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Arts & culture
News about visual, literary and performing arts, languages and other aspects of culture
Latest news
04 March 2024
Chau Chak Wing Museum announces Biennale of Sydney artists
Twenty artists from Australia and around the world bring a breadth of formats and perspectives to the Chau Chak Wing Museum for the 24th Biennale of Sydney.
28 February 2024
Making love and making music in a new Greek-Australian story
Composer James Humberstone and award-winning slam poet and rapper Luka Lesson have come together to create a new Greek-Australian work combining ancient poetry and modern hip-hop to explore every aspect of love.
27 February 2024
Crowdfunding key to defending and rebuilding Ukraine
Dr Olga Boichak, senior lecturer in Digital Cultures in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, explores how Ukrainians are innovating from the battlefield to the digital frontlines, to take the
fight to a much better equipped and better funded enemy.
21 February 2024
Should Taylor Swift be taught alongside Shakespeare? Yes!
Professor Liam Semler, a Shakespeare scholar in the Discipline of English, explains how Taylor Swift is not only a genuine ally of serious literature but that she deserves a place on the university curriculum alongside Shakespeare's Sonnets.
19 February 2024
What can we learn from nature if we listen to it deeply?
Dr Diana Chester, a sound studies scholar from Media and Communications in FASS, and Associate Professor Damien Ricketson, a composer from Sydney Conservatorium of Music invite visitors to lie down, close their eyes and listen to the sand, sea and wind in a new research project called Listening to Earth.
15 February 2024
Taylor Swift: why academics are studying the pop star
Taylor Swift, who is about to tour Australia with her much-anticipated Eras concerts, was the subject of a three-day academic conference, known as a Swiftposium, in Melbourne, where academics presented papers on her global impact.
12 February 2024
Opera Australia finds campy, playful joy in The Magic Flute
Dr David Larkin, senior lecturer in musicology at Sydney Conservatorium of Music, reviews the new production of The Magic Flute by director Kate Gaul for Opera Australia.
06 February 2024
Lunar New Year 2024: What does the Year of the Dragon mean?
Associate Professor Xiaohuan Zhao, from Chinese Studies in the School of Languages and Cultures, shares what it means to be born in a Year of the Dragon or to live through the Year of the Dragon in 2024.
30 January 2024
Mysterious pearl shells unearthed in French Polynesia
Associate Professor James Flexner, archaeologist, returned from a dig in French Polynesia where, together with local community members, he and his team found relics from the country's missionary past.
20 December 2023
Loud, energetic and bright: Disney's Artful Dodger down under is fun!
Dr Megan Nash, a teacher in literature and film in the School of Arts, Communication and English, takes a close look at Disney's new TV series The Artful Dodger, set in Australia with bright sunshine and savage humour - and Aussie pop songs.
18 December 2023
MySydney scholarship fuels metal guitar passion at Sydney Con
Alexander Andrevski, a MySydney scholar from Western Sydney, is pursuing his passion for metal guitar at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He used the scholarship to buy instruments and encourages others to explore new pathways to university education.
15 December 2023
Bradley Cooper's Maestro: the Leonard Bernstein story
Dr Joseph Toltz, Honorary Associate in the School of Languages and Cultures, and Manager of Research Support in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, explores the legacy of the great American conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein as portrayed in the new Netflix film Maestro directed by, and starring Bradley Cooper.
14 December 2023
MCA unveils Tacita Dean's poetically-charged art
Associate Professor Donna Brett, Chair of Art History, explores the work of British visual artist Tacita Dean - known for her film-works, photography, drawings and installations - in a major new exhibition at Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art.
05 December 2023
'A deeply thoughtful show': artist Louise Bourgeois at AGNSW
Dr Lea Vuong, a French scholar from the School of Languages and Cultures, explores the 'deeply thoughtful and sensuous' blockbuster exhibition by French-American artist Louise Bourgeois at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
29 November 2023
Thirty years of Indigenous history captured on film
The recent history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Sydney is chronicled in a new, free, photographic exhibition at the University of Sydney's Chau Chak Wing Museum.
24 November 2023
University of Sydney to host prestigious Congress of HASS 2023
The Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (CHASS) will meet at the University of Sydney Camperdown campus in the final week of November, 2023, bringing together scholars from around Australia and the world.
23 November 2023
Two Sydney academics awarded public policy funding
The James Martin Institute (JMI) awarded its prestigious annual Policy Challenge Grants during a ceremony at the State Library of NSW on Wednesday evening.
22 November 2023
Should OpenAI's board have fired Sam Altman?
OpenAI's board is facing backlash for firing CEO Sam Altman - but it's good it had the power to, writes Dr Joanne Gray, Lecturer in Media and Communications. She argues big tech companies could benefit from more accountability.
20 November 2023
Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita is brought to astonishing life on stage
Dr Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer in English, reviews a riotous new stage adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita, known for its supernatural satire.
16 November 2023
The power of stories to help or hinder progress
Humanity has always been driven by stories, and their power in a post-truth world will be the topic of exploration for the 2023 Cleveringa Address, to be held at the University of Sydney Business School on Monday 27 November.