff and Tai Snaith.
  • 'Shoot the Messenger' - fortnightly theatre news & reviews with Fleur Kilpatrick.
  • 'Drawn Out' - monthly chat about comic books and graphic novels with Bernard Caleo.

Please email talks@rrr.org.au for all interview requests.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Richard Watts has many years experience working in the arts industry, including five years as the Artistic Director of the youth arts organisation Express Media, seven years on the Board of Melbourne Fringe (including three years as Chair), and six years on the Committee of Management at La Mama Theatre, where he currently serves as Chair. Richard has helped program a range of festivals including Next Wave, the National Young Writers' Festival, the Melbourne Queer Film Festival and the Emerging Writers' Festival (which he founded) and he has written for various broadsheets, journals, zines and magazines. Currently he pays the rent by working as the Performing Arts Editor at www.artshub.com.au. In his spare time he watches old Doctor Who episodes.


The podcast intro and outro theme is Soft Illusion and was generously provided by Andras.

https://andras.bandcamp.com/track/soft-illusion

Presenters