Enjoy arts and culture in Sydney
By Rachel Pinder
Discover
Sydney and explore its vibrant arts and culture scene, with ever-changing exhibitions, shows and productions to enjoy. There's plenty of options to keep you busy all day long and well into the night so you'll be spoilt for choice.
BE INSPIRED
You will be inspired and surprised by Sydney’s buzzing cultural scene. Recent major upgrades and new creative spaces means that there is even more for you to see – with plenty of fascinating winter programs to choose from.
Their winter program includes an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders Special Gallery Tour and Morning Tea in August, where you can explore Australia and Australian culture through digital works, photography, sculpture, painting and drawing.
The
Art Gallery of NSW (AGNSW) is also undergoing an exciting revamp. Following last year's launch of its new contemporary art floor, AGNSW has recently unveiled the reinvented Australian Galleries. This is home to some of the gallery's most beloved pieces, and features old favourites in new contexts and rarely-seen works brought out of storage for the first time in years.
The exhibition runs from 27 June – 16 September, and many of the installations are interactive. Visitors are invited to find their inner artist, such as Tiffany Singh’s Knock on the Sky Listen to The Sound installation, where visitors to can take away a wind chime to decorate which will later be installed in the exhibition.
SOAK UP SOME CULTURE
If you want to enjoy some theatre while you're in Sydney there is lots going on.
Sydney Theatre Company stages 12 productions a year at The Wharf on Sydney's harbour and nearby Sydney Theatre under the leadership of creative directors Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton. Highlights of the 2012 winter season include Kerry Fox in a stage adaptation of Ingmar Bergman's Face to Face, and the popular US intergenerational love story, Sex with Strangers, will premiere in September with Jacqueline Mackenzie in the lead role.
Opera Australia offers a winter season filled with must-sees at
Sydney Opera House, including Graeme Murphy's glorious, grand production of Verdi's Aida in July, the Tony award-winning musical South Pacific in August, and the exquisite Puccini classic, Madama Butterfly, with Japanese soprano Hiromi Omura in the lead role in September.
APRES ART
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Browse cutting edge bargains at Oxford St Design Store, where limited edition products from artists and designers are all under $20. The store is part of a hub of art and design pop-ups in vacant buildings on the famous
shopping street.
• Enjoy a wine and a bite at the Sydney Theatre Company's new Bar at the End of the Wharf, surrounded by water views and creative energy.
• Gaze at Allan Giddy's Earth V Sky in Bicentennial Park, Glebe Point Road at sunset. This public artwork uses a wind turbine and advanced lighting technology to bathe two magnificent Moreton Bay fig trees in a spectrum of coloured light, reflecting the changing evening sky.