What's On

See what’s on from our base in Brunswick and beyond ↓

Mon 9 Dec, Brunswick Mechanics Institute

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).

Book tickets via Humanitix

Tue 10 Dec, Brunswick Mechanics Institute

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.

Book tickets to Anak

Nov/Dec, Brunswick Mechanics Institute

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.

Submit an EOI

Wed 20 Nov, Brunswick Mechanics Institute

Join us for a drink, explore our venue, hear about what we have planned and help shape our priorities for 2025 and beyond.

RSVP to Next Wave Neighbours

Archive

Fri 15 Nov, Brunswick Mechanics Institute

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.

Get tickets to Homing Instinct

Thu 14 Nov, Brunswick Mechanics Institute

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.

Get tickets to Web Working Bee

Fri 1 Nov, Brunswick Mechanics Institute

‘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.

Tickets via Eventbrite

Sat 26 Oct, Brunswick Mechanics Institute

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.

Get tickets to DAMP video anthology

Thu 17 + Sat 19 Oct, Brunswick Mechanics Institute

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.

Tickets via Humanitx

Sat 5 Oct + Sun 6 Oct, Brunswick Mechanics Institute

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

Thu 19 Sept, Brunswick Mechanics Institute

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.

Get tickets to MEga Yoga

Sun 8 Sept, Brunswick Mechanics

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

Get tickets to New North Concert 17

August/September, Brunswick Mechanics

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

Sat 10 Aug, Brunswick Mechanics

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

Saturday 29 June, Brunswick Mechanics

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.

Get tickets to New North Concert 15

Tuesday 4 June, Brunswick Mechanics

Sonic Travellers seeks to discover shared connections between sonic pasts and presents, exploring regional affinities between Australia and Southeast Asia.

RSVP via Eventbrite

24–25 May, Melbourne and Brunswick

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.

Browse the program on the All School website

Fri 10 May, Brunswick Mechanics

The Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network is thrilled to host an evening with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen in conversation with Nam Le.

Get tickets to Across the Ocean

Fri 19 Apr, High Note (Melbourne)

Next Wave x (nexus) is a multi-sensory Radical hospitality event of experimental dance battles, cuisines and a party.

Get tickets to (nexus)

Friday 8 March, Counihan Gallery and Brunswick Mechanics
Sat 3 Feb, Testing Grounds (Narrm)
Thurs 5 and Fri 6 October, WXYZ Studios
Sat 26 Aug, Rapid Creek NT
Wed 23 - Mon 28 Aug, Rapid Creek NT
Tue 1 - Thurs 31 Aug, Online
Thurs 3 Aug, Footscray Community Arts
Tue 18 - Sat 29 Jul, Brunswick Mechanics
Sat 6 Jun, Brunswick Mechanics
Sat 6 May, Brunswick Mechanics
Wed 1 – Fri 31 Mar, Brunswick Mechanics
Fri 17 — Sun 19 Mar, Perth Cultural Centre Amphitheatre (PICA)
Fri Mar 24, Tue 28 Mar, Tue 4 Apr, Tue 11 Apr & Tue 18 Apr, Yagan Square (Perth)
Sat 25 Mar, Brunswick Mechanics
Sat 11 Mar, Brunswick Mechanics
Wed 15 Feb, Brunswick Mechanics
Sat 5 Nov, Brunswick Mechanics
Fri 18 Nov, Migrant Coffee
Fri 28 — Sat 29 Oct, Trades Hall, Carlton
Fri 21 Oct, Platform Arts
Fri 15 & Sat 16 Jul, Brunswick Mechanics
Sat 11 ⏤ Sun 26 Jun, Queen Victoria Women's Centre
Wed 11 May — Sat 25 June, Brunswick Mechanics
Thu 28 Apr, Brunswick Mechanics
Sun 27 & Tues 29 Mar, Federation Wharf, Princes Walk
Thu 17 Mar, Brunswick Mechanics
Sat 26 Feb, Brunswick Mechanics
Thu 17, Fri 18 & Sat 19 Feb, Brunswick Mechanics

Fiddle, Twiddle & Tune + Radical Hospitality

Thurs 5 October, 6-7pm
Fri 6 October, 6-7pm followed by Radical Hospitality 7.30-8.30pm

📍 WXYZ Studios

Tickets.

Fiddle, Twiddle & Tune is a new experimental work by Naarm-based artist Prue Stevenson as part of Next Wave’s Kickstart program.

Through extensive creative development, Prue has worked closely with a creative team and ensemble to conceptualise this work over the past 18 months. Fiddle, Twiddle + Tune explores the notion that repetitive sensory seeking behaviours linked with autism, can have regulatory benefit to all neurotypes (autistic and non-autistic people).

Prue chooses any material that matches their sensory profile and puts them through a repetitive and regulatory process. They find each material and process gives them a richer understanding of the content they’re working with which is often about celebration of self, sensory joy and collective regulation.

On Friday 6 October, Fiddle, Twiddle + Tune will be accompanied by a Radical Hospitality event, co-devised by Prue and Machehi Komba (Popular By Default | Say Less Music Group). We invite you to stay and join us to connect with others through the joy of food and conversation.

Journey through ancestral storylines of the Swahili coast to the forgotten Islands of Comoros. Islands Of The Moon translated to “Juzur al-Qomor" tells an imperative story encompassing the reign of forty sultans across the islands through its rich cuisine translating traditional and intersectional use of spices that speak to the culinary influence of African, Malagasy, Shirazi, Indian, and French degustation.

Prue Stevenson – Lead Artist and Artistic Director
Andrea Meacham – Ensemble member
Carla Ori – Ensemble member
Chanelle Rogers – Ensemble member
Kuda Mapeza – Ensemble member
Becky Silveira – Costume and Set Designer with a gold star review from Prue
Emily Barrie – Becky’s Mentor and provider of hot tips on the go!
Ceri Hann – Props and ideas master
Rachel Edward – Prue’s Support Worker and all-round good person
Kate Sulan – Mentor and full of love and support for Prue and is gluten free
Jessica Tanto – Project Coordinator – Good hair and a good laugh
Machehi Komba – Radical Hospitality Lead Artist and cooks really yummy food!! Popular By default | Say Less Music Group
Joshua Lynzaat - Prue’s support with a gold star review
Chas Maher - Lights, camera, action!

What to Expect

  • This is a collaborative, improvised movement based performance which has various sound and lighting elements (natural and amplified)
  • The venue is accessible, with wheelchair access via 41 Little Dryburgh Street South
  • The performance is 60 min long with no break. You are welcome to come and go as you please.
  • You are welcome to bring your own self-regulating fidgets for stimming.
  • There will be Auslan interpretation available on Friday 6 October from 5.30-8.30pm
  • Assistance animals are welcome throughout the venue.
  • There are gender neutral and accessible toilets.
  • Food will be served on Friday 6 Oct after the performance. The menu has been created with sensory experiences in mind and will provide a range of dietary options.
  • Content warning: Abstract regulatory behaviour. Subject to change/update closer to the show.

Fiddle, Twiddle & Tune has been commissioned through Next Wave’s Kickstart which is supported by Creative Australia and Creative Victoria. This iteration of Fiddle, Twiddle and Tune has also been generously supported by City of Melbourne.

Above:
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