It seems practically
every artist I meet these days lives on Bruny Island or at least has
a holiday house, and there is even a
flourishing private gallery at Dennes Point providing encouragement and incentive for those wishing to exhibit.
Rediscover Bruny
is a three-part event organised by Bruny Island Arts to raise
awareness of the quality and diversity of art being produced on the
Island and has almost a hundred participants – not bad, when you
consider there are only seven hundred people living on the island,
and there are many more artists there who are not included.
40 Artists from the
Island opened on Saturday afternoon (21 September 2013) in the
Long Gallery at the Salamanca Arts Centre in Hobart. The quality of
work in this exhibition of paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture,
textiles, assemblages and more by forty visual artists from Bruny
Island is very high, with some particularly striking sculptures and
mixed media works. I believe at least two artists have been
approached to exhibit in a commercial gallery in Hobart.
 |
| 40 Artists from the Island opens at the Long Gallery |
Bruny Island Arts was formed early in 2000 and the first exhibition was Artists from the Island, held at Adventure Bay. This was followed by a Kids' Art Zone which proved immensely popular. The first Rediscover Bruny event was an Art Trail on Bruny Island three years ago, and another is proposed for 2015.
Of course, not all
members of Bruny Island Arts are visual artists. Besides
exhibitions they stage performance pieces, cabaret, plays and
musicals. A film society, formed after some old projectors were
found at the tip, organises film nights with a local musician
accompanying the occasional silent films. The aim is to be as
inclusive as possible, welcoming artists from both North and South
Bruny! It's nice to see good old Tasmanian tribalism is still alive
and well.
In keeping with the
policy of inclusion, the Sidespace Gallery holds a charming
exhibition of Childhood Treasures, precious objects people have
treasured for most of their lives: teddy bears, dolls, puppets,
building blocks, favourite books, each with an explanation by its
owner telling us just what makes this particular item so special.
The third part of the
Bruny Island spectacular is As Time Goes By, a theatre
piece created “by Bruny Island people about Bruny Island people for
Bruny Island people”, which played in the Peacock Theatre on 20th
and 21st September. Cast and crew are all Bruny Islanders;
written by Barry Weston and directed by Megan Weston.
The Hobart event brings
Bruny Island to the city; this city dweller, for one, will be heading
down to the Island for the Art Trail in 2015. However, I might have
to make a few trips down there well before that to visit the gallery,
the cheese and chocolate factories on the way to the Pioneer Museum
at Adventure Bay and the isolated Cape Bruny lighthouse. Not to
mention taking some of my favourite bush walks. Perhaps I should move down
there . . .
For more information: www.brunyislandarts.org.au
