Out and about with Megan Spencer

By Megan Spencer When Hugh Waller begins talking about Bend Arts, the new arts group he started in Bendigo only weeks ago, his answer to my first question startles me... “How many members does the group have?” I ask, pen poised. “One h..

By Megan Spencer HANGING By a Thread occupies a curious space between craft and art; the work isn’t quite practical or functional enough to qualify as craft, and certainly isn’t overtly didactic, political or formal enough to be pegged easily as art. It’s smack da..

By Megan Spencer I relish meeting those with the courage to back themselves. Especially people determined to make it work in their home town when the odds could be stacked against them. Such can be the case in the arts and related areas, living in regional Australia. ..

NOT like a town but a city. While the population was much smaller four decades ago, looking at the photos you wouldn’t know it. The presence of the tram track network gives the regional centre a distinct cityscape appearance reminiscent of not only Melbourne – Australia’s city of..

AT Marketplace the other day, it was busy. People went about their business, shopping, having coffee, doing their thing. Strangely I was overcome with a sense of connectedness, sharing in the human-ness of the activity. It was like a pulse of energy coursing through that big building, housing us..

Recently I went in search of Bendigo photographer Donna Bailey. "I live in Kangaroo Flat, just behind the station," she’d told me. "In the bush." Armed with my map and her directions, I headed into Bendigo’s glorious national parkland to have a yarn with a photographe..

YOU could feel the anticipation. Politicians, councillors, money men, artists, academics, students, media and locals. They all came this winter’s evening, sampling wine, talking hard, looking at art on the walls as they waited, then waited some more. The speeches came. Many thank yous sall..

Recently I opened a show at Allan’s Walk for BRIT Tafe Visual Art students. The room was chockas with teachers, family, friends and the artists. They’d organised catering and a wine sponsor. The work was nicely hung in the gallery and everyone had a great time. It was a cause for..

THERE I was, crammed into Bendigo Art Gallery last Saturday with about a zillion others, at the Grand Opening of the sure-to-be-biggest-thing-since-sliced-bread White Wedding Dress Exhibition. And there we were, listening to speeches about the artistic, fashion and historical significance of the w..

To be able to make things happen for others is a great vocation, should you be lucky enough to find a job with such a description. As managing curator of La Trobe University’s Visual Arts Centre in Bendigo, Paul Northam’s comes pretty close. It’s one he takes seriously, preferr..

Until a couple of weeks ago, I hadn’t heard of graphic interior design. Bianka Loria put me out of my misery (she got a mention a couple of weeks ago, an organiser of the upcoming Analogue 2 Digital art competition). We met randomly in Chancery Lane, as she was photographing for her blo..

Mentoring is having a bit of a resurgence. You often hear in the news of cultural, sporting or professional development programs, where ‘profile’ mentors are enlisted to give folk opportunities which otherwise wouldn’t come a-knocking… Here’s another definition o..

It’s another busy time for Bendigo in the world of ‘sound art’… Firstly, local musician and radio presenter Mick Derrick – aka Metal Mick, presenter of Phoenix FM’s weekly experimental music program On The Wires Of Our Nerves – is one of the locals be..

Everyone loves the circus. Fire breathers, clowns, death defying feats of derring-do, sideshow alley – what’s not to like? I remember my first after my appetite was whetted reading Enid Blyton’s Hurrah for the Circus series as a wee tacker. It was Silvers Circus, fronted by..

1) I saw Hourglass, one of the best live shows EVER, and, 2) Only a handful of people were there. Punctum Inc. has been going for a while (it presented and produced Hourglass). I discovered Punctum pretty much as soon as I arrived in Bendigo; a not-for-profit organisation that nurtures the multi..

Do you remember the first time you had a piece of writing published? What a thrill it was? Waiting for the publication to come out, leafing through the pages in anticipation. Be it an essay in the school newsletter or a letter in the local paper… Nowadays, writing your own blog ca..

Groups of semi-clad muscly men tossing each other around the ring in a theatrical haze, versus groups of civic-minded men congregating around a table in service to the community. In theory they may be at odds, but on reflection wrestling and Rotary might share a certain kind of symmetry. Somethi..

When I heard American Dreams was coming to Bendigo Art Gallery I was a little shocked. In my own backyard, pictures from some of my all-time art heroes. Diane Arbus, Nan Goldin, Walker Evans, Lee Friedlander, Weegee, Harry Callaghan…The list doesn’t stop there. Give or take o..

Digital publishing is threatening book sales and downloading your favorite tome onto iPads and Kindles – the latest “portable book reader” – is apparently ‘de rigeur’. Poppycock! The book is alive and well, proven without a doubt by the phenomenal success of the..

Walking down Mitchell Street a few weeks ago, I spied a sign on a shopfront that got my pulse racing. It said “New Gallery Opening Soon”. It was the small print that intrigued me. “Stocking local, national and international contemporary pop art, lowbrow art, pop surrealism ..