Darwin Day 2

Had a walk around the city again. The camera has finally arrived, so we’re back in the land of snappy happy tourists. Finally made it to the Aboriginal Art Exhibition at the Exhibition Centre. I have to say that Darwin’s Exhibition Centre is 10 times better than our shocker in Perth!

MiMi Gallery (Jayne's baby)

We tried to buy a mermaid on the wall, but they'd been sold. They have amazing hand made crafts - located north of Kakadu. Just beautiful quality handicrafts.

We were incredibly impressed at the quality of art work, and textiles offered by all the communities in NT, and WA on offer. What a great concept. Enabling Aboriginal, TI and Tiwi organisations to showcase their work to tourists and locals alike without having to split their commissions with the galleries. The presentation was fabulous, and the quality of the works just amazing! We ended up purchasing our first traditional Aboriginal art work. The stalls shut early to enable everyone to get back to get ready for the big awards that night.

Located in the stunning grounds of the Museum and Art Gallery of NT (MAGNT), the 25th Telstra Art Awards was a big deal in town. The who’s who of NT art, as well as the patron, Mr Myer’s, was there to welcome and make speeches. With a first prize of $40,000 and prizes for other categories such as bark painting, paper medium and other, there was stiff competition. There were over 1000 applications for the awards, and the 120 or so works displayed occupied two half floors of the Gallery! It was a really impressive line up of talent and work. Most were for sale from $250 - $120,000!

We were entertained by fabulous dancers, a stunning sunset, followed by the announcement of the winners and then we were invited to view the accepted entries. Given they could only 300 people at a time, there was quite a que to gain entry by the time we got there.

What a fabulous night!

Afterwards we walked back to the car to find the Darwin Festival well underway. We visited the venue and had a late nite snack from the lovely eateries setup for the event...