Life is too short, and too precious, to not spend every moment as artistically as possible. We should enjoy artistic experiences daily, many times a day, and not relegate art to very few special events during the year.

This is why I have some doubts about how festivals, such as the Fringe, as they have been organised over the years, actually contribute to sustainable grassroots arts development. They take too much time, work and money to produce so that the organizers are invariably burnt out and budgets are in deficit afterwards, and other important work suffers from neglect while we're in festival mode, and whilst we may enjoy a nice big party once a year, by the time we all recover from it, its time to prepare for yet another one.

The conference brought together a wide variety of people with different backgrounds and concerns including artists, scientists, community development workers, funding representatives, academics, teachers and planters. There were many people wearing multiple hats – such as Stephen Routledge, a photographer who runs his local Landcare group as well as harvesting his own chestnut tree crop.

To give you an idea of some of the personalities seated around the rather formal conference table there was Marco the Director of an international contemporary art space in the small dusty town of Kellerberrin, W.A, Peter Pollard a scientists who managed to enthuse everyone with his passion for micro-organisms, David Curtis who had recently completed a PHD on how art influences attitudes and values.

Day One was a deluge of information and text. There were seven programmed papers:

1. Lyndal Jones, the Avoca project

Someone broke into Chambers Crescent Theatre today, 24 September 2007. At around 6:05 PM, I drove past there (as I often do, just to check what's happening) and noticed that the door facing the car park was unlocked. I was curious as no one was booked to use the space at that time. I walked in to find what looked like fine dust on the floor, the contents of the first aid kit strewn around on the desk, and all the desk drawers open. I checked the Chambers Crescent entrance and found that the door had been forced open.

this is great and very accessible, I will be sure to start using it !!

cheers,

Ben

After knowing of Don Mamouney and seeing him from a distance since the second half of 1980s, I finally met and chatted with him at the Tangled Garden set at the Museum on the 19th and 20th of August 2007.

Other than chatting about the Tangled Garden and the prospects of future projects in Darwin involving Sidetrack Theatre and Komunitas (see other blog entry on The Tangled Garden), I was happy to chat with him about his views on locality and community cultural development.

I saw The Tangled Garden at the Museum's Amphitheatre on 19 August. Its a play by Don Mamouney and produced by Sidetrack Performance Group from Sydney and Komunitas CCL from Bandung, Indonesia. It was part of the Festival of Darwin.

I went to see The Tangled Garden partly (and maybe largely) to see some old friends -- Arif Hidayat and Margaret Bradley of Arimba Culture Exchange. I know Arif and Margaret from my work in Sydney in the late 1980s and early 1990s; we worked together when we were building an Asia-Pacific cultural alliance in Sydney, with the first Asia-Pacific cultural festival, Pesta in 1991, as one project.

Multijam was a Fringe Festival project meant to being together emerging multicultural musicians who would be working from pre-recorded rhythms in isolation then come together to jam on 30 June. Two weeks before the Multijam performance, most of the musicians who originally signed up backed out. Phil Eaton, the project coordinator then recruited other musicians to fill the gap. I was one of the replacement musicians; most of the others were not really emergent as they have been musos for a while and have been performing around Darwin (and elsewhere) for some time. I still claimed the "emergent" title because, even if I had been a muso before, I had not performed for a long time. Certainly, I have not jammed with other musicians for a long, long time.

Program Changes
* AFROZ Soccer Game & Arts Fair
New date: Sunday 15th July, 2pm at Malak Oval
* DARRAN DARRA: 7:30pm 8th July
New venue: Ku Fu Sing (the old Tai Hung Nol Restaurant), Parap Village next to Video 2000
* Intimate Moments: 8pm 5th-7th, 13th & 14th July
New venue: The Gallery, Darwin Entertainment Centre, Mitchell Street, Darwin City
* Spots & Stripes: 9:30pm 13th & 14th July
New venue: The Gallery, Darwin Entertainment Centre, Mitchell Street, Darwin City
Hurry! Tickets selling fast...
Sunset Cruise on the Spirit of Darwin
WHEN: This Sunday 8th July, 5pm - 8.30pm on the Sprit of Darwin, Cullen Bay | COST: $24 | $49 for 2 drinks & finger food

Ayen’s Cooking School for African Men, the film night organised by Melaleuca Refugee Centre and co-sponsored by Brown's Mart on Friday (15 June), was a huge success not only as a fund-raiser but as a community arts event. Andrish and I noted that most of the more than 120 persons who attended were a different and new audience for Brown's Mart, and that this was an audience that we definitely wish to have more and more. This was an audience similar to the ones we had at the Human Rights Day Celebration in December and International Women's Day in March; those events were also fruits of our partnership with Melaleuca Refugee Centre, as was the film night. We should have more nights like this, and more people from these sectors, at Brown's Mart. We had wanted this as part of Brown's Mart's reivention; looks like we're on the right path.

Also, the gig reminded me yet again of how hard theatre techs work.

Part of the Fringe Team: Sean Kavanagh, Emslie Sawyer, Charlie Ward, Andrish Saint-Clare, Anna StewartAt the Fringe launch yesterday, Andrish Saint-Clare, Fringe Producer, concluded his speech by thanking Brown's Mart and Fringe staff for their hard work, and described them as "altruistic masochists." Yes, the team does work incredibly hard; the Fringe (and other Brown's Mart programs) will not happen effectively without this altruistic masochism. I too thank staff for their hard work. While we will always be working under strenuous conditions, because we work in community arts, I still hope we can find ways to continue being altruistic while not hurting ourselves (too much). We need to sustain our good work, and remain healthy and capable while we're at it. Suggestions on how to do this consistently most welcome.