Art Month Sydney 2011

Overview

Private galleries: They can seem small, detached, too far away to trek to and too quiet to enter without drawing the attention of hawkish assistants who measure the depths of your pockets as you squirm in their talons. Thankfully, Art Month Sydney is back to systematically bust each one of these preconceptions as it unites over 80 galleries and artist-run initiatives in four weeks of celebration, collaboration and bigger-than-oneself thinking.

Now in its second year, Art Month works by devoting each week in March to a separate Sydney arts precinct: Danks Street, Waterloo and Redfern (March 1-6); Chippendale, Newtown, Marrickville and the CBD (March 7-13); Darlinghurst, Surry Hills and Potts Point (March 14-20); and Paddington and Woollahra (March 21-27). You're encouraged to gallery hop the area-of-the-week, particularly on Thursday nights for Art After Work, during which galleries stay open till 8pm and the designated bar takes in weary art appreciators afterwards, and on Saturdays, when a packed schedule of gallery talks will lure you from one venue to the next in line. This year introduces ARTcycle as a guided, leisurely and extra romantic group transit option.

The thing to book well in advance (like, now) is the Creative Conversations series, last year's big hit, which pits visual artists in conversation with artists of other stripes to see what light they can shine on each other's world. The 'Thread for Thought' session will look at the convergence of art and fashion with Akira Isogawa, Lindy Lee and Adam Laerksen, while 'Igniting Passions' will pour in Adam and Max Cullen, Pat Corrigan, Giles Alexander and Guy Maestri and stir.

Before the month of March is out, make sure you've wandered the stretch of Macleay Street, Potts Point to take in its spruced-up store windows, been welcomed into Marrickville's thriving ARIs, squeezed into the White Rabbit's theatrette for Animation Overload and a good deal more.