Art & About Sydney Reveals 2014 Program

Sydney's premier celebration of all things creative, the Art & About festival, is returning for another year, and it's going all out to make 2014 an event to remember.

Running from September 19 to October 12, the diverse display of works from local and international artists is designed to imbue the city's citizens with surprise and delight as they traverse the many featured installations of the festival's 13th iteration.

“This program of artworks and performances provides great insights and reflections on our rapidly changing society,” Lord Mayor Clover Moore said of the event. “I invite everyone to come and enjoy the wonderful things on offer.”

Those “wonderful things” are plentiful indeed, including such drawcards as the city's revival of the Quarter-acre Block Party, which will see Martin Place transformed into Sydney's “happiest backyard party” for one night only, featuring entertainment, food and beverages, barbecues, Hills hoists, back fences, lawn cricket, garage bands, garden furniture, vinyl recordings… a slice of vintage Australiana in the middle of the modern city.

In addition, the Sydney Life photo competition and exhibition is opening up for the first time to entrants from around the country, flying under the Australian Life banner this year and exhibiting large-scale images of Aussie life in Hyde Park, with the competition winner taking home a neat $10,000 for their troubles.

Youth equivalent Little Sydney Lives returns in classic form, exhibiting pics from aspiring snappers among Sandringham Gardens. A third photo competition – a $5000 Instagram contest called #australianlife – will also be held this year. The Art & About website has all the requisite details and entry forms.

That's not all – Milk Bar sees the return of a “fading icon” as vintage facades are emblazoned on city banners for the duration of the festival; Neon Nomads puts ten three-metre-high tepees in Hyde Park, which will illuminate work from internationally renowned graphic artists such as Wendy Red Star, Phil James and Brett Chan; and Us invites strangers to come together for old-style group photos in an outdoor studio set-up outside the Queen Victoria Building.

Kids play city tour guide through Kings Cross and Redfern in The Walking Neighbourhood; Bodies In Urban Spaces sees Austrian artist Willi Dorner cramming way too many human bodies into … well… urban spaces; the part-dance, part-ballet, part-outdoor spectacle of Trolleys is sure to hypnotise for its 20 minutes of high-energy theatrics courtesy of Shaun Parker & Company; and Armchair Apocalypse will bring three new lounge-room theatre shows – written and performed by the city's rising theatric talent – into Sydneysiders' dwellings.

“This year, Art & About Sydney explores the endangered – the 'at risk', the threatened, the exposed and the risky from all perspectives,” Art & About Sydney creative director Gill Minervini said in a statement.

“Art & About 2014 will bring hope to the endangered – through artists' ability to recognise, express and act and our opportunity to immerse, engage and participate – in spaces that belong to us all.”

Art & About Sydney 2014 kicks off on September 19.

See the Art & About website for more information.