Creative highlights and opportunities at Shopfront and beyond
Shopfront's Major Production
At the Drive-in
August 27-29 Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre, Gymea
September 10-11 Living Desert, Broken Hill
Zombie Road Trip.. TJ Eckleberg with At the Drive-in's (from left) Alyssa Jee, Aslam Abdus-samad and Debby Liman. Photo: Nick Moir
Shopfront's major project At the Drive-in premiered at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre (Gymea) on Friday August 27. Bumper crowds filled the grounds of Hazelhurst for this extraordinary 3 night event that combined music, performance, installation, dance and multimedia. At the Drive-in now hits the road travelling via Narrandera and Mildura to their final performance destination - The Living Desert, Broken Hill, where new audiences will experience At the Drive-in from September 10-11 More Info
Feature Article:The Sydney Morning Herald,, Arts & Entertainment. Tuesday August 24, 2010. Page 9
Article: North Shore Times, Wednesday August 25, 2010. Page 4
After seven years of passionate and dedicated service to the Shopfront community,TJ Eckleberg has let the Board know that he will be resigning as Artistic Director and CEO as of November 17th 2010.
During his time with us, TJ's vision, energy, and creative ability as an Artistic Director have seen Shopfront become recognised nationally for the work created alongside our Members, as well as with young people and emerging artists from around Australia and Japan. From workshops, to ensembles, to annual major projects - under TJ's direction Shopfront has created a wonderful variety of exciting, dynamic, bold, and engaging opportunities for young people to express themselves in a safe and supportive place.
On behalf of the Board and Shopfront Members, I'd like to warmly congratulate and thank TJ for his achievements at Shopfront. We wish him all the very best for the future.
Over the coming weeks, the Board and I will be working together with staff through this time of transition. We'll keep you up to date as we progress.
As always, I would be happy to discuss with our friends and partners this, or indeed anything to do with the life of our company. If you have any questions or comments, please contact me.
Iain Crossing
Chair
Shopfront Contemporary Arts and Performance iain@inspirationalworkplaces.com.au
Ph 0418 635 424
Revenge of the Nerds
A new member has joined the ranks of the Shopfront community in recent months, and he’s been officially certified by the Australia Council as an arts geek.
In a first-of-its-kind pilot program, the Australia Council for the Arts has played matchmaker between nine selected arts organisations and a handpicked flying squad of tech-savvy art geeks to help them develop and explore possibilities in the new digital world.
Dermot McGuire joins Shopfront as one of these first few geeks charged with sharing their passion for surmounting technological problems in creative environments and with helping arts workers be better equipped to work in digital spaces.
With a background that combines a decade of film production experience and a burgeoning career in the world of community management and social media, Dermot will be Shopfront’s digital and technical troubleshooter; a nerd-at-hand and online strategist helping plot and plan for Shopfront’s exciting future.
ArtsLab07 artist and senior Shopfronter Alesha Murraywas featured on the TV Series, Find My Family Screened on Channel 7, May 24 at 8pm.Filmed in Shopfront, this is the story of the search for her family that follows on from her artistic work created during Shopfront's Major Productions:(lost toy story) in 2008 and Superperfect in 2009. See it here on the Vodcast
Detours & Destinations was a joint project between Shopfront, Heaps Decent,
the Sydney Opera House and the Department of Juvenile Justice
Incorporating video and film, remix technologies, beat mixing and DJ culture, podcasts, blogging, animation and installation. Detours & Destinations was an integrated multi-media arts project
framing thestories and experience of young people from Western Sydney, staged at the Sydney Opera House Studio and streamed live to the net on May 5-7, 2010
The SBS program Living Black featured a story on the projectand can now be viewed online.. Check it out Here
The song Late Night created by the Miimali Girls during the Detours & Destination project is currently being aired on high rotation on FBi Radio. Check it outHere
WINNER of People's Choice at the Adelaide Fringe 2010
Words They Make With Their Mouths , written and performed by Tim Spencer (ArtsLab09), won the People's Choice Award at the Adelaide Fringe Festival 2010. First developed, staged and produced at Shopfront during the ArtsLab residency in 2009, this exciting new work and talented artist is capturing the hearts and minds of audiences everywhere. Next stop Melbourne!
Click Here >>for the ArtsLab creative development of Words They Make With Their Mouths
Click Here >>to find out more from Tim at Bambina Borracha Productions
Big Ted Adventures
The (lost toy story) journey continues. Shopfront's large and luminous representative has returned from his recent vist to The Belconnen Arts Centre in Canberra (March 19 - April 12). Big Ted will soon be hitting the road again with The Australia Council, touring theKP11: Producing Communities exhibition to the Apple Isle. This is a multi-media exhibition that documents the work of 11 key arts organisations in partnerships with the community.
Destination details to follow soon....
Superperfect
faster better stronger
Following hot on the heels of Superperfect in Sydney (August 14-16, 2009), Shopfronters - Diya Ingleshwar, Laura Carolan, Arnab Ahmed, David Buckley, David Kirkpatrick, Eric Avery, Alesha Murray, Sarah Emery and TJ Eckleberg travelled to Yokohama, Japan to continue the journey. On August 28-30, Superperfect was restaged at the ST Spot in Yokohama. All Shows were sold out.The Japanese audiences were as impressed as Sydney audiences.Our GM dropped in on the performance in a whirlwind visit to Japan and reported that the performance was beautiful. The only concern was on the return trip home where the ensemble encountered a mini monsoon before they were due to fly out. Good news, all have returned home safe.
