News & Events 12 January 2011
2011 Italian Arts Residency
From spaghetti western to chamber opera - the Alcorso Foundation 2011 Italian Arts Residency has been awarded to Tasmanian singer, actress and auteur, Helen Noonan.
Ms Noonan will travel to Italy in 2011 to research and create new works in both English and Italian for musical theatre/chamber opera.
The $12 000 award is presented in conjunction with Arts Tasmania and aims to promote artistic and professional development for Tasmanian based artists practicing across all art forms.
Alcorso Foundation chair, Professor Kate Warner, said the award was particularly significant this year, with the Alcorso Foundation celebrating its 10th anniversary.
"This award provides Tasmanian artists with a unique opportunity to broaden their skills through an intense and hopefully inspirational international exchange.
"In doing so they also inevitably have an ambassadorial role that promotes Tasmania's rich and diverse culture as well as our unique arts, craft and design.
"Helen Noonan is the recipient of many fellowships and awards including the Churchill Fellowship in 2003 and Australia Council grant in 2004.
"The Alcorso Foundation 2011 Italian Arts Residency will take Helen back to Italy where she will begin work on a contemporary theatrical presentation of the life and art of Barbara Strozzi and a new comic opera based on one of the performance works of Dario Fo and Franca Rame."
An accomplished and nationally renowned performer, Helen is known for works such as She Had Immortal Belongings (2010), Voicing Emily (2007), and Recital," Professor Warner said.
Previous recipients include poet and novelist, Anthony Lawrence, musician, William Lane, printmaker, Nic Goodwolf, furniture designer, Richard Skinner, dancer, Trish Dunn, painter, Jonathan Kimberley, and last year's recipient, musician, Julien Poulson.
Julien has recently returned from Italy where he was working on an epic tale set in Van Dieman's Land.
The new work, Muskito, is a fictitious adaptation of Tasmania's early and complex Aboriginal and Colonial histories and features the bushranger, Michael Howe.
Julien Poulson and Helen Noonan will give a brief performance of their work at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery at 5pm tonight.
For more information please contact:
Denise Robinson, Alcorso Foundation, 0447 125 541