In 2007, Turner-prize nominee Yinka Shonibare described disability arts as the last great avant-garde movement. There is a long way to go before arts and disability is truly equal with other artists. This year in Australia, the federal government is working to renew the National Arts and Disability Strategy. This session will explore emerging trends in arts and disability practice, the future that arts practitioners with disability want to see and the impact of ongoing consultations and targeted initiatives.

WHAT: Talk
WHEN: Monday 27 May, 6-8:15pm
WHERE: 107 Projects
HOW MUCH: $10-$20, get tickets here

Please join-us for a series of very special keynote presentations with photographers, artists, curators and academics aimed to explore photography’s cultural positioning; both in a contemporary and historical context.

WHAT: Lecture
WHEN: Monday 27 May, 6-7:30pm
WHERE: UTS Design Architecture & Building
HOW MUCH: Free, more details here

The way we relate to space can be used as a barometer for the ways in which we relate to each other and ourselves. This is the central dialogue on which ‘Speaking Space’ Billie Posters’ upcoming exhibition is based. ‘Speaking Space’ discusses how spatial relations create social relations through a display of performative dialogues in film and sculpture.

WHAT: Exhibition Opening
WHEN: Tuesday 28 May, 6-8pm
WHERE: AD Space
HOW MUCH: Free, more details here

The Living Cities Forum is an annual assembly of annual assembly exploring the role of design, planning and architecture in shaping our society. In 2019, the Forum is expanding to Melbourne and Sydney with an impressive array of international and local architecture and urban design leaders.

WHAT: Forum
WHEN: Tuesday 28 May, 8am-4:30pm
WHERE: Carriageworks
HOW MUCH: $100-$175, get tickets here

SSHIFFT is exploring the practice of shapeshifting in a cultural and western context. How in the western world shapeshifting is part of a sci-fi reality and a distant future whilst in a cultural world it is our current reality, it is our past present and future.

WHAT: Dance
WHEN: Wednesday 29 May, 7-8pm
WHERE: PACT
HOW MUCH: $15-$20, get tickets here

Woman in the Dunes is a captivatingly strange and sensuously immersive Existentialist fable. When a school teacher, Niki Junpei, out collecting insects among the dunes misses the last bus home he must stay the night with a local widow, whose house lies down a rope at the bottom of an immense sandpit. In the morning, the ladder is gone and Junpei is trapped by the local villagers and forced to endlessly shovel sand for a mysterious purpose.

WHAT: Film Screening
WHEN: Wednesday 29 May, 5-8pm
WHERE: Heydon Laurence Lecture Theatre
HOW MUCH: Free, more details here

Each Friday Samuel McEwen has been penning a comic on current issues, from the NSW Government’s War on Music, to SXSW, to the esteemed Farmer & The Owl Festival. On May 30th, join us at the newly opened Happy Studios where we’ll be exhibiting Sam’s first 12 comics with Happy Mag.

WHAT: Exhibition Opening
WHEN: Thursday 30 May, 6-9pm
WHERE: Happy Mag
HOW MUCH: Free, more details here

On this photowalk, you will be able to explore the shoreline of the stunning Sydney Harbour with views of the Sydney Opera House as well as the Sydney Harbour Bridge! This year, during the Vivid event the Sydney Opera house will be lit with a beautiful collection of art designed by BEMO and Andrew Thomas Huang called Austral Flora Ballet.

WHAT: Photography walk
WHEN: Thursday 30 May, 6:3-=8:30pm
WHERE: Sydney Opera House
HOW MUCH: $20, get tickets here

THANK YOU is a live night dedicated to celebrating the steadfast perseverance of queer bodies in sharp times. TY is an ode to the divine, a celebration of transcendence. Both supportive base and pedestal, TY is a space for loving dedications to the radiant, staunch, defiant, soft, charming, joyous characters birthed from our community.

WHAT: Party
WHEN: Friday 31 May, 6-10pm
WHERE: Firsdraft
HOW MUCH: Free, more details here

Burrbgaja Yalirra / Dancing Forwards is a triple bill of solo works curated by Marrugeku’s Artistic Directors Dalisa Pigram and Rachael Swain. Each work explores our sense of belonging in Australia through intercultural contemporary dance. Three dancers will present works from three unique perspectives, co-choreographed with internationally renown choreographers.

WHAT: Dance
WHEN: Friday 31 May, 8pm
WHERE: Carriageworks
HOW MUCH: $35, get tickets here

Learn more about the work of Nicholas Aloisio-Shearer and the development of his practice in this conversation between the artist and Josephine Skinner.

WHAT: Talk
WHEN: Saturday 1 June, 3-4pm
WHERE: UNSW Art & Design
HOW MUCH: Free, RSVP here

How well do you know Spike Lee? You know his films. She’s Gotta Have It (1986 and the 2017 Netflix Original TV series), Do the Right Thing (1989) and Jungle Fever (1991) to Malcolm X (1992) and Inside Man (2006), the African-American director, producer, writer and actor is a trailblazer of contemporary cinema and he continues to cross cultural divides with each project.

WHAT: Talk
WHEN: Saturday 1 June, 6-7:30pm
WHERE: Sydney Town Hall
HOW MUCH: More details here

GRAD SHOW is a personal and practical interactive seminar that looks at the next steps for graduates of any creative arts course, including screen, performing arts, writing, visual art, music and design

WHAT: Exhibition
WHEN: Sunday 2 June, 3-6pm
WHERE: Museum of Contemporary Art
HOW MUCH: Free, RSVP here

Author talk and poetry reading, Kelly will be discussing social issues such as anti bullying and the impact on mental health, the inspiration behind her book, and the power of resilience.

WHAT: Talk & Reading
WHEN: Sunday 2 June, 3pm
WHERE: Anna’s Shop Around the Corner
HOW MUCH: Free, more details here