Expressions of Interest are now closed for the CITYLIFE Platform 

Responses were due by 4pm Monday 2nd May 2022

City of Darwin are offering two 6-month Exhibition opportunities for independent curators, collectives or organisations

THE OPPORTUNITY
City of Darwin invites EOIs from artists, curators, designers, creative producers, arts collectives, groups or organisations to light up the city as part of the CITYLIFE Platform program. The CITYLIFE platform is an expression of interest program that works with creatives as curators to deliver exhibitions every 6 months. We are calling for EOIs for the next two 6-month exhibitions between 2022 – 2023 across our multiple Lightbox sites.

City of Darwin will allocate up to $9000 for each Exhibition to the successful applicant

Apply by downloading the fillable EOI form here and return by email to arts@darwin.nt.gov.au by Monday 2 May 2022. 

Our strategic approach to the commissioning and delivery of contemporary public art recognises the need to build local capacity and skills, provide opportunities for local artists, foster diversity in content and support a model that encourages community conversations around the role of art in the public realm.

Introducing CITYLIFE Platform

Darwin is lighting up the city with its pilot program CITYLIFE Platform.
This artistic program is being trialed over three years with the intention of transforming selected outdoor public spaces into public galleries. CITYLIFE Platform showcases local artists, encourages community dialogue around topical themes and, activates our public spaces through the installation of an alternating aesthetic element.

Eight purpose built lightboxes will host temporary exhibitions that will change every six months.

The lightboxes are located in three sites across Darwin:

• The Mall in the city centre hosts two double-sided lightboxes at each end
• Dragonfly Carpark hosts three single-sided lightboxes (Chinatown)
• Nightcliff Pool hosts three single-sided lightboxes

Current exhibition: Night and Day

Exhibitions dates: March - August 2022

Exhibitions sites: Lightboxes located across Nightcliff Pool, Smith Street Mall and The Dragon Fly Carpark (China Town).

Night and Day showcases a fresh range of bright works from Charles Darwin University’s (CDU) Creative and Digital Arts students. Sarah Pirrie, our partnering exhibition curator, and CDU Creative and Digital Arts Coordinator has skilfully selected a collection of pieces that respond to the theme Night and Day from the artistic cohort of current digital media students. “Just like the lightboxes which illuminate both day and night our CDU Creatives have considered the thematic of Night and Day through engagement with site; storytelling and placemaking are attuned to personal histories and encounters with Darwin’s living environment”

See CDU’s online digital arts space for more exciting work by students, professional artists and Territory based collaborators across the art form here:

https://www.digitalartsnt.space/

The artists presented in the exhibition are:

Shannan Hayes

Nikita Kafetzis

Aaron Othman

Rafael Lontoc

Thuy Truong

Isabelle Henderson

Jemma Petch

This exhibition series showcases the talent of CDU Creative and Digital arts students in partnership with the City of Darwin. If you’d like to find out more, please contact:

Sarah Pirrie
Coordinator Creative and Digital Arts

Lecturer in Visual Arts
 
College of Indigenous Futures, Education, and the Arts 
T: +61 8 8946 6098
E: sarah.pirrie@cdu.edu.au
W: https://cdu.edu.au
 

Home Turf: Adventures in Art

Exhibitions dates: 18 April - October 2021

Exhibitions sites: 8 lightboxes located across Nightcliff Pool, Smith Street Carpark, and The China town carpark.

The exhibition, celebrating young Darwin artists, is centred around Youth Week 2021. In collaboration with LAUNCH, Council’s Youth Advisory Committee and exhibition curator, Kezia Dilettoso, who is a young emerging arts worker and current. student at Charles Darwin University.

Ten artworks were selected from a very competitive pool of applicants aged between 12 and 25, and the title of Home Turf: Adventures in Art was chosen by Kezia to reflect the spirit of the artworks chosen.

Nine young artists are presented at the exhibition:

Tisha Tejaya Che Hughson

 

The exhibition showcases the artistic talent Darwin's young people have to offer.  

• Kaleb Tester (only 12 years old)
• Ifa Shiddiq
• Chlarisse Bala
• Merlin Martin
• Colby Thomas
• Isabella Henderson
• Eren Fraser

 

Climate Change - 2020

Exhibition dates: Friday  3 April to Friday 4 September  2020

Exhibition sites: 10 lightboxes located across Nightcliff Pool, Chinatown Carpark, and The Mall.

The 2020 exhibition installed within the Citylife Platform has been curated by Darwin Visual Arts Association (DVAA), featuring selected works from their first members exhibition of 2020, Climate. 
DVAA is an artist-run space committed to the advancement of contemporary art that is relevant in the local, national and international context. Its goals are focused on effectively supporting the development of Territory artists through creating comprehensive hands-on opportunities, particularly in terms of curatorial refinement and professional presentation.
DVAA artists have responded to this theme through a mixture of painting, mixed media, ink on paper, printmaking, recycled sculpture and digital print. The featured artists include Alicia Scobie, Anne-marie Cullinan, Alison Worsnop, Fernanda Dupal, David Dalzell, Ella Barrett and Kate Bussey. 

Interim DVAA manager Britt Guy provides the following curatorial rationale: “Climate Change is on the tip of everyone’s tongue from politicians, farmers to climate scientists and young people. Opinions differ but everyone has one. The City of Darwin has declared a climate emergency, and this is a fantastic opportunity for the community to reflect on social, political and environmental elements of this international phenomena.”

Many thanks to Shauna Upton (DVAA Manager), the crew from Sign City Darwin and all participating artists.