What's On
See what’s on from our base in Brunswick and beyond ↓
Below The Surface presents — 2025 Vision Board & Networking Event
Young Artistic Director Lydia Tesema is bringing her annual Below The Surface (BTS) vision board and networking event to Brunswick Mechanics Institute.
Connect with likeminded local creatives while creating visual representation of your goals, dreams and aspirations.
Finite Eyes screening (Composite)
Finite Eyes brings together live performance, pre-recorded sound and moving image to explore the emotive pull and mobilising force of utopian visions.
By anorak and Ora Clementi in collaboration with Debris Facility and Melody Woodnutt and featuring work by Basma al-Sharif, Tolia Astakhishvili and James Richards, Charles Bernstein, Marguerite Duras, and Dani ReStack
Public Grief, Public Space (Composite)
Esther Carlin and Adalya Nash Hussein explore the psychogeography of grief in the first Melbourne speaking from the I eye program.
Archive
Reading: 'Inheritance'
Next Wave is supporting the development of ‘Inheritance’, a new production by Ryan Enniss and Robert Lewis.
Inheritance stems from a project investigating neurodiversity in Australian performing arts. It explores themes of toxic masculinity, relationships and anxiety through a kaleidoscopic journey of interconnected monologues.
Contact Persona Collective for more information.
Activating Truth
Convened by CAST leader Dr Amy Spiers, ‘Activating Truth’ brings together artists and researchers from across Naarm/Melbourne, other parts of so-called ‘Australia’, as well as Turtle Island/Canada, to share and deepen knowledge on ways that the truth about settler colonial violence can be activated responsibly and impactfully in community and localised contexts through creative practice.
Screening: 'Anak'
Next up from Composite:
Masculinity, race and boyhood simmer in this stylish slow-cinema debut about a Filipino-Australian father and his six-year-old son, who are navigating a family divorce.
Presented in partnership with Sunburnt.
Deaf Culture and Auslan workshop
Join us for a free workshop celebrating the richness of Deaf culture and language, led by Deaf artist Luke D King.
Luke will share an introduction to Deaf histories and give participants the opportunity to learn and use some basic Australian Sign Language (Auslan).
Triangle by Flow Festival
Flow Festival presents ‘Triangle’—a unique series of lighting design workshops led by Bronwyn Pringle (Deaf Kitchen, SPIN, and Flow Festival). Bronwyn is diving into how lighting design can be more inclusive for the Deaf community.
‘Triangle’ is for the Deaf community, including Deaf, hard of hearing, CODAs, and interpreters.
Next Wave Neighbours
Join us for a drink, explore our venue, hear about what we have planned and help shape our priorities for 2025 and beyond.
Homing Instinct
See a special screening of commissioned works from Homing Instinct—a collaborative moving image project featuring artist commissions related to housing, home and belonging.
This screening includes an artist talk by Ari Angkasa.
'Web Working Bee'
Join our working bee with WORLDWIDEWORMS.NET, an online space for peer-led publishing. In this event, collaborators and contributors to WORLDWIDEWORMS.NET share work in progress, including video screenings, readings, and a garden tour of the back-end of the website.
Contributing artists are Alrey Batol, Eric Jong, Jacina Leong, Ella Peck and Emily Simek.
Nosferatu with live score
‘Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror’ is widely regarded to be the first and best vampire film ever made. Join us for a Halloween screening of this silent cinematic masterpiece with an original score performed live by Edwin Montgomery.
DAMP video anthology
This selection of short video works made between 1997 and 2008, range from quickly captured playful scenarios to elaborately constructed narratives. Established in Naarm Melbourne in 1995, DAMP’s multidisciplinary practice over three decades has consistently addressed the relationship between artist and audience and examined individual and collective notions of value and desire.
Snap! (You Have Nothing to Reconnect But Your Chains)
Join us for the premiere of a new experimental performance lecture by Catherine Ryan. This ambitious, research-based work tells the tragicomic story of one of the neoclassical statues adorning the interior of Victoria’s Legislative Council in Parliament House. The work draws on the comedic travails of this political decor to critically examine the idea of connection to tradition and the telling of origin stories about the settler-colonial society of Victoria.
'ShareHouse: Studio Day + Exhibition'
ShareHouse invites you into Next Wave’s home, Brunswick Mechanics Institute, for community-led workshops, performances, and conversations.
Curated by our Young Artistic Directorate - Banda
Get Tickets
↳ Saturday | Studio Day: Workshop 1 (Charlie Taylor) + Lunch & Panel
↳ Saturday | Studio Day: Workshop 2 (Adele D’Souza) + Lunch & Panel
↳ Sunday | Exhibition
MEga Yoga: A counternarrative experience
Bus Projects, Engages, MEga Yoga is a participatory embodied performance that uses the structure of a yoga class inviting participants to move their bodies slowly and their minds critically.
New North Concert 17
Guest curator Rachael Archibald (Meanjin/Brisbane) has gathered lineup of artists pushing boundaries in their music-making for the next New North concert.
Alexandra Spence ~ Ode2Joy ~ ANNIHA
THINKING GROUND
Next Wave is supporting the THINKING GROUND workshop series, a pilot artist-development program by theatre-makers The Voice in My Hands. Workshops are free but places are limited.
Learn more about THINKING GROUND and register for the next workshop
New North Concert 16
Guest curator Dale Gorfinkel brings lineup of Narrm/Melbourne-based musicians pushing boundaries in their areas of practice to Brunswick Mechanics:
Sounds Like Movement [Peter Fraser/Dale Gorfinkel] ~ Shh! [Anja Füsti/Rosalind Crisp] ~ Peter Blamey
Get tickets to New North Concert 16
Get tickets to New North Concert 15
New North Concert 15
Xiaole Zhan ~ Jassy Robertson ~ Tilman Robinson
Xiaole will present a ‘live anthology’ for narrator, percussion, violin, electronics and narrator—a musical setting of a collection of poems exploring the collision between music and language.
Sonic Travellers: Opening Performance
Sonic Travellers seeks to discover shared connections between sonic pasts and presents, exploring regional affinities between Australia and Southeast Asia.
The 2024 LAB program considers Next Wave’s past, present and future – with a focus on intergenerational knowledge sharing and creative responses to notions of collectivism, preservation and care – culminating in a future-focused 40th birthday party.
Across the Ocean: Viet Thanh Nguyen in Conversation with Nam Le
The Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network is thrilled to host an evening with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen in conversation with Nam Le.
Next Wave x (nexus)
Next Wave x (nexus) is a multi-sensory Radical hospitality event of experimental dance battles, cuisines and a party.
International Women's Day Performance
Our Young Artistic Directorate are co-curating a party in partnership with Brunswick Music Festival
Radical Hospitality: 剉冰 + equatorial fruit-opening party
Dead Ends and Detours - Bruno Booth
Leisuretime I — Aaron Claringbold & Rebecca Mccauley
Making it in Moreland: Insights into Practice: Embedding Accessibility
Thu 30 June
6pm-7.30pm
📍Brunswick Mechanics, 270 Sydney Road, Brunswick
Free
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Please note: the venue for this event has changed, and will be now taking place at Brunswick Mechanics. Updated Jun 30 2PM
Join us for a facilitated panel discussion with artists Luke Duncan King, Larissa MacFarlane and Gemma Mahadeo who share their learnings and experiences about creating work with access at its core.
In this discussion we will explore what it means when we talk about embedded access and why it is important for independent art practice. We will dive into shared learnings to better understand what role allyship has within the sector. And we will hear what real steps or considerations are needed to embed access at the beginning of the creative process.
Artist Bios
Belinda Locke (Moderator) is a disabled theatre-maker, director, and disability advocate based in Naarm (Melbourne). Belinda’s artistic practice brings to light hidden stories and experiences through performance and participatory art, collaborating with artists across multiple disciplines. She has been acknowledged for her work as the inaugural recipient of the Rose Byrne Scholarship for an Emerging Female Leader in the Arts (2016), selection for Australia Council for the Arts’ Sync Leadership program (2014) and shortlisted for the Graham F Smith Peace Award (2019). Belinda serves as the Chair of Arts Access Australia, the national advocacy body for arts and disability. View website.
Speakers
Luke Duncan King is a visual artist, whose practise is grounded in printmaking, but extends into video, performance and other art forms. He has an interest in collaboration and has performed or co-created works with choreographers, dancers, performers, and other visual artists, in public and private museums and galleries. Luke is a board member for the Arts Access Victoria and participated in Moreland Art Committee from 2017 to 2021. He has participated in several art organisations as an Artist, a Deaf community rep and a creative advisor. Luke completed a BFA (Hons) at the VCA in 2015. View website.
Larissa MacFarlane is a visual artist and disability activist based in Naarm (Melbourne), on the lands of the Kulin nation. Her arts practice encompasses printmaking, street art and a community art practice. Larissa identifies as a proud queer disabled artist (she/they) and uses her experience of a 22-year-old brain injury to investigate Disabled culture, community, identity and pride. Her work is inspired by the urban industrial landscapes of Melbourne’s West, as well as her experience of disability, to investigate ideas of belonging and place, healing and change, and ways that we can celebrate what we have here and now. View website.
Gemma Mahadeo has been living, working, and playing on Wurundjeri land since 1987. Prior to that, they lived in the UK and the Philippines. Their work has appeared in print and online publications nationally. They are a writer and occasional musician, producing poetry and creative non-fiction, and have spent the last year working on state and local council digital commissions. They are currently finishing their first full-length poetry manuscript, and working with the Disabled QBIPOC Collective, of which they are a founding member.
You can find them on Twitter at @snarkattack or Instagram @eatdrinkstagger obsessing over cats, beer, tea, cheese, and being a failed musicologist.
Accessibility
This event will be Auslan interpreted.
Brunswick Mechanics is a wheelchair accessible venue.
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A Quiet Space will also be available.
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This venue is pram accessible and has an accessible bathroom.
We are able to assist with any access requests you may have ahead of this event. For further enquiries about how Next Wave can support your access requirements, please contact our team on (03) 9387 3376 or email us at ticketing@nextwave.org.au
Please contact Next Wave for assistance booking tickets via ticketing@nextwave.org.au
We also welcome suggestions for how we can continue to improve our experience for people with disability.
Getting to Brunswick Mechanics
See transport options, access and more.
Making it in Moreland, Arts Moreland’s FREE workshop and speaker series is presented by Next Wave in partnership with Moreland City Council. Aimed at building both professional and practical skills the 2022 series is a fantastic opportunity to learn something new, increase industry expertise, engage with local artists and their practices and meet other people in the creative industries.
Making it in Moreland is generously supported by Moreland City Council through Arts Moreland.
Credit: Belinda Locke, ‘Everyday Acts of Disobedience’. Photo: Jack Dixon-Gunn