What's On

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

Sat 21 Dec, Brunswick Mechanics Institute

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.

Archive

Fri 13 Dec, Brunswick Mechanics Institute

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.

Book tickets to Activating Truth

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

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

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

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

Ubuntu Magazine

Thurs 3 Aug
6 - 9pm
📍 Footscray Community Arts

$10 General Admission, $5 Concession, $0 No One Turned Away
Get Tickets

The Ubuntu Magazine launch is a meeting of philosophy, culture and community held at Footscray Community Arts. We invite you to join us in celebrating the official launch of ‘Ubuntu’ with food, drinks and conversation.

Drawing from the Bantu ideology of Ubuntu - “I am because we are” - Producer in Residence Leigh Lule has crafted and curated a platform for community-focused creatives. The first Ubuntu magazine issue features the creative works of Daniel Temesgen, Natasha Hertanto, Sarah Iman, Navaal Saeed, Amarachi Logo and Suzie Wang through a multimedia lens.

Ubuntu is an online, interactive magazine that embraces multimedia; where an audio-series can sit right in-between a playscript and an interactive illustration. With a focus on art, culture and history, Ubuntu platforms the work of young, emerging and mid-career creatives throughout the wider Melbourne area. Engaging and collaborating with varied practices and disciplines, the magazine includes artist features and interviews, alongside newly commissioned audio, visual and written works.

To explore the digital magazine and its works in full → Ubuntu Magazine

Schedule

6pm – Doors Open & Light Refreshments
6.30pm – Acknowledgment & Introduction
6.35pm – Digital Magazine Showcase
7pm – Banquet Dinner by sogobri + DJ Set by Mothafunk
9pm – Event Finishes

Artist Bios

Natasha Hertanto (she/her) is a Chinese-Indonesian writer, public speaker, and educator based in Naarm. Her work can be found on Kill Your Darlings, ABC, Australian Multilingual Project, Archer & more. Her short stories are part of the anthologies ‘Everything All At Once’ (Ultimo Press, 2021) and ‘New Australian Fiction 2023’ (Kill Your Darlings, 2023). @natashahertanto

Navaal Saeed (he/him) is an emerging film photographer, focused on sharing diasporic experiences, stories, and perspectives as a way of reconciling his own. He is entranced and empowered by various mediums, from contemporary editorials and conceptual shoots, to music and cinematography. @navsaeed

Amarachi Okorom (she/her) is a Nigerian born Igbo actor, spoken word artist, and emerging playwright based in Melbourne. She completed a residency with Lonely Company (2020), and was a part of Melbourne Theatre Company’s First Stage program (2021). Her play ‘Akaraka’ was shortlisted for the 2021 Griffin Award. @amarxchi_

Daniel Temesgen (he/him) is a photographer based in Naarm. His recent photography series include, ‘SEA OF HOPE’, ‘Brotherhood’, and ‘Mother’. He has worked with several brands, including New Balance, Hype DC, Chivas, Manchester United, Asics Foot Locker, Adidas, Football Australia and Tourism Tasmania. His work has previously been featured in RUSSH Magazine and Vogue Australia. @stillsbydaniel

Sarah Iman (she/they) is a first-generation Malaysian/Australian Muslim artist raised in the western suburbs of Naarm. Holding a Diploma in Theatre Arts and currently in their last year in the Bachelor of Fine Arts (Acting) course at the Victorian College of the Arts, Sarah has worked in various creative fields from radio and broadcast presenting to community theatre. @_itsarah

Suzie Wang/俊俏 (they/them) is an artist based in North Fitzroy, who primarily makes illustrative art inspired by feelings of child-like wonder and their Chinese heritage. Playing with different mediums is an integral part of their art practice. Suzie has also been a part of organising events prioritising queer/trans BIPOC people and highlighting local DJs and performers. @jun888qiao

The Producer in Residence and Creative Leadership programs are generously supported by VicHealth through their Future Healthy initiatives.

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Above:
  1. Who are you? by Daniel Temesgen (2023)
    Image description: A photograph of a woman with tan skin and long, dark-brown and wavy hair. She faces the camera with a neutral expression and stands in front of a tall maple tree, surrounded by green and orange leaves.