May, 2009

CultureHunter.org - a website dedicated to arts and culture in the Hunter Valley region of NSW, Australia. More than a what's on guide, the site is a place for artists and arts organisations to network and promote themselves through our Directory and also post news and events. The site is constantly being updated - we are currently working on our 'Hunter Region' section - where you can find information that is specific to each of the eleven local government areas in the Hunter region.

In 2010 we will be developing the social networking features of the site, working closely with Hunter councils, encouraging young people to use the site, focussing on promoting emerging artists, community cultural development projects and venues. 

Membership is FREE - so go to culturehunter.org and join today and starting promoting your events! 

FOR THE LATEST CULTUREHUNTER NEWS, CHECK OUT THE OCTAPOD HOMEPAGE.

It’s the five days of the year where you get to share your ideas, passions and saliva with like-minded crew from all over Australia.

A place for media makers to play and call their own! Offering low-cost media production facilities and independent self-publishing resources.

Octapod launched its new Community Media Space in mid September 2008 with a digital storytelling project in partnership with TAFE Outreach. Course participants learnt interviewing and video production techniques, and acted as Octapod's media team at the This Is Not Art Festival in early October. Go to www.culturehunter.org to see the short digital story produced about the festival - an interesting insight, highlighting the diversity of events and interviews with key festival directors and festival goers.

FOR THE LATEST COMMUNITY MEDIA SPACE NEWS, CHECK OUT THE OCTAPOD HOMEPAGE.

REGULAR WEEKLY EVENT: FILMMAKERS COLLECTIVE: Meets Wednesdays 1-5pm at Octapod. Bring your own project idea and receive one-on-one advice and mentoring from our trainer. Learn from other group members. Use Octapod's Media Space facilities for FREE on a Wednesday (if you want to use them on other days, you need to be an Octapod member). Group is free to join. Just show up!

The Cultural STOMP Festival is Newcastle's annual celebration of community, cultural diversity, the environment and social justice.

STOMP began in 1997 as a peaceful protest alternative in response to the launch of the One Nation political party in the Hunter Region. Throughout the years the festival has gone from strength to strength to become Newcastle’s premier community cultural event, celebrating unity and multicultural and social justice perspectives and the arts.

STOMP provides a unique opportunity for all members of the community to share their culture, their message and their creative voice. It is an open invitation to a collaboration between artists and all communities to participate in a celebration of the city and to create a unique and sustainable social environment for the future.

The Festival's key activities are: Market, Food and Info Stalls, Wellness Zone, Music, Visual and Performing Arts, Forums and Creative Workshops.

PODspace Gallery is a non-profit gallery run on a voluntary basis by a group of emerging artists and curators, with the support of the Octapod Association.

The objective of the gallery is to foster a dynamic and creative exhibition space for artists at low cost and in a supportive and stimulating environment. PODspace Gallery presents over 16 exhibitions each year showing work in a variety of media. It is an ideal space to present group, solo or curated exhibitions, installation, experimental or performance works.

For further information contact PODspace Gallery: podspacegallery@yahoo.com.au Michael Randall: 0411 668 471 Alison Smith: 0438 658 155

FOR THE LATEST PODSPACE GALLERY NEWS, CHECK OUT THE OCTAPOD HOMEPAGE.

Octapod has a collection of over 2000 zines - apparently the largest collection of its kind in Australia. The zine library started with a call-out for zines as part of the This is Not Art festival in 1998, when the New Pollution anthology was created. Since then the library's growth has been organic and sporadic.