Castlemaine State Festival
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Sculpture entries open
It’s a Small World sculpture prize, coinciding with next year’s Castlemaine State Festival, is being hosted by the Newstead Arts Hub from March 18-April 9. Established and emerging artists are welcome to enter pieces exploring the theme It’s a small world. It’s a phrase often used to describe the connection between people and events around…
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Workshops to support creative practice
Castlemaine State Festival and Good Shed Arts have announced a new series of six two-day workshops providing essential inspiration, skills and support for artists of all descriptions who are forming or rethinking their professional practice. The series of workshops begins on Thursday August 4 with a session dedicated to developing your values and vision to…
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Bust of the late Felix Cappy unveiled
Lisa Dennis A huge crowd gathered at the Castlemaine Town Hall on Sunday to witness the unveiling of a bronze bust to celebrate the life and achievements of the late Felix Cappy OAM. Felix was born and bred in Castlemaine and devoted his life to community service, charitable work and preserving the town’s history. Felix…
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Countdown to Dialogues…
Castlemaine State Festival’s Dialogues 2022 event kicks off this Thursday with a visit by special guests Bill and Chloe Shorten at The Goods Shed. The theme of the second Dialogues series is ‘Change Your Thinking’ and will see dynamic writers and theorists from a diverse range of fields come together for a collaborative reflection on the issues of ‘Change’.…
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The impact of betrayal of trust
It was Albert Einstein who said, “whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters”. Has our ability to trust the people and organisations we uphold most – in leadership, in the media, in the workplace and in our daily lives – changed? Or have we become less tolerant…
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Festival bursts into life
Award-winning South Sudanese singer-songwriter and activist Ajak Kwai delighted the Castlemaine State Festival opening night crowd with her funky afro-beats and extraordinary voice in a sold out show on the main stage at Castlemaine’s Western Reserve on Friday evening. The performance was also live-streamed and shared via a live radio cross by MainFM so those…
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First festival out the gate
Castlemaine Botanical Gardens sets the scene for this evening’s Castlemaine State Festival program launch – and what a festival it promises to be. The result of clever reformatting to cater for vagaries tossed up by COVID, CSF 2021 has been expanded by seven days and makes ample use of outdoor venues to carefully manage audience…
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Global project heads to Castlemaine
Renowned French street artist JR is preparing to make his mark on Castlemaine, inviting Mount Alexander Shire residents to participate in a global large-format outdoor art project. The Inside Out Castlemaine project encourages locals to share a large black and white self-portrait photograph that makes a statement about who they are and what they stand…
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Castlemaine State Fest offers grants to creatives
Virus or no virus, come March next year the Castlemaine State Festival will happen, its director says. Exactly what form it takes will be guided by the level of restriction in place at the time, but festival director Glyn Roberts says planning for the March 19-28 festival is factoring in adaptation to the shifting COVID-19…
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In Your Face at Newstead
A new art project at Newstead will invite people to try their hand at portraiture, capturing the faces that make up the local community. The Newstead Art Salon In Your Face Portrait project has just received $3000 in grant dollars through Mount Alexander Shire Council’s latest community grants round with a series of 25 In…
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Cartoon lab
Castlemaine State Festival goers will have the opportunity to take a sneak peek at Trace Balla’s next graphic novella set in Jaara country, as part of a unique ‘Cartoon Lab’ on March 29. Trace’s previous book Rockhoppin won the Children’s Book Council ‘Children’s Book of the Year’ in 2017. Workshop participants will be able to…