Concrete Playground

If your normal intake of art plateaus out at a monthly round of the AGNSW and a field trip during the Biennale, March is here to turn things up a notch. The instigators of Art Month Sydney want you to see the smallest of private galleries scattered through our city and to know that you can walk in without being expected to buy anything or perform a secret society ritual of entry and sacrifice. Those already au fait with the monde de l’art will find their familiar spaces all gussied up, with local artists, workshops and galleries preening their finest plumage.

To make it even easier for us to focus our energy, Art Month Sydney have designated each week on their calendar to a particular precinct: first Paddington and Woollahra; then Darlinghurst, Potts Point and Surry Hills; Waterloo; and Redfern, Chippendale and the CBD. During the precinct’s special week, you can catch free buses in between its locales and enjoy extended gallery hours on Thursday nights, winding down with spirits both creative and alcoholic at the night’s nominated bar.

On top of the stellar exhibitions waiting in each gallery, Art Month Sydney will also feature a series of ‘Creative Collaborations’, where you can witness first-hand the coming together of different art forms as Romance Was Born talk to Del Kathryn Barton (art-meets-fashion), Hossein Valamanesh meets Chris Drummond (art-theatre) and Leo Robba synergises with Professor Tony Capon (art-science). Of course, the Month could not be deigned complete without a hefty serving of gallery talks and artist studio tours. Also keep an eye out for collaboratively crafted store windows (including Sass & Bide, Incu, Fairfax & Roberts and Camilla and Marc) that may transform your regular shopping trip into something extraordinary. The month will wrap up with Speed Dating for Emerging Artists, where not yet solo–exhibited artists can find their perfect gallery match.

This is the first Art Month Sydney — embrace it and it might visit us again soon.

Image by Tara Marynowsky.