In HELEN MUSA’s weekly wrap of all things arts and entertainment around Canberra, she reveals news of a new autumn painting festival.

A new autumn event, the Capital Plein Air Outdoor Painting Festival, co-founded by Natasha Ruschka, Chan Dissanayake and Rosanna Burston, will see 100+ artists from every state converge on the National Arboretum for a pre-festival en plein air (outdoor) paint-out April 21–24 before the festival weekend April 25–27.

The Mill Theatre at Fyshwick is screening 12 productions that have been recorded on film for audiences, opening with Jonathan Biggins’ The Gospel According to Paul, which will be seen on April 18.

The library at the NFSA has a range of collection items currently on display, including costumes worn by Paul Hogan in the Crocodile Dundee film series, the original script for Spring, written as the pilot episode for Skippy and the costume worn by Miranda in Picnic at Hanging Rock.

Concerts

• The National Folk Festival takes over Exhibition Park in Canberra, until April 21.
• ARIA Hall of Fame guitarist, vocalist and songwriter, Ed Kuepper, appears solo in a performance off the back of his new album After the Flood. The Street Theatre, April 17.
• The Australian Youth Orchestra Young Symphonists will perform Look at the Stars, Snow Concert Hall, April 19.
• Cellist and co-founder of the Bowerbird Collective, Anthony Albrecht, returns to Canberra to perform Bach to the Bush: Music for Solo Cello, Wesley Music Centre, April 19.

Galleries

• M16 Artspace, Griffith, has three new exhibitions: Dreamworlds by Isabelle Mackay-Sim & Gemma Brown; The Forest Passage by Alex Flannery; and Pizza Box Studio, Karl Lorenz. Until May 1.
• Sophia Dacy-Cole, a higher degree candidate at the ANU, has an exhibition, Soil Breathes, School of Art & Design Gallery until May 2.
• Canberra couple Susan Taylor and Peter Jones’ art collection is marking its 25th anniversary with an exhibition, Eye to Eye, ANU Drill Hall Gallery, April 19-June 15.
• ANCA Gallery, Dickson, has a new exhibition, Emotional Landscapes II, by three Canberra artists, Margaret Gordon, Manuel Pfeiffer and Alan Pomeroy, April 23-May 1.

Stage

• The Black Blues Brothers is set in a nightclub with a vintage radio playing ‘80s hits from the movie, as the club’s barman and waiters transform into performers who stage show-stopping feats. Canberra Theatre, April 18.
• Cate Clelland is staging Sophocles’ Antigone over Easter for Greek Theatre Now, with Ella Buckley in the title role. Burbidge Amphitheatre, Australian National Botanic Gardens, April 18-21.