Exhibitions

The Rebecca Hossack Gallery will be hosting Songlines 22, a summer season of Aboriginal art, including Morning Star Poles by the artists of Elcho Island; Art of Arnhem Land and Spirit of the Earth: Paintings from the Desert.
15 July to 4 September
Rebecca Hossack Gallery

Music

One of Australia's greatest cultural exports, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, will be appearing at the Cadogan Hall, performing Beethoven's Piano Concert No 4 and Symphony No 5 and the UK premiere of Peteris Vasks' violin concerto.
The Times newspaper called the ACO “the best chamber orchestra on earth”. The Washington Post says it has “the energy and vibe of a rock band with the ability of a crack classical chamber group."
7.00, August 31
Cadogan Hall, 5 Sloane Terrace, London SW1
Information

Jazz violinist Julian Ferraretto and his ensemble will be performing at the City of London Festival, playing a selection of his own compositions and jazz standards.
6.00, July 29
New Street Square

Festivals

The Edinburgh International Festival will feature the following productions:

♦ Opera Australia: A staged production of Brett Dean’s new opera, Bliss, based on Peter Carey’s book.
Thurs 2 and Sat 4 September

♦ Sydney Symphony Orchestra the legenday conductor and pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy brings the SSO to Edinburgh for two concerts
7.30 Weds 1 and Thurs 2 September

♦ Duo Sol brings a flamboyant program of music including works by John Adams, Matthew HIndson, Ross Edwards and Beethoven's Kreuttzer Sonata>
11.00am 3 September

♦ Chilean writer/director Guillermo Calderón, Susan Elderkin, author of The Voices, a novel set in the Australian outback, and Neil Armfield, director the operatic adaptation of Peter Carey's award-winning novel Bliss, will discuss how lost narratives surface in artistic expression.
2.30, Friday 3 September

♦ Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir, 37th Governor of New South Wales, explores Lachlan Macquarie's contribution to Australia, in the company of one of his descendants, BBC Scotland's Ken MacQuarrie.
31 August

Film

Prior to the perfomances of the opera Bliss at the Edinburgh Festival, there will be screenings of the 1985 film veriosn of Peter Caery's book. Directed by Ray Lawrence and starring Barry Otto, Lynette Curran, Helen Jones, Gia Carides and Miles Buchanan. The screening on Wednesday 21 July will be introduced by Jonathan Mills, Director and Chief Executive of the Edinburgh International Festival.
20.40, 21 July & 1.30, 15 July
Edinburgh Filmhouse

Theatre

Kilburn's Cock Tavern Theatre is presenting Jack Hibberd's A Stretch of the Imagination, directed by and starring Mark Little.

Since it was first performed in 1972, A Stretch of the Imagination has been celebrated as one of the classics of Australian theatre and is widely regarded as Jack Hibberd's most important play. Mark Little plays the anti-hero Monk O’Neill - philosopher and yarn-spinner, heroic battler and individualist, satirical revolutionist, cultured man-of-letters and bon-vivant.

A poetic monologue introduces us to the lonely world of Monk O’Neill and his memories as he faces death alone but with humour and resilience.
23 June – 17 July
Cock Tavern Theatre

The spectacular musical Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is based on the hilarious and heart-warming movie about three friends who hop aboard a battered old bus (named Priscilla) and take their show to the middle of the Australian outback.
Palace Theatre London
Info/bookings

The Australian production of Dirty Dancing is the most successful pre-premiere sold out show in the history of London theatre, with £6million in advance ticket sales. This stage version of the 1987 film stars Josef Brown as Johnny, in the role made famous by Patrick Swayze and Nadia Coote.
Dirty Dancing London official website

Literature

Christos Tsiolkas' new novel, The Slap, won the 2009 Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and has been getting rave reviews i the UK and US.

At a suburban barbecue, a man slaps an unruly boy. The boy is not his son. This single act of violence reverberates through the lives of everyone who witnesses it.

Christos Tsiolkas presents the impact of this apparently minor domestic incident through the eyes of eight people who witness it. The result is an unflinching interrogation of the life of the modern family, a deeply thought-provoking novel about boundaries and their limitsngle act of violence, but the slap reverberates through the lives of everyone who witnesses it happen.

Christos Tsiolkas' previous novels are Loaded (filmed as Head-On), The Jesus Man and Dead Europe.
Published by Atlantic books, ISBN: 978 1 84887 355 1, £12.99

The Literature of Australia gathers the most distinctive and significant works of the nation's literature in all genres, from the 1700s to the present. With 500 entries from 315 different authors, it ragnes from Aboriginal authors of the earlycolonial period to contemporary authors including Kate Grenville, Peter Carey, David Malouf, Les Murray and Shirley Hazzard, and includes author biographies, an introductory essay, major essays setting the works in their historical context and suggestions for further reading.

This anthology is a result of a unique collaboration between Sydney’s Macquarie University and International PEN Sydney Centre, funded by the Australia Council for the Arts and the Australian Research Council. offers readers a window into the myriad ways of being Australian.

Events

Click here for a list of Australian organisations in the UK, some of which of host events for their members and guests.

Seminars and Lectures

The Menzies Centre for Australian Studies presents lectures, seminars and conferences throughout the year.

Links

www.arts.gov.au – Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts

www.ozco.gov.au – Australian Council for the Arts

www.ozarts.com.au – Exporting contemporary Australian arts and culture

www.indigenous.gov.au – Links to sites on Aboriginal art and culture