Explore the National Gallery after dark during Enlighten
Key information
MEDIA RELEASE
12 FEB 2024
'Part of making things equal in this country is a greater acknowledgement and recognition of Aboriginal excellence past and present – our heroes, leaders, visionaries and trailblazers.'
The National Gallery is excited to announce extended opening hours and live music during the Enlighten 2024 Festival.
From 1 to 11 March, the Gallery will remain open until 9pm, providing an opportunity for visitors to explore our diverse collection and exhibitions, including Vincent Namatjira: Australia in colour and Emily Kam Kngwarray with a special offer of two for one tickets.
In addition to the extended hours, the Gallery will present live music, kids and family activities and food every Friday and Saturday night during the 2024 Enlighten Festival. The live music lineup includes performances by Thelma Plum, Jem Cassar-Daley, Dan Sultan and Briggs.
National Gallery Deputy Director Adam Lindsay said visitors can kick start their evenings at the Gallery before heading out to experience the incredible Enlighten illuminations including the Vincent Namatjira: Indigenous All Stars projection on the Gallery façade from 8pm every night.
‘First Nations artist Vincent Namatjira, Western Aranda people, is a celebrated portraitist and a satirical chronicler of Australian history and identity,’ Lindsay said.
‘To celebrate the launch of survey exhibition Vincent Namatjira: Australia in colour, the National Gallery has commissioned a new projection and sound-based work by Namatjira to illuminate the building’s exterior for the 2024 Enlighten Festival – titled Indigenous All Stars.’
Indigenous All Stars highlights Namatjira’s Indigenous heroes, including great historical and political leaders Eddie Koiki Mabo, Vincent Lingiari and Albert Namatjira, sporting stars Adam Goodes, Cathy Freeman and Nicky Winmar, and the Tjilpi (senior men/elders) from Namatjira’s home on the APY Lands of South Australia.
Namatjira said, ‘Part of making things equal in this country is a greater acknowledgement and recognition of Aboriginal excellence past and present – our heroes, leaders, visionaries and trailblazers.’
The projection is accompanied by an original score created by Vincent Namatjira in collaboration with Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara guitarist-composer Jeremy Whiskey, also from Indulkana.
NATIONAL GALLERY UP LATE
The National Gallery will be open until 9pm throughout the 2024 Enlighten Festival (1 to 11 March).
Entry is free.
Each night, wander our galleries and see the latest exhibitions including Emily Kam Kngwarray, a major retrospective of one of Australia’s most celebrated artists, and Vincent Namatjira: Australia in colour, the first survey exhibition of acclaimed Western Aranda artist Vincent Namatjira.
Kids can get creative in an Art Together activity with Anangu artist Elizabeth Close, at the Emily Kam Kngwarray Art Cart, and in our Vincent Namatjira All Stars Studio, where visitors can create a trading card of their own hero.
National Gallery carparking will be free from 5pm. The P1 carpark (Parkes Place East) and P2 carpark (off Bowen Place) will be open.
The Gallery’s live music program will be held each Friday and Saturday evening during Enlighten. The lineup includes acclaimed musicians and performers and local support acts. Performances from 5.30-8pm. Presented by the National Gallery in association with Canberra Theatre Centre.
Friday 1 March | Thelma Plum
Saturday 2 March | Jem Cassar-Daley
Friday 8 March | Dan Sultan
Saturday 9 March | Briggs
Support acts to be announced.
VINCENT NAMATJIRA: INDIGENOUS ALL STARS
The Gallery’s Enlighten commission, Vincent Namatjira: Indigenous All Stars, will be on display from 1 to 11 March, from 8-11pm.
ABOUT VINCENT NAMATJIRA
A painter from Indulkana in South Australia, Vincent Namatjira has established himself as a subversive and witty portraitist. Since 2013, he has been painting portraits of important figures, both personally familiar and famously political. Bold, painterly and conceptually rich, Namatjira’s work has gained significant recognition in Australia and abroad. He was the winner of the 2019 Ramsay Art Prize, the first Indigenous artist to win the Archibald Prize in 2020 and in the same year was recipient of the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in honour of his contribution to Indigenous visual arts.
ENLIGHTEN 2024
Enlighten is an annual celebration that transforms the nation’s capital into a mesmerising canvas of lights, colour and creativity. From 1 to 11 March, the festival will take over the city with spectacular architectural projections illuminating some of Canberra’s iconic buildings and a packed program of events. Visit enlightencanberra.com.au.
UP LATE LIVE MUSIC
Thelma Plum
Thelma Plum | Friday 1 March
Thelma Plum is a Gamilaraay woman, musician and creator. She grew up in Brisbane and spent many of her childhood years on her Grandparents’ farm in Delungra, a small country town in rural New South Wales. She has been making music her whole life and has told one chapter with her debut album Better in Blak a story about culture, heritage, love, and pain. With incredible strength, courage and heartbreaking tenderness, her debut album captures so deftly what it’s like to be a young Aboriginal woman in Australia. The album became one of the most successful albums of 2019, nominated for 7 Arias and spawning 3 Platinum and one Gold singles
Jem Cassar-Daley
Jem Cassar-Daley | Saturday 2 March
Jem is a proud Gumbaynggirr/Bundjalung woman who comes from a long line of storytellers. This young talent has come into her own as a contemporary artist, with a world class sound that is a unique combination drawing from favourites like Missy Higgins, Phoebe Bridgers, Angus and Julia Stone, and Carole King. As imagined, the result is a gorgeously diverse soundscape of soul, indie, pop grooves. The talents of indie-pop artist Jem Cassar-Daley have dazzled the Australian music scene since her debut in 2021.
Dan Sultan, Photo: Clint Peloso
Dan Sultan | Friday 8 March
Dan Sultan is one of Australia’s most loved singer-songwriters boasting numerous accolades to his name, including 7 ARIA Awards, NIMA Awards, Top 5 ARIA-charting albums, and an ARIA-certified gold record. His 2023 self-titled album DAN SULTAN won the ARIA for 'Best Adult Contemporary Album' and was also nominated for 'Best Solo Artist' and 'Best Independent Release'. Sultan has toured countless times playing headline shows to sold-out crowds, as well as supporting the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Midnight Oil, Vance Joy and billed on some of Australia’s biggest festivals, including Splendour in the Grass, Blues Festival and Falls Festival, to name a few.
Briggs
Briggs | Saturday 9 March
Briggs has affirmed himself as one of the country’s most talented all-rounders in both music, TV and now publishing. Born and raised in the floodplains of Victoria’s North-East rivers, in less than a decade Briggs has taken his hometown of Shepparton to the world - starting with a hip hop career that has seen him tour alongside the likes KRS-ONE, Ice T, 50 Cent, Hilltop Hoods and Paul Kelly. It soon became clear his penmanship also translated to the screen. This second wind as a TV writer had him script and star in the likes of Black Comedy, The Other Guy, Cleverman, and Charlie Pickering’s The Weekly. From his break-out rap album ‘Homemade Bombs’ in 2009, Briggs almost instantly joined the vast number of his Yorta Yorta countrymen and women to have infiltrated the mainstream Australian psyche.
IMAGES
available here
MEDIA ENQUIRIES
E media@nga.gov.au
CAPTION: Vincent Namatjira, Western Aranda people, Australia in Colour (detail) 2021, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, purchased in celebration of the National Gallery of Australia’s 40th anniversary 2022 © Vincent Namatjira/Copyright Agency
Related
Vincent Namatjira
Australia in colour
2 Mar – 21 Jul 2024
Published 25 January 2024
Indigenous All Stars
Enlighten 2024
1 – 11 Mar 2024
Daily, 8 – 11pm
Free
