Participants will join enrolled students for exclusive guided access to all aspects of the Castlemaine State Festival visual arts program curated by La Trobe Art Institute. Artists, curators and academics will lead discussions as we tour the multitude of venues occupied by visual arts.

LAI has developed a visual arts program that not only celebrates the aesthetic and material quality of the artwork, but one which acts as a space for the generation and sharing of cultural knowledge. This ambitious program brings together leading Australian and International contemporary artists that embrace the potential of creative practice as a mode of research. Thus, the display of their artwork can been seen as a single component their broader creative output, with conversation, critical engagement and cultural learning of equal import.

Presenters include:
HAYLEY WEST | HAYLEY MILLAR-BAKER | JAMES TYLOR | ANNA LOUISE RICHARDSON & ABDUL-RAHMAN ABDULLAH | SISTERS AKOUSMATICA

Contemporary visual art Biennials, Biennales and Triennials have proliferated over recent decades – so much so that there have been calls to think of ‘biennialogy’ as a unique field of study 1. These types of events, though wildly diverse do share some common attributes – one of which is the tendency to occupy all facets of their host city in an attempt to engage with the character of a place and its inhabitants. This intensive block will explore how artists have engaged with Castlemaine – celebrating and challenging familiar practices and interpretations of place.

1. Øvstebø, S., van Hal, M., & Filipovic, E. (2010). Biennalogy. In M. van Hal, S. Øvstebø, & E. Filipovic (Eds.), The biennial reader (1st ed.). Bergen, Norway: Bergen Kunsthall & Hatje Cantz Verlag

This is event is one of two Blocks, the second will take place on 29, 30 & 31 March 2019: The Aesthetics of Experience.