Compiler

Percy Aldridge Grainger (1882-1961) and Ella Viola Grainger (1889-1979), towelling clothing worn by Percy Grainger: diamond-patterned waistcoat and leggings, striped shirt and shorts, machine and hand-sewn using, manufactured bath mat and Dri-Glo towelling c.1934. In Facing Percy Grainger at the National Library of Australia, Parkes Place, Canberra, from 6 July to 15 October. Visit www.nla.gov.au.

Get festive

Festivals Australia is an Australian Government funding program for Australian regional and community festivals. It funds new cultural activities as part of existing festivals. Visit www.dcita.gov.au/arts/arts/festivals_australia. Applications close 17 July.

http://www.dcita.gov.au/arts/arts/festivals_australia

Net profits

Ghost nets – which are nets lost, dumped or abandoned by the fishing industry – entangle sea creatures, causing slow and painful death. To help alert people to their dangers, the Carpentaria Ghost Nets Program wants designers and craftspeople to create a product from ghost net that Indigenous communities around the Gulf of Carpentaria can manufacture and sell. There are some terrific prizes, including a trip for four to Nhulunbuy and Groote Eylandt (with participation in some environmental projects); a larrakitj, or sacred memorial pole, from Buku Larnggay Mulka Art Centre at Yirrkala; and a screenprint by a Yirrkala artist. To obtain a net sample to help you create your design, or for more information, call Samantha Muller on 08 8987 3992 or email sam@dhimurru.com.au. Submissions close 14 July.

Indigenous skills

The Australia Council’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Skills and Development grants assist artists and arts organisations to develop ideas and expertise. Applications might include mentorship programs involving the sharing of artistic and cultural skills and knowledge, support for arts workshops, professional development projects, conferences or seminars, management planning and development. Visit www.ozco.gov.au/grants/grants_atsia and follow the links. Submissions close 15 July.

http://www.ozco.gov.au/grants/grants_atsia

For the Athens of the south

The Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA) is calling for exhibition proposals from independent curators for the 2008 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art. You need to outline a curatorial idea and a workplan, and the exhibition must present Australian artists’ works made within the previous two years. Call the Manager of Exhibitions and Public Programs, David O'Connor, on 08 8207 7009 or email o'connor.david@saugov.sa.gov.au. Written proposals are due by 7 July.

Shifting sands

In case you didn’t know, 2006 is International Year of Deserts and Desertification. The designation aims to draw attention both to the beauty of deserts and to the awful processes of desertification that threaten millions with starvation. There’s more of the former than the latter in an online photo essay put together by ABC Science. Visit www.abc.net.au/science/photos/desertification/.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/photos/desertification/

Sticking to business

The new Chair of the Australia Council, James Strong, says his main priority will be to encourage greater support for the arts from the private sector and to bring arts and business closer together. Strong is a former Chief Executive Officer of Qantas Airways; former Chair of Insurance Australia Group Ltd and Woolworths; Chair of the Sydney Theatre Company, the Australia Business Arts Foundation and Australian Brandenburg orchestra. He will now relinquish the arts positions. One day we’ll have an OzCo Chair whose main priority will be to enrich the cultural life of the nation. (Only joking.)

Are you hybrid enough?

The Inter-Arts Office of the Australia Council is sponsoring one Australian and one overseas residency for those doing ‘hybrid’ (by which I think they mean ‘interdisciplinary’) art. The first is at SymbioticA, in the School of Anatomy and Human Biology at the University of Western Australia, an independent research laboratory for exploring scientific problems from an artistic perspective. The second, scheduled for next year, is part of the Media and Visual Arts Thematic Residency Program at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Alberta, Canada. Applications close 15 October, so visit www.ozco.gov.au/grants/grants_new_media_arts and follow the links.

http://www.ozco.gov.au/grants/grants_new_media_arts

Safer in than out

Concerns were first raised about eighteen months ago when fourteen security staff at the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) were found to have cancer-related illnesses. The gallery commissioned an assessment that cleared it of any responsibility, but it recommended that a second opinion be sought. Deputy Director, Alan Froud has told a Senate committee that this second report will soon be commissioned, adding that the incidence of cancer among staff is slightly lower than that among Canberra residents as a whole.

Meanwhile, watch what you say

The Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) released a discussion paper last month recommending that sedition law be removed from the statute books. The inclusion of a sedition clause in the Federal government’s anti-terrorism laws, passed by parliament last December, was widely seen as an attempt to curb free speech and has been vigorously opposed by groups representing artists, writers and performers. We await with interest the government’s response to the ALRC report.