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Botanica: Contemporary Art Outside recently transformed the City Botanic Gardens into an outdoor gallery. The event featured 10 large-scale interactive artworks alongside food trucks, a licensed bar and program of performances.
The annual family-friendly event is run by Brisbane City Council and produced by the Museum of Brisbane. It will be back again next year and promises another incredible exhibition of hands-on local and international works.
Curator Lucy Quinn says this event is unique to Brisbane, “This is not just a light show. It’s actually about art as well, and creativity and ideas. And it’s reaching more people than we might inside the walls of a gallery. The wonderful thing about it is there’s so many opportunities, with the works, that invite people to participate. It invites them in, they become part of the artwork themselves. They can touch things, it responds to their presence, so it has a really meaningful effect. It’s beautiful.”
Check out our story to see for yourself! Local artist Phoebe Paradise also shares a hilarious behind-the-scenes story that you’ll want to have a listen to.
Phoebe is a multi-talented artist who’s passionate about Brisbane. “There’s a few reasons why I love Brisbane, but we have this incredible artistic scene, this incredible culture, that has like a certain level of warmth that I think is really hard to replicate elsewhere. We’ve become a place that people actually want to be coming to. It’s a city of character. That people are flocking to. And I just want people to be able to get out and enjoy it.”
Phoebe and hundreds of other artists helped make Bris better by turning the city into their canvas during the recent Brisbane Street Art Festival.
Along with large-scale murals, the annual festival features exhibitions, events and workshops for all ages.
Lincoln Savage is the event organiser and has seen the event grow into one of the largest Street Art Festivals in Australia.
“The Brisbane Street Art Festival has been running for 8 years now, it started in 2016, and over that time we have painted more than 300 public artworks across Brisbane.
Any kind of art in a public space has a huge amount of value in a society. I think that sort of lifts the energy and makes people feel more comfortable in a space.”
The Brisbane Street Art Festival will be on again next year. But long after the paint dries, its legacy lives on.
Superordinary at Northshore was the major festival hub, and it’s set to become permanent (and let’s just say the plans are anything but ordinary!).
Lincoln says, “It’s going to be converted into probably one of Australia’s largest multi-arts spaces. It’ll have a restaurant, bar, large scale modular gallery, space for us to 50 artists residencies, outdoor stage, live music. Big workshop program, and also like a large scale weekly arts market.”
From a feast of art…to the art of feasting!
Coming up in October, Brisbane Powerhouse dishes up its popular Night Feast.
Some of Brisbane’s top chefs will feature their signature dishes, paired with a menu of immersive art, light installations, music and performance.
It’s a mouthwatering month-long event that’s definitely worth checking out!
It’s just one of a smorgasbord of events that Brisbane City Council is serving up this year – with everything from night markets to live music, comedy and cultural festivals across our city.
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