With the holiday season behind us, Arts Thursday 4 February focuses on the year ahead – in particular what you might want to see in the performing arts in 2016.

Deborah Jones joins Maisy Stapleton to give us her tips for the performances this year in opera, dance, musical theatre and theatre – but not before we reflect on the year gone by.

Deborah Jones is a renowned arts journalist, she was arts editor of The Australian newspaper for 10 years and most recently edited the Review section of The Australian. She is now a freelance writer and editor, specialising in dance, musical theatre, theatre and opera.

She continues to review dance and musical theatre for The Australian, is a member of the Sydney Theatre Awards panel and reviews opera performances in Sydney for the London-based Opera magazine.

Deborah sees over 200 productions annually and writes about these in a regular blog. For Arts Thursday, Deborah shares an overview of performances she has seen in 2015 and gives great insight into some current issues and trends in performance.

What’s her hot tip for 2016? What can’t you possibly miss?

You’ll just have to tune in this Arts Thursday from 10:30 on Eastside 89.7 to find out.

You can also sign up for Deb’s blog @ https://deborahjones.me to get regular reviews and news of the shows she sees.

Sydney Art Month is now in its 7^th iteration, and returns from 1 – 20 March this year, celebrating and exploring the multiple dimensions of the visual arts in Sydney through over 100 walks, talks, events, exhibitions and events.

Barry Keldoulis is the new creative Director of Art Month, following his latest roles as Director of Sydney Contemporary and the most recent Melbourne Art Fair.

Barry kicks off this Arts Thursday with his insight into the visual arts world in Sydney and some revelations of the Art Month program.

For further information on Sydney Art Month go to: https://www.artmonthsydney.com.au/

But don’t worry if you miss the program!

If you miss the program you can listen again by going to https://eastsidefm.org/arts/artsthursday/ and clicking on the date 4 February 2016.

Tune into Arts Thursday with Maisy Stapleton every fortnight from 10:30 to noon.