Region's artists to shine at Artstate 2020

Published: 30 Oct 2020 1:41pm

The vitality and creativity of the Riverina’s performing and visual artists will be celebrated through a diverse program of events as part of Artstate 2020, being held in Wagga Wagga from Thursday to Sunday, 5-8 November 2020.

One-hundred and fifty delegates from across NSW will attend the conference, which is being presented by Eastern Riverina Arts in partnership with Regional Arts NSW and supported by Wagga Wagga City Council.

Civic Theatre Manager Carissa Campbell said it was exciting to be hosting one of the first conferences to take place under a COVID safe plan.

“We are very proud of the plan we have in place to ensure that our community and visitors to the city can continue to enjoy live entertainment, our artists and performers continue to get paid and of course everyone remains safe,” Ms Campbell said.

“Our livestreaming technology has been compared to the best in the country and we are very excited to be able to offer those services to Artstate 2020, making this conference accessible to an even wider audience this year than ever before.

“Arts has already been recognised as a valuable tool in personally dealing with the isolation of the pandemic, and now we can showcase how important it is to the economic recovery of our city too!”

The accompanying Arts Program will feature performances, exhibitions and fun, fabulous art installations taking place all over the city.

Arts Program Director Scott Howie said CSU Riverina Playhouse will be activated with an assortment of weird and wonderful drag, cabaret, poets, musicians and burlesque performers.

“This includes two fantastic original works in Playhaus: Act on Thursday, Playhaus: Words & Music on Friday and Playhaus: Cabaret on Saturday night,” Mr Howie said.

“Taking things to an even more intimate level is a series of one-of-one performances inside the immersive multi-sensory space, Platform, which will be located near the Riverina Playhouse

“We’ll have Low Energy Dance on Thursday night and Together/Apart on Friday and Saturday nights between 8 pm to 11pm.

“The idea is that you drop in and one of 15 local artists will perform a 3-5 minute act just for you.”

In addition to hosting the conference component of Artstate 2020, the Civic Theatre is also the venue for a concert by the Riverina Conservatorium of Music’s Joshua Prenzler, Riverina Dreaming, on Friday night, while William Crighton will perform at the closing ceremony on Saturday night, supported by Tumut’s own Rory Phillips.

The ambition and scope of the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery will be on display through its exciting exhibition program, which includes Hardenvale – Our Home in Absurdia, Miyagan (Relations), The Masks I Wear to Pass, and Forms and Echoes from the National Art Glass Collection. For more details on what’s on at the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery please go to waggaartgallery.com.au/whats-on

Many of the Arts Program events at Artstate 2020 are free, although tickets may need to be pre-booked to ensure COVID-safe seating.

For more details visit civictheatre.com.au/artstate or contact the Civic Theatre Box Office on 6926 9688.