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Belconnen Arts Centre

Established	2009 (2009)
Location	Belconnen,Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
Type	Arts Centre
Chairperson	Phil Nizette
Architect	Williams Ross Architects, Project Coordination
Owner	Australian Government; via the Department of Communications and the Arts
Website	belconnenartscentre.com.au

The Belconnen Arts Centre, in the national capital Canberra, was opened in 2009, which aims to be the centre of arts and culture to celebrate, record meaningful journeys, share stories and make memories. The facility is owned by the ACT government and managed by Belconnen Arts Center Incorporated. The centre is operated by a small group of staff supported by numerous volunteers who work together to provide a wide range of activities to engage the community in Belconnen and other areas. The core concept of the Belconnen Art Center is to inspire love and participation in the arts, and link to the diverse population of Canberra through a variety of artistic practices, including dance, music, visual arts, drama and more. The Belconnen Art Center places inclusive community art and cultural development at the forefront and center to develop, share and celebrate creativity.

Belconnen Arts Centre rewarded an ACT Chief Minister's Inclusion Award in 2010, 2012 and 2013, committed to providing an environment that everyone can access and participate in. Also "Belconnen Arts Centre Inclusion Award" was set up to provide artists living with the disability a chance to participate in arts activities.

Architecture

Main article: Education in the Australian Capital Territory

The Belconnen Arts Centre was designed by Williams Ross Architects and built by Project Coordination Australia P/L. The building was applied with modern environmentally sustainable design principles, which are ease of use, low energy consumption, lighting control, and appropriate materials. It is located on the magnificent waterfront of Lake Gininderra, next to the central business district of Belconnen, an entertained place for citizens from the inner north and over in Gungahlin. High quality outdoor entertainment and lakeside performance space is provided by plazas and foreshore promenades. The centre is constituted by visual and performing arts facilities in order to make and show the creative arts, administration, retail and cafes, including a flexible theatre and related facilities for up to 280 seats, art gallery and sculpture venue and service area, dance/rehearsal room, four "artist station" offices and studios, two retail stores, a small event art lounge, an executive office, boardrooms, meeting rooms, customer amenities.

Over 2019, the Belconnen Art Center will be expanded in double size, with new performance space, dance studios, cafes, conference rooms, and an updated foreshore, which will truly turn the Belconnen Art Center into a multi-art and dedicated centre for the dance performance, drama, circus, and music. The ACT government will invest $15 million over three years to enlarge the space of Belconnen Art Center. Residents in the community will gain more opportunities to take part in art activities through the development of facilities at the community focused Belconnen Art Center. In addition, the ACT government has appointed Canberra based company PBS Building to in charge of the construction of phase two. Work on-site will begin in December 2018 and the new facilities are scheduled to be completed in early 2020.

Exhibition

In 2000, Canberra had a population of more than 300,000 and it had more art spaces per capita than any other place in Australia. In the urban art scene, the dominant position of institutional culture is growing. In addition to amateur organizations, numerous framing stores, cafes, and some bric-a-brac merchants who they also hold art exhibitions, the specialization of art scenes leaves little room for non-institutional experiments and community art. Some of the most important art centers have emerged in the Community Arts Center, such as the Tuggeranong Art Center (1998), the Strathnairn Art Association, Theo Notaras Multicultural Center, and the Belconnen Art Center (2009)

Australjapanese Harmony

The Belconnen Art Center hosted a solo exhibition "Australjapanese Harmony" by ceramicist Hiroe Swen who trained in Kyoto, and has been working in and around Canberra since 1970 which was known for her outstanding exhibition history and teaching career. The audience can expect Swen's work to achieve this promise of a confident blend: the artist's mastery of Japanese tradition is matched by the sensitivity of the local natural environment. The Belconnen Art Center designed several events for the exhibition, including the launch of a book about the life of Hiroe and Cornel Swen in Canberra, Cornel's Eurasian Art Trail.

Strike on Stage

Strike on Stage was an interface and corresponding audio-visual performance which was developed and performed by percussionist and media artists Chi-Hsia Lai and Charles Martin in 2010. It was held at Belconnen Arts Centre as Strike on Stage 1.0, NIME2010, Sydney and the Australasian Computer Music Conference 2010, Canberra. The purpose of this work is to integrate computer vision and sound into an impromptu percussion performance. There are two ways to integrate this. Firstly, the gestures of performers are associated with computer audio and vision through a computer vision system and microphone. Secondly, the presentation of performance is unified. The projection screen and speakers are next to the performer's position, and the computer vision and audio design makes the natural enhancement of the instrument and gestures, which seems to be a part of the performance to the audiences These performances prove that Strike on Stage settings is feasible under a range of performance conditions, even with very limited setup time. In addition, audience's feedback proves the interestingness and effectiveness of the performance method.

Metamorphosis Unframed

The “Metamorphosis Unframed” will be held at the Belconnen Art Centre from May 3 to June 9, 2019. This exhibition is to celebrate the stage two of the Belconnen Art Centre and artists of all age and levels of experience are invited to respond to specific themes of change, growth, and metamorphosis. However, the Belconnen Art Centre requires all the artists to investigate the opinions of change with imagination, boldness, a sense of play. In addition, the exhibition work could contain any forms of drawing, printmaking, photography and any other mixed media with unframed paper in A3 format. The winner of this exhibition will be able to gain a $500 People's Choice Award, which will be announced at the end of the exhibition.

Similar Lines

The exhibition of “Similar Lines” is designed by Elizabeth Curry and Tomas Wood, which will be held at the Belconnen Art Center from July 26 to September 1, 2019. This exhibition explores how to use patterns to create visually interesting decorative items using traditional and modern materials, craftsmanship and finishing methods. Converting a two-dimensional pattern into a three-dimensional wearable object allows a new form of energy to flow through the design, revealing an innovative and complex performance of past in the contemporary present, constructing the future. From the natural world around us to the people in the built environment, the various patterns provide order and provide the viewer with a harmonious quality. Elizabeth uses hand-painted, mandala-style designs to create patterns for the body of metalwork displayed in “Similar Lines”. Thomas uses a layered technique of acrylic colour and a bright palette to rejuvenate the work.

Barka the Forgotten River

The exhibition of “Barka the Forgotten River” is designed by Badger Bates and Justine Muller, which will be held at the Belconnen Art Center from June 13 to July 21, 2019. This exhibition has been worked for three years, it is a timeline of Barka or Darling River that created by love artists Badger Bates and Justine Muller in order to emphasize the concept of “our mother and the blood in our veins” – and its people, the Barkandji. Early works celebrate life force and the economic, cultural, and social values of the Barka and its tributaries. However, later works record what life used to live on the river and how the river provides everything to human-being, including fresh water, food, bark, wood, and recreation. The 2018 works describe the different situation of the river now, the river disappears and turns into a cesspool of algae, death, and destruction. The river becomes trouble of Barkandji's citizens and brings them infinite fears related to the river's ecology. Moreover, the determination of Barkandji people to fight for their river also be presented in the work, they believe that they will be able to overcome the greed of the cotton growers; “cotton growers beware, as our ancestors are powerful!”. In addition, Badger uses the mediums of linocut print, wood, emu egg, mosaic, stone carving, and metalwork, which reflects the features of Barkandji, including the motifs, landforms, animals, plants. He incorporates the traditional and contemporary to portray the relationship between the ecology and Barkandji's citizens.

Dance for wellbeing

Current situation in Australia

From Parkinson's Australia Report, there are 30 people diagnosed with Parkinson's every day and 1 in 350 people have Parkinson's in Australia. People have been affected by Parkinson's in different ways and there are no exactly same symptoms or experiences between two people. High-quality dance classes organized by professionally trained artists become internationally acknowledged because of the creative activities and evidence-based therapeutic intervention for people with Parkinson's disease.

Development of dance classes

Grassroots communities were initially chosen to start dance for Parkinson's classes in Australia in order to share information and demonstrate classes with support groups and dance teachers of Parkinson's. In May 2013, Australian teacher training workshops were offered in Sydney and at Queensland Ballet in Brisbane. As the initial training going well, these programs have developed in Brisbane (with Queensland Ballet), Canberra (at the Belconnen Arts Centre), Each class is full of different artistic and community elements.

Parkinson's ACT collaborates with the Belconnen Art Center to hold dance classes for Parkinson's, which were taught by experienced dance teachers and Community Cultural Inclusion Officer Philip Piggin. In July 2013, the ACT Government's Inclusive Participation Funding Program (IPFP) funded the program, supporting to start dance classes. Participants also have been attended activities in other art centres except for weekly classes. IMB Foundation has sustained this program by continuing funding the further programs, which also expands the classes at the Tuggeranong Arts Centre.

About tutors

Phillip Piggin

Philip works as a project coordinator at the Belconnen Arts Centre. He has rich experiences of teaching, choreographing, mentoring and performing for the arts, education and community groups (with and without disabilities). In addition, he was a community dance animator in Wales and has worked with the Common Ground Sign Dance Theatre in the UK on dance and disability projects, a hoarse and auditory dancer. In 1999, he moved to Canberra and has served on the education sector for 10 years in the Ausdance ACT and Canberra Dance Theatres, providing several programs for dancers of all abilities, ages and experience levels. Phillips now pays more attention to a dance program for Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and other chronically ill patients with the support of the Churchill Scholarship awarded in 2014. As a creative project officer at the Belconnen Arts Centre, he was honored with a lifetime membership by the British community dance organization in 2016. Also, he rewarded the Australian Dance Awards in 2017.

Board Members

Phil Nizette

As a chairman of the Belconnen Arts Centre, Philip Nizette plays an important role in the artistic and cultural development of Belconnen. He is a public artist, landscape architecture, community development worker, public art consultant, and sculptor. In 1992, he became a community art worker in the area and a member of Belconnen's cultural program, helping to organize several Belconnen festivals. In addition, he is also a former member and chairman of Strathnairn Arts, helping to plan various community art activities and development projects in Belconnen and the Town Centre.

Govert Mellink

Govert works as deputy chair at the Belconnen Arts Centre. He has worked for non-profit institutions and public places on three continents, which are Asia, Australia, and Europe for over 20 years, including institutions of education, local, federal and state governments, and other representative bodies. Currently, He works as Director, People and Organisation Consulting at PwC.

Tom Thornton

The job of Tom Thornton at Belconnen Arts Centre is a treasure. He is a Chartered Accountant Australia and New Zealand member with extensive experience in financial management, corporate governance, and strategic organizational planning. He uses these financial and management skills to provide a reasonable long-term decision-making approach for the board. He believes that the importance and strength of the community promote personal, social, and cultural development.

External links

ACT Chief Minister's Inclusion Award Willam Ross Architects Project Coordination PBS Building Chi-Hsia Lai Hiroe Swen