Puffio

Rather good news is at hand from the Adelaide Critics Circle, who this year celebrate their tenth anniversary of handing out bouquets) for the great performers in the professional and non professional arts around South Australia. Both Brenda Blethyn and Sigrid Thornton have accepted invitations to be presenters at the Awards night on Mon 3 Dec at the wonderful but shall we say, intimate, Bakehouse. Puffio thinks this may become a 'must have' ticket for the end of year celebrations... what chance a change of venue, eh?

There is a strong suggestion that Whitmore Square in the city is the place to be on Sun 28 Oct, which is the venue for the '4th Annual Whitmore Square Arts Fair', a free event running from 11am to 4pm and featuring performances from over 40 local and South Australian musicians and dance performers (mainly) and a host of other good stuff to keep the whole family interested. There will be art for sale on the day, and "art in progress" events throughout the afternoon, showing off the skills to create such as textiles, jewellery, ceramics, visual art, indigenous art, photography, sculpture. There's an indigenous weaving workshop, and a Tibetan Lama who will be holding a story telling session with actors in traditional Tibetan costume.

South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC) CEO Richard Harris announced today that the Premier and Minister for the Arts, the Hon. Mike Rann has appointed Rising Sun Pictures' Tony Clark ACS as a new Director to the Board of the SAFC. Which is good news. Congratulations, is it the season for appointments or something?

'Her Face Was Drawn' is the exhibition featuring the work of Jeremy Piert, Alice Reid, Laura Wills and Karin Woithe, which runs from Fri 19 Oct until Wed 7 Nov at the Worldsend Hotel on Hindley Street. This is the work of four unique emerging artists and their reflections on contemporary culture to draw expressive portraits.

At a recent reception at Waverley Homestead, Willunga, Adelaide dancer Jay Robinson was awarded the 2007 Keith Michell performance award; an acknowledgment and encouragement of an emerging artist's work over the previous year, and a bit of cash to assist towards their career development. Robinson, a graduate from the Bachelor of Dance Performance at Adelaide Centre for the Arts, gets the $2k prize after, among other things, performing 'Shelf Life' with Bare Bones Collective earlier this year during the Adelaide Fringe. During November he performs 'Four Faces', a gritty, gutsy and funny dance performance as part of this year's Adelaide Feast Festival. Onya!!

Is it a changing of the guard? Not really. Is it his superior style and fashion sense which make it such an attractive proposition? Perhaps. Is it the phat wallet? Errrrm, maybe. Even if you have no idea what a designer of suits and stuff actually does, the name Giorgio Armani is rather well known around the globe, which is no doubt why Sydney Theatre Company is really, really pleased to welcome him as their Patron. A patron, for those who were wondering, is a grown up term for mascot, though sometimes they're not quite so cute and cuddly. According to the press release, incoming Artistic Directors Andrew Upton and Cate Blanchett warmly welcomed Mr Armani as the Company's Patron and expressed their admiration for his leadership role in supporting the arts. As indeed you would.

In November the international hit-maker Dionne Warwick returns to Australia with her band for 'One Night With Dionne Warwick' concerts in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth - all to be performed with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. As a concert performance you could expect this to be a lush and beautiful experience from the 5 times Grammy Awards winner whose career is inextricably entwined with the wonderful music of Burt Bacharach. Have a look at this for a potential set-list: Do You Know The Way to San Jose?, Walk On By, Message To Michael, Alfie, I'll Never Fall in Love Again, Say A Little Prayer, Anyone Who Had a Heart, This Girl's in Love With You, I'll Never Love This Way Again, Heartbreaker, Reach Out For Me and That's What Friends Are For. Wow. Dionne Warwick performs at Her Majesty's Theatre on Fri 30 Nov.

Earlier this month the winner of the artEast 2007 Maras Group Critics' Award was announced at an event held in the Austral Hotel's austerely minimal and groovy Bunka. Emerging artist Talia Wignall was presented with the Critic's Award by Steve Maras of the Maras Group for her expressive paintings, which are currently on display at Jah'z Lounge in Cinema Place off Rundle Street. Congratulations to Talia, who got the thousand dollars cash prize and (maybe) a celebratory drink or two. Her 'Self Portrait' from the More Or Less Me series is shown below.

After the outstanding success of their inaugural 'Sibelius Festival', the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra has been awarded quite an honour, by being invited to record the complete cycle of Sibelius symphonies, the first such undertaking in Australian recording history, for ABC Classics. Nice gig if you can get it.

Music Loving night owls can flock (that's a pun, right?) to the Promethean on Saturday 20 October to hear the outstanding double bill of IrwinThomas, fresh from his Thebby gig, and local girl Zkye who's been wowing Sydney audiences with her 'left of centre voice', inspiring one punter to say on Zkye's site "and I thought Janis was dead!" On Late at the Prom (a double entendre) has Thomas on at 10pm and Zkye at 12.30pm,both for the ticket price of $20.