ArtMoves - EOI open

Australian creatives (of all ages) now have a chance to make their mark on the Sydney landscape with ArtMoves, a new public art program that will transform Kensington and Kingsford into Sydney’s next great artistic suburbs.

ArtMoves is an upcoming public art program where five sites along the Sydney Light Rail route in Kensington and Kingsford will be transformed by local artists into cultural landmarks. Creatives can contribute in a number of ways – public art, performances, sound installations and more will be considered.

Transport for NSW invites creatives to express their interest from today until 31 March 2017. Once the judging is complete; the successful projects will be installed from June, with a chance of becoming permanent fixtures in the community.

For more info visit: http://www.mysydneycbd.nsw.gov.au/artmoves

Friday Finds

image: Abbey Vella

+ Forget the Archibald's! Meet the Young Archie's
+ One of my teens will be at Genext this Sunday - maybe she will share her images
+ Evening sorted = Back to the Future at Golden Age Cinema
+ For your photographer in the family
+ Palace movie club - discounted movies

Plant Planet Workshop

 Plant Planet workshop = Mundane Matters x Superlocalstudio = A thought -provoking, creative food experience led by Danling Xiao and Liane Rossler.

Saturday 23 July 2016
11am - 1pm
Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation
16-20 Goodhope St
Paddington

$20 per participant
All ages welcome

Bookings essential/Limited numbers 02 9331 1112
bookings@sherman-scaf.org,au
more info

BIG Kids Magazine - Contribution call out

BIG Kids Magazine have announced their next issues (issue 10) theme is HUMAN.

1. *CREATE and CONTRIBUTE your response to the theme Human. You can write, film, paint, dance, draw, sew or sing your contributions which will be considered for publication on their blog, and/or in the pages of BIG Kids Magazine.

2. SEND high resolution print quality images, sound bites, videos or word docs  of your work to submit@bigkidsmagazine.com including the title of the work, your name, age (if you’re a child) and location.

Ready Aim - Take Flight

This June Kinokuniya are calling all paper pilots to take on the challenge and help fill the flight paths in their Wedge Gallery with paper plane creations. Once all paths are filled, along with Tuttle Publishing and NewSouth Books Australia they will collectively donate $1000 toThe Indigenous Literacy Foundation.

Coding time for kids

Infinite Arcade: Dream, design and play your own video games (Found via swiss miss).
Hopscotch: Kids can create their own software.
Club Code Austalia: A network of coding clubs for Australian kids aged 9 - 11.
Scratch: An oldie but a still a goodie.
Code4Fun: Programming school for Sydney kids.

A creative school holidays

The Peasant Prince, image:  Heidrun Lohr

School holidays are upon us. We have selected some fun creative activies that will have you covered.

The Peasant Prince at Monkey Baa Theatre (until 20 April) brings the beautiful story of Li Cunxin’s iconic autobiography, Mao’s Last Dancer to the stage. If you have a child who just can not sit still throughout performances, the theatre has a special relaxed performance and is described as “the opposite of the quiet carriage on the train” on the 14th April. 

Sherman Contemporary Art Gallery – Introductory workshop to mobile photography with photographer Markus Andersen. Participants will be introduced to picture-taking and processing apps, as well as basic photographic techniques before applying this expertise “in the field” in the local Paddington area.
Saturday 23 April, 10–12pm.

$20 | Recommended for ages 12+

Pull out the paints and paper and inspire them to start working on their entry to the Little Things Art Exhibition to be exhibited at Saint Cloche Gallery in Paddington.

  

Get your musical on at the Art Gallery of NSW screening of An American in Paris (rated PG). 20 and 24th April 2016. Free.

While you are at the gallery pop in to see Art Express - Featuring a selection of outstanding student artworks developed for the artmaking component of the HSC examination in Visual Arts 2015. Free.

Got creative teens? Smart ARTS workshops and talks will be right up their alley running from the 8 – 17^th April 2016.

The Sydney Comedy Festival brings on the laughs for kids with Comedy for Kids over the 2016 festival. 

Paper planes and collecting stuff

My youngest son (12 years) has been my child who has held the strongest love of paper planes in our family.  Whenever he is bored you will find him with a piece of A4 paper carefully transforming it into a sleek flying machine.

Just recently we discovered the beautiful paper plane collection by Harry Everett Smith (painter, filmmaker, collector).  Most of the paper planes were collected over 1961 to 1983 on the streets of New York and started their lives as junk mail, grocery lists or a scrap of found paper.

I still love to collect stones and rocks - the smaller ones I keep in a printers drawer in our hallway. My children add to the collection now and again.  They have all had tins of collections over the years. My sister-in-law told me recently of her sons stick collection.

'Children collect to discover who they are, and what the world should be.' Kimberely Stevens (NY Times).

The latest copy of BIG magazine is all about Collections.
Lisa Congdon collects collections with her Collection a Day project.
Book collections over at Hello Bookcase.
Candy Jernigan -  artist and collector of thrown away evidence of lives lived.

Do you and/or your children collect anything? Do you encourage them to start collections?

Sydney Festival 2015 for families

The 2015 Sydney Festival opens next week and has again another wonderful year for families with young and/or older children. Masquerade will be on the top of most families list  and Tabac Rouge will be magnificent.
Ali McGregor's Jazzamatazz! will knock the kids socks off and The Luck Child looks like fun.

This year we will be catching The Kitchen - in 2010 we all went as a family for Roysten Abel's The Manganiyar Seduction and we were all wowed.

There are plenty of free options across the city to keep you busy over the school holidays as well.
The Vegetable Plot - Melodies and vegetables
Hotbed Designs - Blocks prints and fabric paint
Dear Hope Street - A modern day message in a bottle
Australian Museum in the Village - Discover Hyde Park as a scientist
City of Sydney Lawn Library - Books take a holiday outside
Cool down with the Waterfall Swing at Darling Harbour
More free options.

To explore the full family festival program visit: http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/2015/family

Sydney Festival
8 - 26 Jan 2015

Japanese Film Festival | families and youth

The 2014 Japanese Film Festival has arrived in Sydney. We love this festival and we have put together a list of films that are classified.  The live action version of Kiki's Delivery Service will most likely be on top of the list for families but for older children there are some wonderful films/documentaries to catch.

Kiki's Delivery Service (G)

Lady Maiko (PG)

Thermae Romae (PG)

Thermae Romae II (M)

The God of Ramen (G)

Wood Job (PG)

Short Peace (MA)

For the full 2014 festival program visit http://japanesefilmfestival.net/

Friday Finds | Arts Rocket

I found some time last night to put together a small selection of our Friday Finds.......

Here is my official list of Friday Finds for Friday 4 July 2014:

• Expose your kids to cinema.... Last month I re-watched DO THE RIGHT THING with my eldest son (now 16) and as it celebrates it's 25th anniversary - the messages are still very clear.  It was wonderful to share this film with him for the first time. Search out films in your local dvd store that show them the world but are also age appropriate. 
• Let your kids have their own space in your garden - let them dig it up and go crazy. If you don't have space for a garden - get a herb box
• Lastly - have fun over the school holidays and enjoy your time together.

x

DISCOVERED | The Selfie Project at Kinokuniya

Where: Kinokuniya Books - Sydney   

When: Month of June 2014

PS - While you are there check out their children's book section - best selection of kids books in Sydney.

Sydney Festival 2014 | Family

image: Joshua Morris

Ok - we have been busy so this is my first chance to go through the Sydney Festival 2014 program in detail.  The festival starts this week and is a great way to fill in the last few weeks of the school holidays.

There is a lot to choose from this year -  a wonderful selection of performances and activities for families - and if you still want more, it is also fun to beyond the family strand (especially if you have older children) to discover some interesting finds.

If you are a family of four - the festival also has family packages for some performances. For families on a budget these holidays but still want their children to be involved in the festival -  check out the free performances and activities on offer.

We love everything in the program but we are looking into these performances:

Othello - The remix: My eldest son (15) would love it if this is how Shakespeare is taught in school.
Band of Magicians: Magic is extremely popular in our house at the moment with my youngest son (9) and this performance is number one on his list!
Ockham's Razor: Looks absolutely amazing - Circus meets storytelling.
The Piper: Limited tickets to be involved and on stage of this intriguing retelling of The Pied Piper of Hamelin.  The Piper incorporates multimedia, puppetry and stagecraft.
Tom Thum: Beating the Habit: I caught Tom at Tedx Sydney in 2013. Kids of all ages will love Tom Thum.
Jazzamatazz!: Cabaret singer Ali McGregor does jazzy beats for kids.
Lao Qiang: Expand the music your children are listening to with ancient Rock'n'Roll from the East.

To  browse the full family program visit: http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/2014/Family/

Kids at the House 2014 - Sydney Opera House

The Kids at the House have announced their 2014 program. I was delighted to see some old favourites and performances I have been waiting patiently to arrive in Australia. My kids are getting older now (15, 12 and 9) and we have outgrown the Babies Proms but the 2014 season looks after everyone.

These are our picks:

Illusionists 2.0 - My youngest son is obsessed with magic - as most nine year olds are. We have already secured our tickets for his upcoming birthday.

The Magic Flute - This kid friendly performance of The Magic Flute is a wonderful introduction to opera and worth saving up for. My daughter and I went to this in 2012 and we both loved it.

The Incredible Book Eating Boy  - Everyone in our house eats books and this is also a favourite book when the kids were younger.

Leo  - This looks like fun and physical theatre is wonderful for all ages.

The Girl Who Forgot to Sing Badly  -  Finnegan Kruckenmeyer  is one of our favourite playwrights - he knows kids theatre!  

Hans Christian, You Must Be an Angel - My eldest son and I have seen Gruppe 38's performance of Hansel and Gretel in 2010 and a reworking of Little Red Riding Hood - A Sonatina and The Little Match Girl in 2007. When I saw that their latest production was featuring  in the Dublin Theatre Festival - I urged our family in Dublin to go.  I am booking our tickets now!


Of course, there is more to explore - but I will leave that up to you.