The Australian Dance Theatre presents G
Winter warmers It’s a busy season of creativity and there’s plenty to tempt aficionados and newcomers, write STEPHEN BEVIS and PIP CHRISTMASS
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any people may have long swapped their picnic rugs for granny blankets on the couch but local producers, artists and entertainers are hoping audiences will warm plenty of seats this winter. An alliance of organisations is using the ninth City of Perth Winter Arts Season to promote the sense that audiences don’t need to go into hibernation, even in sun-loving Perth, because the city is buzzing with art and culture all through the year. Many artists say they are inspired by the bleakness of winter. There’s something about the lack of sunshine and the crackle of a fireplace that stimulates profound thought and great innovation. The cultural capitals of the world — London, Vienna, even Melbourne — endure miserable weather and it seems that when it comes to art, a storm spurs
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artists to greater heights than a sunny forecast. The first winter arts season began in 2005 when former Art Gallery of WA director Alan Dodge called for the city’s opera and ballet companies, orchestra, theatres, museums, galleries and libraries to unite under a theme struck by the gallery’s visiting St Petersburg exhibition. This year, the midyear centrepiece is a contest between the gallery and its neighbour in the Perth Cultural Precinct, the WA Museum. The gallery will host Van Gogh, Dali and Beyond, the third show in its partnership with New York’s Museum of Modern Art, and the museum’s Secrets of the Afterlife, Egyptian antiquities from the British Museum, is already two weeks into its run. The exclusivity of these blockbuster exhibitions points towards a wider recognition of the need to bolster Perth’s world-
The city is buzzing with art and culture all through the year.
class arts offerings. Along with our burgeoning restaurant scene, our investment in new retail precincts and a sporting stadium, the Winter Arts Season recognises that there needs to be an international-standard arts program available to those interested in more than fine dining and afternoons at the football. Consequently, the full program is an overwhelming feast of options from which to choose. A major inclusion in the program is NAIDOC Week, the annual national celebration of indigenous culture, which stems from the Aboriginal activism of the 1920s. This year, the national focus city is Perth, where NAIDOC Week begins on July 7 with a Welcome to Country and a dance and music extravaganza led by Shane Howard. A strong family and music program awaits audiences