Araluen Arts Centre
Araluen Arts Centre is the focal point of Alice Springs’ performing and visual arts scene, incorporating four galleries and a 487-seat theatre.
The annual theatre program includes performances by national touring companies and many high quality local productions. The theatre is also available for the presentation of corporate functions and conferences, in association with the function room and the galleries where suitable.
The galleries feature a program of exhibitions with a focus on Aboriginal art from Central Australia, and contemporary art by local and Australian artists.
The Albert Namatjira Gallery displays a rotating selection of paintings by this famous Aboriginal artist, his descendants and contemporaries. The gallery also features early works from Papunya and the “Hermannsburg School”.
Araluen Arts Centre was designed and built around the 300 year old Corkwood Tree in the Sculpture Garden. This tree, another at the front of the building and Big Sister Hill are also considered sacred by the Arrernte people.
Araluen’s Arthouse Cinema Program brings both national and international arthouse films and film festivals to the people of Alice Springs.
Many of the films screened during the year are associated with Oscar Award winning actors and directors, while many will have won various international film festival awards. Some of the films also go on to achieve a cult following amongst arthouse cinema goers.
July 2020
Spaces – Places – Possessions: Freya Tripp
Presented by Araluen Arts Centre Spaces - Places – Possessions have the power to haunt us, individually and collectively, to haunt the social imaginary and our individual psyche. Spaces – Places – Possessions is a body of work by painter Freya Tripp, informed by her experiences in Central Australia over the past decade. Tripp carries with her many questions about her relationship to this country, about belonging, home, identity, and through painting explores the disturbing encounters with forms of otherness that challenge attempts at categorical meaning or any sense of…
Find out more »Steve Sedergreen with Darcy Davis and the Liminal State Quartet
Presented by Araluen Arts Centre Following their sell-out concerts at Witchetty’s, talented and charismatic jazz pianist, improviser and educator, Steve Sedergreen returns to Alice Springs. The Araluen stage will come to life with jazz, neo soul, rhythm and blues as Sedergreen is joined by student and friend, Alice Springs born and bred, Darcy Davis and the accomplished Liminal State Quintet. Be swept away by a night of joyous, thrilling and deeply poetic music.
Find out more »Advocate Art Award 2020
Presented by the Central Australian Art Society The Advocate Art Award 2020 continues the annual tradition of this all-inclusive exhibition held dear by the community. Coordinated and presented by the Central Australian Art Society, a volunteer-run organisation in Alice Springs providing support, resources and opportunities, the Advocate Art Award 2020 is open to all Central Australian artists, new or established, working in any medium. The Advocate Art Award provides a unique platform to artists for professional development and offers significant prizes thanks to the support and sponsorship of local business. The major winner receives the Chapman &…
Find out more »August 2020
2020 Sydney International Piano Competition Winner
Presented by Araluen Arts Centre One of the World’s Greatest Piano Competitions Held every four years, The Sydney International Piano Competition is one of the world’s most prestigious and most demanding competitions for young pianists. The Sydney has established itself over the last 40 years as one of the ‘must-win’ competitions that can propel a young artist’s career into the spotlight. Held over three weeks in Sydney, 32 pianists vie for the ultimate accolade of First Prize. The newly crowned winner, announced on Saturday 25 July, will then embark on their…
Find out more »A Migrant’s Son
Presented by Araluen Arts Centre and Critical Stages Touring Created & Performed by Michaela Burger “A far-reaching generational story that crosses divides, ignites memories and pulls at your heart-strings…” - Stage Whispers Igniting memories of a story that millions of Australians can relate to, Michaela Burger pays tribute to her Greek migrant family and hard-working, fun loving larrikin father Luke who defied all odds. From early morning deliveries for the family bakery at age seven, down opal mines in Coober Pedy at age…
Find out more »September 2020
Desert Mob 2020
Celebrating 30 Years Presented by Araluen Arts Centre and Desart In 2020, Desert Mob celebrates 30 years! Over that time, Desert Mob, has fostered and charted the incredible rise of Aboriginal art from the desert to its current eminent position as one of the most important art movements and forms of cultural expression in the world. Since its inception in 1991, Desert Mob has become an event of national significance, representing the most comprehensive survey of contemporary Aboriginal art by artists from Desart-member art centres from the desert regions and communities of…
Find out more »The Comedy of Errors
Araluen Arts Centre presents Bell Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors By William Shakespeare Director Peter Evans "And now let’s go hand in hand, not one before another" - Dromio of Ephesus, Act 5 Scene 1 Shipwrecked and separated 25 years earlier, two sets of long-lost twins miraculously find themselves in the same city on the same day. What could possibly go wrong? The Comedy of Errors is a hilarious romp of swapped identities, misguided love, mistaken imprisonment and chaotic mishaps, leading to an…
Find out more »Yuki Saito
Melbourne International Guitar Competition Winner Presented by Araluen Arts Centre A prize winner in over 50 major international performance competitions, Yuki Saito’s performances have been described as “faultless… his musical phrasing was mature and expressive. We witnessed a true artist become one with his instrument” (Michael MacManus, Melbourne Guitar Festival Artistic Director). No stranger to the concert stage, in recent years Yuki has toured extensively throughout Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Denmark, Netherlands and Finland. And in 2019 Yuki was awarded the honor…
Find out more »October 2020
Banff Mountain Film Festival 2020
Presented by Adventure Reels The Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour is a 3 hour celebration of the mountain and adventure sport world. Sharing over two and a half hours of the most exhilarating short films from explorers, mountain bikers, skiers, paddlers and climbers from around the globe. The tour is hot on the heels of the largest and most prestigious mountain festivals in the world, the Banff Mountain Festival, which takes place every November in the mountain town of Banff, in Canada.…
Find out more »Evolve
Presented by Araluen Arts Centre “With his razor-sharp wit and surprisingly blunt nature, Matt had the audience in stitches” - Scenestr Leading Australian magician and mentalist Matt Tarrant is bound for Alice Springs, with his new solo show EVOLVE following his win for best act overall at the 2019 Adelaide Fringe. Brimming with interactive magic and mindblowing mentalism, multi-award winner Tarrant promises to leave audiences happily bewildered, with all-new tricks guaranteed to bamboozle even the biggest sceptics.
Find out more »November 2020
New York New Work: Marina Strocchi
Presented by Araluen Arts Centre New York New Work is the outcome of Marina Strocchi’s time in the United States and most notably an extended stay in Brooklyn where she undertook a studio practice for three months through the Arts NT Fellowship program. Renowned for working from surrounding natural environments, her home and still life, in Brooklyn and Manhattan, Strocchi was faced with the built environment on an incredible scale. The sheer mass and density of life and hope, the walls of repetitive windows, which sometimes reflect and sometimes recede, …
Find out more »TQ20
Territory Quilts 2020 Presented by the Alice Springs Quilting Club Territory Quilts 2020 (TQ20) brings together the finest work by both amateur and professional quilters from across the Northern Territory, presented by the long established Alice Springs Quilting Club. Outstanding examples of quilting practice are acknowledged and awarded by a guest judge. Reflecting creativity and craftsmanship, hand and machine approaches, the traditional and experimental, TQ20 also operates as a place for the exchange of ideas and skills between members and those interested in the art of quilting. Mesmerising with…
Find out more »Urzila Carlson: Token African
Presented by Live Nation As seen on Have You Been Paying Attention?! & Netflix’s Comedians of the World 2019 MICF PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD FOR HIGHEST TICKET-SELLER MELBOURNE, AU (November 14, 2019) – South African-New Zealander Urzila Carlson is a Token African. She’s also a multi award-winning comedian, the 2019 Melbourne International Comedy Festival’s highest ticket-seller, and a household name across two continents. And she’s not finished yet. Carlson is hitting the road again in 2020 with her brand new stand up…
Find out more »