SmARTarts gets clever in Chippendale

It’s a good time to be young. Sydney’s annual youth arts and cultural festival, SmARTarts is set to light up Pine St and its surrounding areas, bringing Sydney’s best youth art, music, performers, markets and workshops to the heart of the city.

Showcasing the creative talent of young people aged 16-26-years-old, the 2009 festival will feature live music on two stages, roving street performers, and live art demonstrations. Pine Street Gallery will be bursting with the latest work, hand-picked for the festival’s exhibition, as well as the designART market, which will be selling hand-made craft.

Located in Chippendale, Pine Street Creative Arts Center is the natural home for the festival. Alongside a permanent program of creative workshops for all ages, Pine Street lends its affordable gallery space to a range of organisations,  in line with its goal of supporting creativity in the local community. In the past, Pine Street has supported Chinese New Year festivities and staged the Art & About event in Hyde Park, to great success.

The SmARTarts festival, part of National Youth Week, kicks off this week with the diverse Youth Art Exhibition, and is followed up by an exciting program packed with dance performances, open mic sessions, art and workshops, as well as interactive installations and artist demonstrations.

Festival attendees will be able to get involved with the giant cardboard box mural in Peace Park, purchase and exchange zines, learn to make and bake jewelery, and experience spontaneous rhyming action with a workshop on freestyle rapping.

This is an event worth attending.

25 March – 18 April, main festival day 4 April 12:30-6:30pm. Pine Street Creative Arts Centre & the surrounds of Peace Park, & Beaumont Plaza, Chippendale. Free. 9245 1503, www.pinestreet.com.au/smartarts