REMIX THE CITY

Alaska Projects

A car park might be the urban equivalent of a cultural Siberia. That’s until Alaska Projects, a newly formed ARI, saw the potential in a forgotten mechanic’s office located in the basement of a Kings Cross car park. It’s a little out of the way, but then Alaska won’t come to you – you have to discover it for yourself. Since opening in October this year, the mere 5×5 metre space has seen collective and individual shows from the likes of Nick Collerson, Rachel Forbes, Maz Dixon, Samuel Hodges and Rupert Reid. The artists are free to embrace or dramatically alter the white cube of the project space to create immersive environments for their work, using the stairwells, elevators and common areas. Website

The Gate Presents No Fixed Address

Sydney has no shortage of great bands, but not a lot of music venues outside of the inner city. That’s how The Gate came about, starting out as a regular event held in a Ryde backyard, and growing into so much more. The No Fixed Address series harks back to those first Ryde shows, which saws bands like Betty Airs, Seekae, The Paper Scissors, The Laurels, Guineafowl, Telafonica and Alps through The Gate, only this time around they could be playing in your very own backyard. Website

Jurassic Lounge

Adult education gets a bad wrap, but this year the Australian Museum introduced an event to beat any school excursion. Each week, after dark, the museum kept the doors open for Jurassic Lounge. Among the collections of dinosaur skeletons, minerals and native animals, you could discover some of Sydney’s precious gems including bands, soloists and performance artists. Every week was different with new and interesting screening, demonstrations and unusual lectures. You could even deliver your own karaoke rendition of ‘Walk The Dinosaur’ to a terrified audience that includes members of t-rex’s extended family. So, who says museums are full of crusty old dinosaurs. Website

Art and About

This year the City of Sydney’s largest public art festival, Art and About, celebrated 10 years of creating a living gallery on our streets. This year we witnessed the return of the ever-popular Sydney Life photographic exhibition to Hyde Park, ‘Acts of Kindness’ in Martin Place and a phantasmic tsunami on George St. The theme was What If… and sums up the event nicely. Art and About fires up the imagination, evoking infinite possibilities in the city environment where every street, laneway, building site, intersection and thoroughfare is a canvas for creation and storytelling. Website

The Paper Mill

From their little shopfront nook in the posh downtown area of Sydney, The Paper Mill has reinvigorated our love of all things A4 related. An Artist Run Initiative, The Paper Mill provides the four walls wherein artists who work with/are inspired by paper are encouraged to conceive, develop and exhibit their work, which can then be viewed and engaged with by the audience. As well as being an exhibition space for artists, The Paper Mill’s program of events and workshops, including sketch club, story slam, screen-printing, typography and zine making, have given restless digits a new lease on life. We’ll be sorry to see this one go! Website

Queen Street Studio

Everyone needs a roof over their head, and Queen Street Studio provides just that (and more) to artists of all perversions and persuasions. Run by artists for artists, the studios offer non-profit creative development and rehearsal studios, programs, free residencies and now funding for young artists. Initiatives include Play, Me residency and mentorship programs for emerging playwrights and directors, The Lock Up writers lab, Blueprint residency for emerging performance-makers, Toolkit intensive training program for performance artists and ArtStart grants for artists aged 18-24. Website