A Guide to Newcastle’s This is Not Art Festival

This is Not Art is back for its 11th year. Image courtesy of TiNA.

One of the country’s leading independent arts festivals, Newcastle’s beloved This is Not Art (TiNA) is back again for its 11th year in 2011. Beginning on Thursday 29 September, the festival offers more than 250 events staged over the 5 days until 3 October.

Put together by Newcastle’s Octopod Association and with generous sponsorship from the University of Newcastle, Arts NSW and Newcastle City Council, TiNA is dedicated to exploring both the more emerging and experimental art and artists around our region.

An intriguing mix of writers, performers, thinkers, musicians and culture makers will converge on Newcastle to share the passion they have for their chosen art form.

Over the space of the Festival’s five days, TiNA will present a series of sub-festival’s which include:

  • Crack Theatre Festival, devoted to experimental theatre performance
  • Critical Animals, an event that focuses on emerging artists and postgraduate artistic study
  • Electrofringe, a program of experimental electronic arts
  • The National Young Writers Festival, the country’s premier event for emerging writers.

For anyone wanting to get involved with TiNA, you have the option to do more than simply attend. As the Festival is run solely on the smell of an oily rag, TiNA is after volunteers to lend a bit of assistance. Whether it be through lending a hand with event management or conducting a little market research, TiNA could do with your help.

Of course if you are coming to TiNA from outside of Newcastle, you’re probably looking for somewhere to stay. The Festival just happens to offer a campsite for those with tents, swags, vans or trucks who are wanting to get the full Festival experience. If camping isn’t your thing, Newcastle and its surrounding suburbs offer plenty of accommodation options for any type of budget.

If you’re new to Newcastle, or even if you call Newcastle home, why not take a look at some of our Insider Maps that can point you in the right direction as to where the best spots in town are to eat, drink, play golf, walk your dog and more.

So with over 250 events and 24 different sites, you might be wondering just where to go. Check out the map guide below for more info about what’s on when & where. For the full festival program, check out the TiNA website.

1

Festival Club

89 Scott Street Newcastle

The Great Northern Hotel is transformed for the 5 days of TiNA into the Festival Club. Highlights include Thursday nights Opening Night celebration where you can enjoy a beer or wine and help celebrate the opening of TiNA for 2001. Friday's Electrobinge will also be a popular event with the showcase aiming to use audio-visual performance to both challenge and pleasure your palate. But the big event at the Festival Club takes place on Saturday night with the Big Top Ball. A night of hilarity is guaranteed with Sydney's Shanghai and Brisbane based Toby Gifford part of the entertainment line-up for the night.

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2

The Lock Up

90 Hunter Street Newcastle

One of the city's top arts venues, The Lock Up is once again a venue for TiNA 2011. Some of the top events at The Lock Up include Thursday's Under The Petticoats, a performance that unravels the awkard elegence and intricacies of the women as well as Sunday's The Landcape of Crisis, which focuses on artists engagement with both natural and environmental disaster areas.

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3

The Crack House

Suite 40 Level 3, Market Square Newcastle

Aside from the interesting name, The Crack House is offering some fascinating events during TiNA. Each day at 3pm will see the Daily Discourse, an event that allows festival goers the chance to discuss some of their favourite events as well as giving them the opportunity to share personal stories. Saturday sees Songbirds, a wind activated electro-acoustic display where artist Joe Mariglio performs with some interesting sounding sculptures. This starts at 10am. Finally, Sunday will see a workshop beginning at 1pm entitled How To Write Plays, funnily enough that is all about writing plays.

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4

Staple Manor

178 Hunter Street Newcastle

Staple Manor, located at Baggas Pharmacy is another exciting venue apart of TiNA 2011. Two exhibitions at Staple Manor look to be a couple of the more interesting events at the Festival. Running over the five days, Student Media Covered: A Retrospective is a mash up of favourite magazine and newspaper covers aimed to provide a visual fest. The Shape of Language is an exhibition of typographic art that showcases some of Australia's top artists and allows attendees to see just how they shape their words together. Both open at 9.30pm on Thursday.

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5

Renew Church

3 Morgan Street Newcastle

A major supporter of TiNA, Renew Newcastle is giving up its Morgan Street space as part of the Festival for 2011. Thursday begins with a workshop and demo put on by improvisation/acoustic group, Peon. The other highlight for the five days at Renew comes on Sunday when Ollie Bown and Sam Britton present An Album In 1,000 Variations. The hour long presentation begins at 5pm and focuses on the pleasures and perils of composing parametric music.

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6

The Loft

Level 1, 7A Wolfe Street Newcastle

The Loft is holding a couple of excellent events for TiNA. Head along on Friday at 10.30am for the Ever After Theatre Workshop. Australia's longest running experimental theatre group, Ever After will both perform and also give a few pointers to any aspiring actors. 12pm on Sunday will see the Freshly Squeezed Performance Jam. "Music meets speed dating" is how this has been described so be sure to get along and check it out.

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7

N.C.C King Street Carpark

King Street Newcastle

The council car park will be transformed into zine and market central on Sunday with the Sunday Fair beginning at 11am. Wander around the various stalls whilst meeting the artists and zinestars whilst purchasing a few goodies at the same time. Entry is free.

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8

Customs House

1 Bond Street Newcastle

If you are wanting to find out just what it takes to get your work published, then head to Customs House at 11am Friday for a panel discussion entitled Getting Published. Tips and tricks from industry professionals and who knows, maybe they'll even suggest sending your work to Urban Insider! The other TiNA event at Customs House worth highlighting comes on Sunday with Iain Mcintyre launching his latest book. Wild About You! goes through the history of 60's beat music in Australia, which all sounds rather intriguing.

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Nick Turner is a born & bred Novocastrian. At 21 years of age, he is in the midst of a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Newcastle, majoring in film, media & cultural studies. His interests include travel, golf, reading, photography, sport, food and watching Seinfeld re-runs. Nick is currently interning at Sticky.

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