From Paint & Sip to the Canberra Comedy Festival: 15+ things to do in Canberra this week
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March marches on with its plethora of events and this week is no exception.
From paint and sip events at Marketplace Gungahlin to Canberra Girls Get Active Day, Shakespeare to Winehouse, The Canberra Comedy Festival and more, here’s how to fill your diary in Canberra this week.
Welcome to the Jungle Oasis: Marketplace’s Paint & Sip
Welcome to Marketplace’s Jungle Oasis… Enter if you dare!
Instantly SECURE your ticket to our exclusive paint and sip weekend. Featuring a ticket for you and your little one (1 adult & 1 child ticket).
Sit back, get your Picasso on at Marketplace’s Paint & Sip. Let our team guide you and your little bestie transform a blank canvas into a painting that will be filled with memories! Plus – you won’t be leaving hungry with a carefully curated grazing box with goodies from our retailers.
Spend $30* or more in Centre from 17 March – 25 March 2022 (excluding majors) and visit our staff outside BIG W to instantly redeem your ticket! HURRY – while stocks last.
24 people per session (1 adult & 1 child accounts for 1 heads/tickets). Each day 96 attendees, over the weekend 192 attendees (incl. children) in total.
Four sessions each day:
- 11–11.45 am
- 12.15 pm–1 pm
- 1.30–2.15 pm
- 3–3.45 pm
26–27 March | Marketplace Gungahlin | marketplacegungahlin.com.au/whats-on/march-jungle-oasis
Canberra Comedy Festival
Comedian Chris Ryan.
Canberra Comedy Festival is back for 2022! Canberra Comedy Festival is looking forward to sharing some great comedy shows with you between 16 and 26 March (and a few after that period too).
Featuring shows including our Gala, internationals Stephen K Amos and The Dollop, and more favourites including Ronny Chieng, Claire Hooper, Geraldine Hickey, Aaron Chen, Chris Ryan, Tripod and plenty more.
Until 26 March | Multiple locations across Canberra | canberracomedyfestival.com.au
Shakespeare to Winehouse: Icons from the National Portrait Gallery, London
William Shakespeare (detail) c. 1600-1610, associated with John Taylor, oil on canvas, National Portrait Gallery, London. Given by Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere, 1856 © National Portrait Gallery, London.
From Shakespeare to Winehouse, Darwin to Dickens, the Beatles, Brontë sisters and Beckham, the National Portrait Gallery, London holds the world’s most extensive collection of portraits. While they undergo the largest renovation of their building in 125 years, the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra is thrilled to show over 80 London treasures for an exclusive exhibition in 2022.
Start planning now to visit famous faces from the sixteenth century to today. Think Mandela, Malala, Churchill, Diana, Bowie, Sheeran, Westwood and more! And iconic artists like Warhol, Hockney, Emin, van Dyck, Rubens and Freud. There’ll be fame, power, love, loss, innovation and the downright inspirational – it’s going to be incredible.
This really is a rare, once-in-a-generation opportunity – showing exclusively at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra – so keep calm and grab your ticket!
Until 17 July | National Portrait Gallery | portrait.gov.au/exhibitions/shakespeare-to-winehouse-2022
Van Gogh Alive
Van Gogh Alive Singapore. Credit: Grande Experiences.
As Van Gogh Alive comes to Canberra make no mistake—this is no ordinary art exhibition. Forget tiptoeing through silent galleries to look at the iconic work of Vincent Van Gogh.
From Saturday 5 March you’ll be able to immerse yourself in the life and works of the Post-Impressionist painter thanks to the spectacular multi-sensory experience. Read more here.
Until 10 April | Park Place Lawns | vangoghalive.com.au
4th National Indigenous Art Triennial: Ceremony
[portion] Robert Fielding, Graveyards In Between (detail), 2017.
The National Indigenous Art Triennial, in its fourth iteration, is the National Gallery’s flagship exhibition of contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art.
Ceremony remains central to the creative practice of many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists.
From the intimate and personal to the collective and collaborative, ceremonies manifest through visual art, film, music and dance.
This immersive exhibition and program of events will challenge and unsettle; animate and heal.
Through the work of 35 artists from around Australia, Ceremony reveals how the practice of ceremony is at the nexus of Country, culture and community.
26 March – 31 July | National Gallery of Australia | nga.gov.au/exhibitions/national-indigenous-art-triennial-ceremony
Canberra Girls Get Active Day
Tennis ACT is teaming up with sports across the capital to host a FREE community event aimed at inspiring, energising and empowering young women to be more active.
Women and girls will have the opportunity to try out a number of sports onsite, free classes from our friends at Next Gen, Women Self Defence classes, roaming characters, face painting, tunes from a local DJ and much more!
The first 100 girls aged 12 or under through the gates will receive a free tennis racquet.
Presented by Mels Massage the event is open to women and girls of all ages and abilities, boys and men are more than welcome to attend also.
Sunday 27 March | Canberra Tennis Centre | tennis.com.au/act
ACT Clay Court International
The ACT Claycourt International returns to the Canberra Tennis Centre where a host of the world’s top tennis players compete in the ITF World Tennis Tour.
Two tournaments will run back-to-back with both males and females competing for USD85,000 each week.
This event will also run in conjunction with the Canberra Girls Get Active Day, which is a free community event aimed at encouraging, motivating and inspiring women and girls of all ages.
21 May – 3 April | Canberra Tennis Centre | tennis.com.au/act
International Women’s Day Event: Mariam Veiszadeh
Canberra Multicultural Womens’ Forum and ALO Enlightened Women invite you to their annual International Women’s Day event on: ‘Gender Equality Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow’, a keynote presentation by award-winning human rights champion, lawyer, diversity and inclusion practitioner, contributing author and social commentator Mariam Veiszadeh.
A fearless advocate for multicultural people, Mariam will talk about this year’s UN Women International Women’s Day theme (Gender Equality Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow) in a multicultural context. The event includes an enjoyable morning filled with food, keynote address, entertainment, and networking.
Canberra Multicultural Women’s Forum is a community not-for-profit organisation auspiced under the Canberra Multicultural Community Forum, a peak advocacy body. Its objectives include the representation of women from multicultural backgrounds, and bringing forth their interests, concerns and voice to Government, Business and other segments of society.
Alo – Enlightened Women Incorporated aims to uphold and promote gender equality, women’s leadership and empowerment, specifically within the Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) communities.
Tickets: $37 + bf
Saturday 26 March 2022, 10 am | QT Hotel (Eureka Room) | Tickets via Eventbrite
King of Pigs
One Woman. Four Men. She could be with any one of them. At 22, on a date on the Gold Coast. At 31, moving into an apartment in Albert Park. Or at 40, happily married with a nine-year-old son living in Campsie.
Four very different worlds share an identical space; our homes.
King of Pigs throws us into a blistering series of reality pockets. Each glimpse we get provides a momentary view of a vast panoramic lie. It’s a lie every man tells himself privately but every woman lives with publicly.
A raw and honest look at a difficult issue, the play does not pretend to give answers, but instead confronts this challenging subject head on, with power, tenderness and, surprisingly, lots of laughter, and ultimate hope for a better future.
24-26 March | The Q, Queanbeyan | theq.net.au/whats-on/subscriptions/king-of-pigs
Canberra District Wine Week: An Evening with Fergus
Mount Majura Vineyard. Credit: Stuart Miller
Canberra District Wine Week starts on March 20th, but you don’t have to get to Murrumbateman to taste the finest drops in the area.
To kick the wine week off, High Jinks is hosting a Canberra district wine tasting. We have one of the best in the biz, Fergus McGhie of Mount Majura Vineyard, to be your personal guide through the plains, tablelands and hilltops of the local wine district.
Over the course of 90 minutes, he will take you through a selection of the region’s wines, including a special limited bottle and some of Australia’s highest-rated wines.
Your ticket gets you:
– Glass of Mount Majura sparkling Silurian on arrival
– Meat and cheese plate to share
– Walkthrough and tastings of six local wines
– Walkthrough and tastings of three Mount Majura wines
Canberra wine is definitely the most under-rated in the country. Before the secret gets out, spend a fun session with Fergus and take your passion and knowledge of your local district’s wines to the next level.
Thursday 24 March | High Jinks, NewActon | highjinks.bar
Founders Alliance meetup
The Founders Alliance provides a space for business founders to meet, learn, share, support each other and build accountability into their routines.
The fortnightly meetups are held in different venues and offer:
- a facilitated format based on productivity and wellbeing principles and executive coaching practice
- opportunities to meet other (good human) business founders and build connections over time
- takeaway resources / learning materials and an online accountability framework
- a hot beverage.
Co-created by Serina Bird (The Joyful Frugalista, The Joyful Business Club and The Joyful Fashionista) and Claire Harris (Innovate Communicate and Cowork Coplay) they are building the Founders Alliance based on experience and passion for creating and running events, workshops, coworking & networking. They also want to showcase the many wonderful hospitality venues around Canberra.
Claire and Serina contributed to the Collaborative Innovation Lab – Adaptive City: Female Founders run by Canberra Innovation Network and the ACT Government in Nov 2021. They’ve brought some of those ideas to the table to create the Founders Alliance Aus.
Wednesday 24 March from 9.30-11 am | Libraries ACT – Woden, Corinna St &, Furzer St, Phillip |
Wired Open Labs 2022: Ceramic Hand Building and Jewellery
Credit: @theaesthetestudio
Emma, AKA The Seasonal Ceramicist, will lead a two-hour workshop where you’ll get to make your very own bowl, plate, cup or vase. You’ll also learn tissue transfer and underglaze techniques to decorate two pieces of porcelain jewellery.
There are no complicated pottery wheels, everything is hand moulded using the special hand building techniques Emma will teach you.
After the class, Emma will take your creations to be glazed, fired and sent back to you by post.
Suitable for beginners and refreshments will be provided.
Saturday 26 March from 10.30 am – 12.30 pm | Yass Health Clinic, 73 Lead Street, Yass, NSW | www.trybooking.com/BXXIV
Home Grown
In this exhibition, Canberra-based furniture and object designer/maker Jeremy Brown will celebrate the beautiful street trees of Canberra.
Combining his two main threads of practice; furniture making and botanical illustration, Brown will create a juxtaposition between the natural and built environments and to bridge the disconnect between the origins of raw materials and the final product (i.e., a piece of furniture).
Combining design-by-nature and design-by-human, this exhibition will also promote the use of local materials, which is integral to maintaining a smaller environmental footprint.
24 March – 14 May | Craft ACT, 180 London Circuit | craftact.org.au
Woden Seniors’ Big Book Fair
Woden Seniors’ Big Book Fair has become the place to go to for quality books at very reasonable prices.
With over 25,000 books for sale there will be something for all book lovers including good-quality fiction, non-fiction, or children’s books. For collectors, the President’s table will feature a wide selection of old and collectable books.
In addition to books, you will find recent magazines, jigsaws, postcards, vinyl records, DVDs, CDs and games.
Are you looking for a painting for a bare wall? If so, there will be plenty of beautiful watercolours to choose from that have been painstakingly painted by members of the talented Woden Seniors’ Art group.
25–27 March | Woden Seniors, 12 Corinna Street, Woden | wodenseniors.org.au
Canberra Raiders vs Titans
It will be a historical night at GIO Stadium in round three, as the Raiders take on the Titans as part of the NRL multicultural round.
The match will be used to help celebrate the different cultures that make up the NRL and their fans, so come along and be part of the celebration. The Titans have been one of the big improvers in the NRL, with a host of rising stars set to take the field against the Raiders in what will be a gripping contest.
Saturday 26 March | GIO Stadium | Ticketek
On Stage: Spotlight on Our Performing Arts
Houston Rogers, Portrait of Sir Robert Helpmann as Oberon [detail], 1954, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-136330433.
Let the National Library entertain you when On Stage: Spotlight on Our Performing Arts opens in autumn. There’s no business like show business, and this exhibition brings Australia’s performing arts history into the limelight.
The Australian stage has seen it all, from theatre, opera and dance to musicals, magic and hip hop, featuring household names like Sir Robert Helpmann, Dame Nellie Melba, Peter Allen, Bangarra Dance Theatre, Tim Minchin and the Hilltop Hoods.
On Stage also provides a backstage pass to the action behind the scenes, showcasing perspectives on stage direction, costume design, scripts, contracts and musical scores used by performers.
Presented together for the first time and drawing exclusively from the collections of the National Library, the exhibition features items that have never before been on display. Other highlights include the earliest surviving Australian printed document, selections from the JC Williamson theatre archives, and other contemporary live music and theatre posters.
Whether you prefer to take a front row seat, tread the boards, or stagedive into the moshpit, there is something for every fan to see. Join the Library during your visit, and receive a special souvenir Library Card featuring a portrait of Sir Robert Helpmann.
Until 7 August | National Library of Australia | Entry is free, no booking required | nla.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/on-stage
The Alliance Française French Film Festival 2022
Imagine this: soon you’ll be in France enjoying canapes and champagne.
Yes—really. And the best part is, you won’t even need your passport. The Alliance Francaise French Film Festival is back to bring Canberra French escapism in the form of fantastique films.
With a variety of 42 carefully selected films showing at the Palace Electric, until Wednesday 6 April film fans can treat themselves to award-winning cinema that thrills, chills, and inspires.
Full of scandal, love, and revenge, it’s the perfect film to escape Canberra…and with the addition of French canapés and wine before the film you’ll soon be saying ‘je veux plus!’
Until 6 April | Palace Electric Cinema | affrenchfilmfestival.org
Haig Park Village Market
Via facebook.com/haigparkvillagemarkets
The new Haig Park Village Markets runs from 9 am-2 pm every Sunday in the beautiful leafy grounds of Haig Park, Braddon—moments away from Lonsdale street’s boutiques and cafes.
Hosting some of the region’s best local farmers and producers this farmers and food market will delight your senses with delicious cuisines, tasty treats, fresh produce and artisan products.
It’s a lovely place to enjoy a picnic while picking up some fresh produce, beautiful blooms and artisan loaves of bread for the week. There is live music, delicious food and face painting among other exciting sights for children and adults alike, there is no better way to spend a Sunday!
Every Sunday from 9 am–2 pm | Haig Park | haigparkvillagemarkets.com.au
