"Art Month Sydney shifts gear" by Gina Fairley, Arts Hub 26 November 2015

Posted on Wednesday, 1 March, 2017

‘It’s often said that artists aren’t artists because they want to be, but because they have to be. If it’s the artists’ creative juices that are the fuel, what, are the pistons that fire, the drive shafts that crank, and the wheels that turn to get this engine of creativity moving?’

It's a question that motivates the work of Barry Keldoulis, creative director of next year’s Art Month Sydney. 

The event returns for its seventh edition from 1 – 20 March 2016, and with it driving change. It is will be the first Art Month Sydney that will be rolled out by Art Fairs Australia for the non-profit Australian Art Events Foundation, who took over the festival’s management earlier this year from 10 Group. 

Art Fairs Australia is the umbrella organisation headed by art entrepreneur Tim Etchells, also responsible for Sydney Contemporary, of which Keldoulis was director for 2013 and 2015, along with Melbourne Art Fair in 2014.

Clearly, Keldoulis is well versed in dynamic and layered cultural event planning.

New to this year’s Art Month Sydney footprint will be an exciting twist on an old favourite - The Collectors’ Space – which showcases the private holdings of key collectors. This year Art Month will partner with realtors BresicWhitney to present the exhibition this year in an unoccupied inner city house.

The collectors this year include Sally Dan-Cuthbert, Courtney Gibson, Danny Goldberg, and Jasper Knight. Performances that play with the ideas of domesticity will also be programmed within The Collectors’ Space. 

This year, Art Month introduces an additional curated exhibition called Green Eyed Monster Eating its Own Tail, which will showcase artists that make art about art and the art world. Artists include Tracey Moffatt, Tom Polo, Heath Franco, Grant Stevens, Elvis Richardson, Gordon Bennett (John Citizen) and PJ Hickman. 

And for the first time, Birmingham Street Studios will open its doors for Art Month Sydney 2016, showcase the work of leading artists and residents Abdul Abdullah, Clara Adolphs, Liam Ambrose, Sally Anderson, Sarah Contos, Lucas Davidson, Dan Hollier, Alan Jones, Mason Kimber, Lara Merrett, Hugo Moline, John Nicholson, Jonny Niesche, Kenzee Patterson, Alex Standon, Grant Steven and Gemma Smith.

They new highlights will complement the already celebrated elements that have defined the growing event over its short history of success, including art talks, walking tours, open studios, Art Precinct nights with pop-up bars and the Redfern Biennale sited within the streets of the NSW Housing Commission units, which joined the event last year.

‘If we think of the city as an engine that drives creativity, what are the parts of the motor that move differently, but in union, to produce forward motion? Art Month 2016 throws the elemental pieces of that engine down in front of you, artists, art schools, studios, galleries, institutions, both “bricks and mortar and virtual”, collections private and public, for you to piece together how these form a working whole,’ says Keldoulis.

Art Month Sydney is about creating an art marketplace for ideas, and extends the idea of the gallery as a place for art to a sprawing and engaged urban art landscape. 

Read full article: http://visual.artshub.com.au/news-article/news/visual-arts/gina-fairley/art-month-sydney-shifts-gear-249974