festival
June 17- July 24 2010, MelbourneThe inaugural seven thousand oaks festival will host over 20 artists exploring the issue of sustainability through music, visual art, performance and installation throughout Winter 2010. Come along to one or all of the festival programs and join the conversations of sustainability in the cultural sphere.
Festival program
The festival kicks off on June 17th at Guilford Lane Gallery with Adaptation, the visual art exhibition and the first event within the 6-week festival program. seven thousand oaks has the great pleasure of inviting Guy Abrahams Al Gore Climate Change speaker and director of the Christine Abrahams Gallery, to open the festival.
Next in the 7KO line-up, come out to the Heide Museum of Modern art on Sunday June 20 for the one-day music program, Touch at a Distance.
Every Saturday during the festival the public art program, Arena, will take place on the streets of Melbourne at City Square.
Finally, seven thousand oaks would like to invite you to Plant Out, a tree planting on July 16 - 18. Pack a tent, some warm clothes and hop a free bus to Moyston approximately 230km from Melbourne and join us for a weekend of tree-planting, educational activity and camp-dirt fun.
A free catalogue, including essays from thinkers in the art and sustainability field, will also be available at each of the festival events, so make sure to pick up a copy.
A few words from our Thinker in Residence and sustainability sensei - Ilka Nelson
“A constructive dialogue beneficial to art and to sustainability can take place only when it is accepted that art has, ever since the start of Modernism, increasingly become a form of knowledge. Far from restricting itself to designing surfaces, art is involved in designing values, and increasingly becoming a medium for exploration, cognition and for changing the world.” Hildegard Kurt
Humans need to learn to be humans the way a baby bird learns to fly. Being awake at this time of environmental detonation requires us to evolve beyond polarities and engage the complexity of connection. When we forgo reason for intuition, we begin asking the right questions in place of finding ‘the’ answer. We find the solution is the problem itself.
The inaugural Seven Thousand Oaks Festival is a platform for asking these questions and holding dialogue about the problems of living and working sustainably. The 7KO festival is also a lighthouse for the Australian business, scientific and political community in situating the creativity of culture as a vital remedy to the global challenge before us.
The Artists mind has the elasticity to cross boundaries, bridge languages and evoke change and this is certainly what you will experience during the festival. Enjoy the flight!
seven thousand oaks would like to thank festival staff and volunteers and our partners - Australia Council, The British Council's Big Green Idea, Manningham Council, RMIT, The Australian Business Arts Foundation, The Centre for Sustainability Leadership, Bicycle Victoria and Bindarri.
Big thanks should also go to Guy Abrahams, Karin Neumann, Marcus Godinho, Gilda Gude, Danielle Wilde and Veijo Jokiranta.
Finally and definitely most whole-heartedly thank you everyone for coming.
festival program
The festival catalogue will be available at all festival venues and for free download from opening night onwards.
Bring a friend. Download the festival postcard [PDF 846 KB] and spread the word.
venues
In partnership with Bicycle Victoria, seven thousand oaks have blazed a bike trail between each of the festival venues. (Google map)
Check out Bicycle Victoria's interactive map resource or the City of Melbourne's map.
If you are traveling from the North of the City and heading for City Square then use the great bike routes along Canning Street, Swanston and Georges road/Brunswick street.
If you are heading in to the city from the South then follow the bike routes either straight up St Kilda road which at the weekends are very enjoyable and not too busy or come in via the sea front and West Gate Park and through Port Melbourne.
support the festival
seven thousand oaks festival is pleased to be working with the Australia Business Arts Foundation (AbaF) to enable our supporters to make tax deductible donations.
If you would like to be a donor please complete the donation form [PDF 72KB] and post it directly to AbaF. Or head to the AbaF website for online donations. AbaF will provide you with a receipt and take your preference into consideration when allocating grants.
Volunteer with 7KO
If you would like to volunteer at the festival, download the volunteer application [WRD 94KB] and get in touch. We'd love to have you on board!
