EXPRESSION: Spring Arts 2017 program cover. ARTWORK: Alicia Marshall
BEECHWORTH Arts Council’s month-long Spring Arts 2017 celebration of visual arts is blooming as November opens.
The program in the historic Indigo community starts with a weekend of open studios on November 4-5 — and with another artist also opening her mountainside studio near Tawonga — in the wake of an exhibition by King Valley artist Anita Laurance in Milawa’s Off Centre Gallery from November 3. Michael Ashby opens Under a blue sky on November 5 and it runs until December 4.
Les trois — an exhibition of printworks by Beechworth artists Chris Dormer and Tania Sutton and Stanley artist Janet Sutherland — opens at Indigo Library Beechworth on November 8 and runs to November 26.
Another Beechworth artist, Therese Shanley, exhibits Rain and good weather in the historic confines of Old Beechworth Gaol, opening on November 10 and running for nine days 10:30am-3:00pm.
Works by Woolshed Valley artist Nina Machielse Hunt show in the 1858-built Old Stone Hall in Beechworth November 10-26. The abstract landscape painter’s Wild is the wind opens on November 18.
A lively discussion about inspiration and tension in regional and metropolitan art featuring leading curators and gallery directors takes place in Beechworth’s Old Stone Hall on November 11. The art chat participants include former Art Gallery of South Australia director and NGV curator Christopher Menz.
Art under the rotunda, an exhibition of works by children from Beechworth and St Joseph’s primary schools, Montessori School and Wooragee Primary School, runs in Beechworth’s Town Hall Gardens on November 12.
The personal landscape — a major group exhibition — will open in Beechworth Town Hall on November 15 and runs until November 26. It ill be opened by Indigo mayor Jenny O’Connor.
Mayday Hills Art Society marks the sesquicentenary of Beechworth Lunatic Asylum with a show of artists’ works from November 23 to December 3 at its gallery in the asylum grounds. The asylum opened in 1867. It became Beechworth Mental Hospital in the mid-20th century and closed in 1995.
Spring Arts also features workshops exploring abstraction and painting for beginners.