Adelaide Festival Centre Hosts SPIRIT OF THE '70s Exhibitions, Now thru June 2

Adelaide Festival Centre will present two exhibitions as part of the Festival Theatre's 40th anniversary celebrations.

Signifying Change will highlight works by a group of artists whose contributions continue to have a resounding influence on art-making today, while The Dunstan Decade will celebrate the legacy of former Premier and advocate for the arts, Don Dunstan.

The opening of the Adelaide Festival Centre in 1973 heralded a grand achievement for South Australians, a culmination of the vision and perseverance of Adelaide's leading figures. It was a time of heady inspiration, but also a time of recognition and substantial community support for the arts in South Australia.

Signifying Change celebrates the adventurous artists, who not only changed the face of contemporary art in the 1970s, but also whose works were commissioned or acquired for the Adelaide Festival Centre's Works of Art Collection. These artists include Bert Flugelman, Stanislaus Ostoja Kotkowski, Rod Dudley, Indigenous artist Trevor Nickolls, and social observer Robert Boynes. Works displayed will include Flugelman's 1970s drawings, Earth Works (documentary photographs of the buried tetrahedrons), Ostoja Kotkowski's remarkable pop-art collage work Vibra 2 and video footage of his astonishing and innovating forays into laser light displays for theatrical productions, made long before projections for stage productions became commonplace.

The Dunstan Decade is a tribute to Don Dunstan, the man credited with revitalising South Australia's artistic and cultural life. During his time as Premier, Dunstan moved swiftly to put Adelaide on the arts map. He established the South Australian Film Corporation in 1972; the Adelaide Festival Theatre opened in June 1973 as the first stage in the development of the Adelaide Festival Centre, followed by The Playhouse in 1974 as a home for the State Theatre Company. In 1976 under his leadership, the New Opera Company became the State Opera of South Australia, with a new professional standing in the community, and he created the Performing Arts Collection to document South Australia's theatre history in 1979.

The exhibition is a tribute to his legacy, and will contain items that relate to the beginnings of these artistic and cultural institutions, including the original ushers' uniforms, tickets from the opening night of the Festival Theatre, and much more. There will also be a special display on the Piano Bar wall that will highlight other significant events in South Australia from this illustrious decade.

Adelaide Festival Centre's CEO and Artistic Director Douglas Gautier says, "This was a 'can-do' decade with lots of energy and change. The audacity and confidence displayed in the bipartisanship efforts to build and open the Festival Centre in 1973 are admirable and a reminder of the power and magic of bold vision and action."

The opening night for this exhibition will be held on Wednesday 17 April at 6pm in the Festival Theatre Foyer. The exhibition will be officially opened by The Honourable Chloe Fox MP with an artist talk by Robert Boynes, followed by a panel discussion "Will The Next Don Dunstan Please Stand Up" featuring panellists Greg Mackie OAM, Anthony Steel AM and Christie Anthoney.

These exhibitions are part of the anniversary celebrations taking place at Adelaide Festival Centre in 2013 - for the full list of events, visit http://www.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/whats-on/anniversary-events.aspx.

Spirit of the '70s: Signifying Change and The Dunstan Decade will be on view 13 April - 2 June 2013 in the Festival Theatre Foyer and showcases, Monday - Friday 9am - 6pm and during performance times. Free. For further information visit: www.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au. Get social with us on Twitter @AdelaideFesCent or Facebook facebook.com/FestivalCentre.

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