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The second edition of the ground-breaking exhibition Melbourne Now will be presented at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia from March 2023. Bold in scope and scale, the exhibition highlights the extraordinary work of more than 200 Victorian-based artists, designers, studios and firms whose practices are shaping the cultural landscape of Melbourne and Victoria. With more than 200 ambitious and thought-provoking projects on display, including more than 60 never-before-seen and world-premiere works commissioned especially by the NGV for this major presentation, the exhibition highlights the vibrant creativity of local emerging, mid-career and senior practitioners and collectives –including many who are presenting at the NGV for the very first time. The large-scale exhibition traverses all levels of The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, including contemporary interventions across the Australian Art and First Nations permanent collection displays, and highlights a diverse range of contemporary disciplines across fashion, jewellery, painting, sculpture, architecture, ceramics, video, virtual reality, performance, photography, printmaking, product design and publishing. Exhibiting artists including Christian Thompson, Esther Stewart, Atong Atem, Mia Boe, Kait James, Pitcha Makin Fellas, Layla Vardo, Nicholas Mangan, Fiona Abicare, Meagan Streader, Mia Salsjö, Sean Hogan, Amos Gebhardt, and Lisa Reid. For more information visit: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition/melbourne-now-2023/ Image credits Left image in banner: Portrait of Mia Salsjö, Photo: Mia Mala McDonald Centre image in banner: N’arweet Dr Carolyn Briggs AM and Sarah Lynn Rees, Gathering Space: Ngargee Djeembana 2021, installation view, Who’s Afraid of Public Space? 2021–22, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne., Courtesy the artists, Photograph: Andrew Curtis Right image in banner: Atong Atem, Maria of mars 2022, © Atong Atem, Courtesy of Artist

Kicking off in March, MFWF brings 10 days of excitement and adventure to Fed Square, with big names, bold ideas and delicious drinks.

These school holidays, join Beci Orpin, Melbourne Museum, Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation, United African Farmers, Bunnings and more, for two jam-packed days at Australia’s first and only food festival created for kids. The free Little Food Festival – on April 19 and 20 – combines education, exploration, creativity and fun to help kids re-imagine what the future will look like for them, their families and communities, and the planet. Plant seedlings, learn about bush food, get crafty, prepare nutritious meals, take part in a recycling relay race, discover a worm farm, hear from Toot the Triceratops and much more at The Little Food Festival 2023. It’s the ultimate free school holiday event! The Little Food Festival is brought to you by Founding Partners Sandro Demaio Foundation, Monash University and Fed Square, and Event Partner City of Melbourne.

Trailblazers. Nonconformists. Rebels. Agitators and Instigators. On and off screen. Through iconic stories, characters and moments from over 120 years of moving image history, Goddess celebrates the women who shaped their own roles, took creative control and fought a system that tried to exploit them. From the swagger of Mae West and glamour of Anna May Wong to the powerful punch of Pam Grier, ACMI’s next home-grown exhibition salutes the groundbreaking achievements and impact of the screen’s revolutionary leading ladies. Though behind the scenes since the beginning of cinema, women were too often reduced to bombshells, starlets and screen sirens. But goddesses are far more than sexist stereotypes. Featuring never-before-seen costumes, original sketches, interactive experiences and cinematic treasures, including iconic outfits worn by Marilyn Monroe and Marlene Dietrich, as well as stories from across the globe, Goddess honours the women who wielded glamour, sensuality and smarts to challenge narratives, defy expectations and fashion personas that transcend tropes. Whether it’s Tilda Swinton, Geena Davis or Michelle Yeoh, today’s goddesses unapologetically occupy spaces and roles that shatter glass ceilings, project solidarity and reframe society through essential stories, brave voices and complex characters. They’ve overcome convention and an industry built to confine them with collective power and fearless creativity to imagine their own heroes and take their own roads. Extended Hours Open til 8pm on Saturdays from Sat 15 April. Open on select Thursdays til 1am – see ACMI’s Goddess Nights program. For more information visit: https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/goddess/ Goddess: Power, Glamour, Rebellion is curated by Bethan Johnson, ACMI and is part of Melbourne Winter Masterpieces® 2023

First Peoples have used pelts in ceremonial and everyday life since time immemorial. KHT has one of Australia’s most significant collections of South East Australian art and cultural belongings. It is from this collection that Second Skin: Essence of Country brings together 22 artists and presents works and cultural belongings that relate to the use of animal pelts in cultural practices. For tens of thousands of years possum skin has been used in the production of cloaks to protect First Peoples from the wind, rain, snow and cold in South East Australia, but are also made for use in ceremony, making music, trade, to reflect cultural identity, map Country and pass cultural knowledge down through generations. The exhibition will present underlying themes relating to cultural and spiritual resilience; pride in identity and community; connection to culture, community and Country. Featured KHT Collection artists include William Barak (Wurundjeri); William Carter (Nharrang Clan of Wiradjuri Nation, and Pajong and Wallaballooa Clans of Ngunnawal Nation); Maree Clarke (Yorta Yorta, Wamba Wamba, Mutti Mutti, Boonwurrung); Wally Cooper (Yorta Yorta); Vicki Couzens (Keeray Woorrong Gunditjmara); Lee Darroch (Yorta Yorta, Mutti Mutti, Boon Wurrung); Mick Harding (Taungwurrung); Val Heap (Yorta Yorta); Nola Kerr (Yorta Yorta, Jaara); Kelly Koumalatsos (Wergaia, Wamba Wamba); Cassie Leatham (Taungurung); Gayle Maddigan (Wamba Wamba, Wertikgia); Teena Moffatt (Yorta Yorta, Gunaikurnai, Gunditjmara); Isobel Morphy-Walsh (Taun Wurrung); Kent Morris (Barkindji); Jenny Murray-Jones (Yorta Yorta); Mandy Nicholson (Wurundjeri, Dja Dja wurrung, Ngurai illum wurrung); Daryl Rose (Gunditjmara); Iluka Sax-Williams (Taungurung, Tibrean); Titta (Diana) Secombe (Jardwadjali, Gunditjmara); Len Tregonning (Gunai/Kurnai); Werrimul Art & Krafts; and Kevin Williams (Wiradjuri). The rich knowledge embodied in these works ranging from cloaks, marngrook, arm bands, headdresses, necklaces, bags, vessels, baby carriers, and various forms of contemporary art and craft, continues to flourish throughout South East Australia. Organic forms of cultural material act as powerful reminders of the natural life cycle of living things – from birth, through life, to death and the inevitable return to Country. Procuring pelts was part of a larger waste-free process of harnessing the resources of Country. Long after the rest of the animal has been utilised, the pelt continues to provide physical warmth and an ongoing physical connection to Country, culture and community. Possum skin cloaks are also an important reminder and marker of time, both materially and in their method of production. Beginning with a small number of pelts at birth, the cloak grows as pelts are added throughout a person’s lifetime, and is decorated with cultural designs and symbols. The various designs and markings made on the cloak, in both pigments and engravings, tell the story of an individual’s life journey, forming a visual biography and link to cultural identity. The cloak often follows its owners’ journey through life, marking key events and milestones, to finally be laid to rest with them when they pass into the Dreaming. One of the key turning points in the revival of the cultural practice took place in 1999, when artists Lee Darroch, Vicki Couzens and Treahna Hamm had the opportunity to view for the first time two cloaks held in the collection of Museum Victoria, the Gunditjmara Lake Condah cloak (c.1872) and the Yorta Yorta cloak from Maiden’s Punt (c.1853). These two highly significant cloaks sparked a series of workshops and projects that led to a major revival of the cultural practice of possum skin cloak making. The process of revitalising cultural practice and the various skills required to make cultural belongings out of pelts, has seen First Peoples Communities throughout South East Australia grow their knowledge and connection to each other, to culture and to Country. This has resulted in the design and production of cultural belongings that embrace new ways of making, based on old ways of knowing. For more information visit: https://koorieheritagetrust.com.au/ Image credit: Iluka Sax-Williams (Taungurung, Tibrean), Kulin Connection, 2020, pokerwork on kangaroo skin, 181 x 89 x 1cm. Collection of Koorie Heritage Trust