Australian Design Review

The City of Sydney has announced that it is looking for a new curator for its Laneway Art Program.

Part of the city’s outdoor arts festival, Art & About, the Laneway Art Program offers artists and designers the opportunity to create temporary installations to enliven Sydney’s public laneways.

The City wants to build on the success of the By George! Hidden Networks series of installations, which saw eight temporary artworks set up in some of Sydney’s forgotten laneways in 2009. One installation from the series, ‘Forgotten Songs’ in Angel Place designed by Michael Thomas Hill, Richard Major, David Towey and Richard Wong, may now be kept as a permanent artwork.

Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the City is now looking for a curator or curatorial team to further develop and grow this year’s program. “We are seeking new creative voices to help source innovative and exciting ideas to temporarily transform our city laneways with engaging artworks and inspiring ideas,” she said, adding: “It’s about creating interesting new spaces for people to explore and reactivating public laneways with the unexpected.”

The curator or curatorial team will help develop the theme for the program, which runs from September until the end of the Sydney Festival in January 2011, and select up to eight artists or teams to develop the temporary art projects in response to that theme.

Last year’s projects included the ‘["Seven Metre Bar":http://australiandesignreview.com/news/13963-Video-Installation-uses-digital-technology-to-flood-Sydney-laneway]’ by Richard Goodwin, Adrian MacGregor and Russell Lowe; ‘["The Meeting Place":http://australiandesignreview.com/design_wall/15145-Architecture-The-Meeting-Place-ASPECT-Studios-Landscape-Architects-Herbert-Mason]’ by Aspect Studios, Herbert + Mason, Derlot and Light 2; and ‘PS: Potential Spaces’, designed by Nesson Murcutt Architects, Freehills and Chalk Horse.

Information for applicants can be found at ["www.lanewaysbygeorge.com.au":http://www.lanewaysbygeorge.com.au/default.aspx]
The deadline for stage one curatorial proposals is 20 April 2010.