HELEN MUSA rounds up all sorts of arts news in her latest Art in the City column. 

A new video portrait by Sydney artist and filmmaker Angela Tiatia, featuring all 23 players from the CommBank Matildas FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 squad, is on show at the National Portrait Gallery and will remain on display throughout the AFC Women’s Asian Cup Australia 2026. Commissioned by the gallery, the 23-minute work was filmed across three continents, five cities and seven shoots.

Musica Viva Australia has announced the appointment of Don Christopher (formerly Bemrose) to its board of directors. Now executive officer with the National Indigenous Australians Agency in Canberra, he was a noted baritone with State Opera of South Australia, Opera Australia, Short Black Opera and on Canberra’s musical theatre stages. He joins the board following a 12-month tenure in the 2025 Observership Program. 

Monika McInerney, artistic director and co-CEO of Belco Arts, has officially announced that the centre’s theatre space – formerly known as The Rehearsal Room – has been renamed The Mockingbird Studio, or simply The Studio, in recognition of the work carried out there by Chris Baldock and Mockingbird Theatrics.

Linda Tregonning, a past president of the Canberra Philharmonic Society, was dismayed to discover that posters marking the Canberra Theatre’s 60th birthday in the Link celebrate only professional productions. She points out that “Philo” staged more than 75 musical theatre productions at the theatre between its opening in 1965 and its final show there in 2001. Presenting two to three productions a year, the society regularly used professional performers such as June Bronhill, Denis Olsen, Ronald McOnachie and Normie Rowe, also engaging professional orchestras, directors and musical directors. Its 1994 production of Les Misérables set a Canberra Theatre attendance record at the time.

Richard Johnson, director, producer and curator of the 17-year-old SoundOut Festival of free improvisation, free jazz and experimental music and arts, has missed out on funding for the upcoming event. Now he has turned to crowdfunding at gofundme.com to help bring the festival over the line and allow it to host international music guests. SoundOut will be at the ANU Drill Hall Gallery, January 30-February 1.