Art Month 2012

Overview

A lot of Sydney's festivals push the boundaries of expansiveness, but few manage to cover a month wall-to-wall the way that Art Month lays claim to March. It's a solid thirty one days of hooking-up contemporary art, artist initiatives and Sydney galleries with an appreciative general public. Returning for a third year, the festival offers you the chance to wend your way into the Sydney art world as it briefly claims some space for you in art locations from the rambunctious to the serene.

Fitting schedule to ambition, this year's selection is voluminous, filled with exhibtions, talks, workshops, tours and forays into the night. Diego Bonetto takes your on an edible tour by the Casula Powerhouse, new media artists dLux celebrate 30 years with digital sculpture spotting tours and art shoehorned into a pair of theatres.  ARI gurus Matchbox Projects will help you see Sydney's ARI gems while the LOST Studio Trail picks out, part by part, the hidden creative side of Leichhardt's art. And if those options seems a bit slow-moving, Art Cycle brings four art tours by bike to add colour between the lines left by the other tour contenders.

Exhibited highlights include Berlin-curated cultural exchange Migration, popping-up in the shadow of the MCA, a one-off show of Pat Corrigan's Indigenous Collection in SBS Sydney's angular confines and an uncommon peek into the massed cultural holdings of national art-loan service ArtBank. Stand out talks feature public art patron John Kaldor in conversation with ABC art maven Fenella Kernebone, words from Magnum rep Fiona Rogers and a some spirited defence of deliberately being an uncollectable artist.

Art Month events are usually free, but often require advance bookings. Check individual events for details.

Image from Julian Rosefeldt's 'asylum' video installation in Migration, courtesy of the artist.