Victoria Park’s annual Arts Season is back with a jam-packed month of art, music, craft, workshops, walks, and more. The event will showcase the best of the town with more than 30 events, alongside the works of local creatives. Since its inception in 2016, Arts Season has become a well-loved fixture on Vic Park’s events calendar, breathing new life into how art is displayed in the community.
For the month of April, you can embrace and explore your creative side while celebrating thriving artisans. Here’s a tasty tease of what you can expect from the star-studded line-up, and where to eat and drink while you’re at it.
What’s on at Arts Season
Whether you’re interested in photography, mural painting, or sculpture making, there’s something for everyone at Arts Season. Here’s a guide to what’s on offer this April:
Adopt a Print
Postcard-sized original artworks in distinctive packaging will be peppered around public locations to be found and adopted by local residents. They are the perfect size to fit a small frame or send on as a postcard to brighten someone’s day. Keep an eye on the Vic Park Printmaking Collective’s socials and the Vic Park Community Noticeboard for clues.
Compact Exhibition
Compact is an exhibition celebrating contemporary local sculptures at the Kent Street Gallery. The exhibition will showcase the works of ten artists across a variety of mediums, all unified in their scale.
Wild Flower Wonderland
Inspired by native flora, learn how to make your own giant paper flowers. Kids aged between 12 and 18 can spend an afternoon learning about the flowers that bloom during Djeran season, and let their creativity flow while learning step-by-step techniques. Each child can make two big flowers, with one to take home and one to add to the community artwork within the Giant Flower Dome in Hawaiian Park Centre.
Jila Kujarra: Two Snakes Dreaming
Jila Kujarra: Two Snakes Dreaming is an exciting cross-cultural collaboration between Warnman artist Desmond Taylor and Boorloo-based textiles practitioner Mariaan Pugh. The duo have worked together to transform Taylor’s Niminjarra paintings — usually on canvas or paper — into highly tactile textile works, animating the Niminjarra Jukurrpa/Dreaming.
This exhibition runs from April 20th to 26th 2024 at Vic Park Centre for the Arts.
200
200 is a playful exhibition designed to pair artists with the new collector art market. It’s all about creating a fun, vibrant, and affordable opportunity for early buyers and artists to reach new, and broader audiences. All works are A5 in size and priced at $200.00 each.
Neon Festival 2024
Designed by young people for young people, Neon Festival is a free event featuring a groovy line-up of bands, food trucks, silent discos, art activities, and more.
REvamp Urban Arts Program
Join Propel Youth Arts and FRANK in a series of free mural painting workshops to learn how to make a career in public art. You’ll discover how to make stencils and co-design a mural to transform Aqualife. You’ll learn about the journey of becoming an artist, the various pathways to success, and the importance of networking. As well as how to interpret a brief and create a narrative to fit your personal art style.
Vic Park Writers Festival
The Vic Park Writers Festival offers a creative, inspirational, and engaging opportunity to extend your writing skills while collaborating and networking with like-minded people. Some of the events include question and answer sessions with poet Natalie D-Napoleon, and romance novelist Rachael Johns, a sensory and mindfulness poetry workshop and a children’s picture book talk.
NOCTURNE: After Dark Installations
When the sun goes down, the lights come out. Immerse yourself in the video, light, and sound-based artwork created by talented studio artists as they breathe new life into the quiet laneway of ROOK ARI. Light projectors and speakers will throw video works out of the studio windows onto screens in the laneway after dark, offering the public a free series of installations to enjoy.
For a bite and tipple
Perthites are well aware that Victoria Park is the place to go for great eats and drinks. With a bounty of spots to choose from, you really can’t go wrong. While you’re exploring the best of what Arts Season has to offer, make a day of it and pair your arty adventures with a visit to one of the many nearby restaurants plating up devilishly moreish bites. Here’s the inside scoop on where to go:
Neho
With a menu designed to be shared, Neho specialises in Southeast Asian cuisine with a range of inexpensive small-plate and snack dishes fusing Chinese, Japanese, and Korean flavours that hit the spot. Think rendang short rib, Thai barbeque pork, tofu goreng, and fried chicken wings.
Bentori
Bentori is a cracking Japanese eatery, brought to you by the same guys as the popular neighbourhood dessert bar, Bar Spoon. We’re talking traditional teishoku sets, and all things teriyaki chicken rice bowls, sushi, vegetable tempura, and pork gyozas. As well as the affordable eats, it’s BYO, so if you’re on a budget, you’re in luck!
Vic Park Hotel
Set in the heart of Victoria Park, the Vic Park Hotel has been standing since 1927 and recently underwent a massive $2.3 million revamp including a brand-new beer garden. It’s the perfect place to pull in for a pint and lip-smacking Brazilian-inspired eats among an aesthetic blend of modern and heritage architecture. Think salt and lemon pepper calamari, cauliflower bites, classic cheeseburgers, steak sandwiches, and the iconic chicken parmigiana.
Boston Brewing Co
The team at Boston Brewing Co are guaranteed to keep you fed and watered with a killer range of their own brews, wines and cocktails. Food-wise, expect share plates including crispy Brussels sprouts, baked brie, and Moroccan lamb meatballs. As well as more substantial offerings like pan-fried gnocchi, roast pork belly and char-grilled porterhouse steak.
Catalano’s Cafe
For casual Italian eats, the family-owned Catalano’s is a winner with generous portions and affordable options. You’d be crazy to look past the extensive selection of pasta and woodfired pizza. But if meat is more your thing, there’s rib eye, chicken schnitzel, and veal parmigiana, too.
For more information about Arts Season, visit their website.
