If you’re travelling north to Brisbane or heading north west towards Armidale, it’s well worth noting two fabulous exhibitions which are presently on show at the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) in Brisbane and at the New England Regional Art Museum in Armidale.

First stop on Arts Thursday is Armidale, to view an exhibition based on the life and relationships of artist Margaret Coen.

Coen, who died in 1993, was a talented artist, a notable feat in the 1930s in Australia. She is best known for her watercolours of still lifes and landscapes. The artist was married to the poet Douglas Stewart and was part of a circle of artists in the 1930s, which included Thea Proctor, Arthur Murch, Rah Fizelle and the Lindsays, in particular Norman Lindsay, to whom she became close and who encouraged her in her work.

Much of this is revealed in the exhibition Coen’s Circle at the New England Regional Art Museum (or NERAM) in Armidale, in an exhibition curated by Phillipa Charley-Briggs and including many works donated to the Gallery by the artist’s daughter Meg Stewart. The exhibition is both a retrospective of Coen’s own work and an evocation of the artistic life of Sydney in the ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s through memorabilia, costumes and other material from the family collection.

Margaret Coen’s daughter Meg Stewart joined Maisy Stapleton in the studio last week to talk about her mother, the exhibition Coen’s Circle and about her own life.

For further information go to: https://www.neram.com.au/

In Brisbane, until 10 April, The 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art is filling almost the entire Queensland Art Gallery and the whole of the adjacent Gallery of Modern Art. Renowned as the world’s only major recurring exhibition of contemporary art from Australia, Asia and the Pacific, the APT has been opening our eyes to the diversity, traditions, visions and issues of our region, explored through the eyes of its artists, since 1993.

Equally renowned at QAGOMA are the special public programs, particularly those for children, which are devised and developed by artists in the APT and are aimed at encouraging children and their families to explore contemporary art and ideas. Join Tamsin Cull, Head of Public Engagement, in conversation with Maisy Stapleton, to discover more about the APT public programs, especially KIDS APT and the Gallery’s philosophy of public engagement through immersive activity.

For further information go to: https://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/

Then at the end of the program, it’s back to Sydney and live in the studio, where I’ll be speaking to members of the Sydney Chamber Choir which is being led by Richard Gill, the renowned musical educator and conductor, and presenting Carmina Burana, originally fulsome poems about life and living, from a manuscript dating from the 11^th to the 13^th century, then set to music by Carl Orff in 1936. Along with Machaut’s Messe de Notre Dame, more spiritually inspired works, they will be presented on Saturday 19^th March.