Many members of the arts community who are passionate about the heritage and the future of our new Faculty of the VCA and Music (VCAM) will have been involved in some of the discussions that are taking place at this important time of transition, both for the wider University of Melbourne, as well as for this Faculty. In particular, there is considerable concern that the new directions will mean that this Faculty no longer will deliver practice-based performance, visual arts and film and tv courses. This is categorically not the case, and I take the opportunity therefore to explain to you a little about what integration of our degree programs into the Melbourne Model will mean. Read more>>

Catalina Bauer, Rodrigo Canala, Rodrigo Galecio, Gerardo Pulido and Tomás Rivas are visiting artists from Santiago Chile, currently undertaking a residency at the School of Art and making work in response to this new environment. Created in-situ at the Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Material Ligero will explore concerns relating to contemporary practise including the way in which art circulates, the materiality of artworks and the way the political and visual may interconnect. Read more>>

Margaret Lawrence Gallery
Exhibition runs 24 July to 22 Aug
Open Tues to Sat 12pm - 5pm
40 Dodds Street, Southbank

On Monday 17 August, the School of Music Parkville Symphony Orchestra will present a free concert at the Melbourne Town Hall under the baton of Mark Shiell (one of Australia’s brightest conducting stars and winner of the 2005 Brian Stacey Award for Emerging Conductors). Working with our talented piano student Ji Sook Noh, the programme will include Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain (arr. Rimsky-Korsakov), Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 in F minor.

Monday 17 August, 7.30pm
Full details>>

A unique opportunity to hear the newest 'sounds out'. Performed by the Southbank Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Dr David Kram and Master of Music students Mario Dobernig and Thaddeus Huang. The programme includes new compositions by students Luke Paulding, Evan Lawson, Camille Robinson as well as Mark Pollard, eminent Australian composer and Head of Composition, Southbank.

Win one of five double passes to SoundOut on Wednesday 19 August at 7.30pm, email vcam-enews to win!

Full details and booking info>>

In late August watch out for a season of six rarely seen contemporary plays, directed by our postgraduate Directors, performed by Acting Company 2010 and in collaboration with Production students. Featuring a fascinating range of theatre, the season will give these developing directors ample opportunity to reveal their craft in: The Room by Harold Pinter, Gulf War by Joyce Carole Oates, Scarecrow by Don Nigro, Christie in Love by Howard Brenton, Sister Mary Ignatius by Chris Durang and Have I None by Edward Bond.

27 - 31 August
Full details and booking info>>

Fine Art Honours graduate Rebecca Delange has won the $25,000 Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship for Sculpture 2009. Central to her work is a search for materials, actions and processes that physically articulate hidden and intangible things such as fears, desires, thoughts and secrets. Rebecca will use the scholarship to travel across Europe and to complete a body of work which she will exhibit in Berlin and Australia. Find out more about the Marten Bequest>>

Film & Television students, Nicholas Carlton and Shaun Crawford are on their way to Los Angeles to attend the 4th Annual Independent Television Festival (ITVFest) where their web series OzGirl has been accepted as part of the official selection. As they said themselves, "this will be a fantastic opportunity for us to network and pitch shows to industry people." Watch Ozgirl>>

During August and September students from the Faculty of the VCA and Music School of Art will be participating in ‘Fresh Voices’ - a series of free talks on the NGV collection. From the perspective of the young artists participating, these talks will provide a forum for a fresh approach to historical and technical analysis of the great works of art in the NGV collection.
Full details>>

On August 6 & 7 the Centre for Ideas will present a free public conference on the legendary film maker Paul Cox. An auteur of international acclaim, Cox is one of the most prolific film makers in Australia. This conference will draw together actors, choreographers, filmmakers, writers and visual artists who have collaborated with him over the past four decades including Julia Blake, John Clarke, Paul Grabowsky, Jonathon auf der Heide, Rodney Hall, Tony Llewellyn-Jones, Tom Ryan, Nassiem Valamanesh and David Wenham. Early Paul Cox films will be screened during the conference.

Date: Thurs 6 and Fri 7 August
Time: 9.30am – 6.00pm
Venue: Federation Hall
Grant Street, Southbank
Full programme details>>

Created and performed by
Yumi Umiumare
Dramaturge Moira Finucane

Win one of three double passes to Entrance on Friday 28 August at 7pm, email vcam-enews to win!

Entrance extends even further Umiumare's diverse dance vocabulary, plummeting into the cracks where the spirit and the body are propelled into another existence. Umiumare takes us from unsettling moments of physical extremity to magical images of reflective serenity.

28 August - 13 September
Tower Theatre
www.malthousetheatre.com.au

Presented by
Les 7 Doigts de la Mains

Win one of five double passes to Opening night of Traces on Wednesday 19 August at 8pm, email vcam-enews to win!

Montreal’s Les 7 Doigts de la Mains have taken the world by storm with their eccentric and intelligent contemporary circus-theatre. Set to a soundtrack of rock 'n' roll, blues and hip hop, this is a thrill-a-minute show that will leave you begging for more. Special $10 student rush tickets available on Opening night 19 August at 8pm.
 

19 - 29 August
Comedy Theatre Melbourne
www.artsprojects.com.au
 

Presented by Australian National Academy of Music
 

Win one of five double passes to Margaret Leng Tan's Toy Piano Recital on Saturday 15 August at 10pm, email vcam-enews to win!

The ANAM Piano! Festival returns in 2009 with masterclasses, films, discussions and recitals with some of the best pianists from Australia and the world. Cedric Tiberghein, Boris Berman, Nicholas Angelich, Margaret Leng Tan, Paul Grabowsky, Joe Chindamo and Michael Kieran Harvey will take you on a fascinating detour through the worlds of the 'prepared, ruined and toy' pianos alongside works by masters Debussy, Chopin, Mozart and Bartok.

7 - 15 August
South Melbourne Town Hall
www.anam.com.au

This Australian premiere is presented by Tony Yap Company, MAV Australia and Nottle Theatre Company, South Korea.
 

Win one of three double passes to The Buddha My Body on Thursday 20 August at 8pm, email vcam-enews to win!

A dance performance presenting an eastern perspective on corporeal memory; the body with memory and the body without memory. An inquiry into what is forgotten in daily life, of the things beyond existence.

20 - 23 August
fortyfivedownstairs
www.fortyfivedownstairs.com