Araluen Arts Centre
Araluen Arts Centre is the focal point of Alice Springs’ performing and visual arts scene, incorporating galleries and a theatre.
Theatre
The annual theatre program includes performances by national touring companies and many high quality local productions. The theatre is also available for the presentation of corporate functions and conferences, in association with the function room and the galleries where suitable.
Feature Event:
Red Dust Theatre presents: Morgan and Molly
**Rescheduled Dates**
A new play by Michael Watts
Performed by Luke Scholes and kerzlake
The magic the madness and the mystery of the desert
Araluen Theatre
**Rescheduled Dates**
Friday 4 December, 7.30pm
Saturday 5 December, 7.30pm
| Adult: | $35.00 |
| Araluen Members: | $30.00 |
| Concession: | $30.00 |
| Students/Children: | $28.00 |
Galleries
The galleries feature a program of exhibitions with a focus on Aboriginal art from Central Australia, and contemporary art by local and Australian artists.
The Albert Namatjira Gallery displays a rotating selection of paintings by this famous Aboriginal artist, his descendants and contemporaries. The gallery also features early works from Papunya and the “Hermannsburg School”.
Araluen Arts Centre was designed and built around the 300 year old Corkwood Tree in the Sculpture Garden. This tree, another at the front of the building and Big Sister Hill are also considered sacred by the Arrernte people.
Feature Exhibition:
Other side art: Trevor Nickolls
A SURVEY OF PAINTINGS AND DRAWINGS 1972-2007
Image: Trevor NICKOLLS, "Mother Earth and Father Space stealing a kiss during the war against humanity", 2004, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 150 x 180 cm, Collection of Arthur Roe, Melbourne
The Araluen Arts Centre is pleased to present Other side art, the first museum survey of the work of South Australian indigenous artist, Trevor Nickolls, known as “the father of urban aboriginal art” (Brenda Croft, former senior curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art at the National Gallery of Australia ).
Spanning Nickolls’ work over a thirty-five year period, the survey tracks the social history of Australia using the artist’s visual vocabulary, his own iconic language that has influenced and informed subsequent indigenous artists’ practice. Nickoll’s unique vision set the direction for a generation of urban indigenous artists.
The survey includes more than 55 paintings and works on paper, brought together for the first time from public and private collections across Australia.
The exhibition has been curated by Michael O’Ferrall, a senior independent consultant and curator who has worked with Trevor Nickolls for over three decades, including as the curator of the official Australian Pavilion at the 1990 Venice Biennale, which presented Nickolls’s work alongside Kimberley artist Rover Thomas.
Nickoll’s works are widely recognised for their ‘dreamtime/machinetime’ theme, which combines the sheer natural wonder of the Aboriginal land and Dreamtime stories with robust symbols of urban Australia, and has become an enduring leitmotiv for the dichotomy of European and Aboriginal histories in Australia.
His drawings and paintings reflect his personal experience as a Nunga man and his relationship to land, place and history. These relationships are of universal relevance. They make accessible ideas about nature vs nurture, the psychological and physical self, black and white, ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’ that inform our experience of contemporary life.
Director of the Ian Potter Museum of Art, Chris McAuliffe, says the exhibition will establish for new audiences a strong sense of Aboriginal cultural history and socio-political experience.
“It will connect contemporary artists to a tradition of endeavour and experiment. The project will have a substantial impact on younger artists, who, in experiencing survey exhibitions, discover role models and see at first-hand the meaning of commitment, longevity and personal vision”, McAuliffe said.
The exhibition will tour nationally under management by NETS Victoria and with support from ‘Visions of Australia’, an Australian Government program which supports touring exhibitions with funding assistance to develop and tour Australian cultural material across Australia.
| Araluen Arts Centre |
| Exhibition Opening: Friday 20 November, 6pm |
| Exhibition Open until Sunday 31 January |
