If you’re anything like me and always on the hunt for fun things to do on weeknights that don’t involve drinking in noisy pubs alongside sweaty suits, you’ll love “Art After Hours” at Sydney’s Art Gallery of NSW on Wednesday nights.

Art After Hours is one of my favourite things about working in the city of Sydney. It’s a nice stroll through Hyde Park after work and a lovely chilled way to spend an evening. The gallery is open until 10pm every Wednesday and you can wander around the collections free of charge, which include a bunch of Aussie and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, photography and contemporary art. You can also buy tickets to the temporary exhibitions that are on in the gallery, like the popular Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes and the current Pop to Popism exhibition which is on until 1 March 2015.

Then grab a drink and catch live music from the resident musicians who change each month. In past months we’ve seen the multi-talented musician Miriam Lieberman’s beautiful tunes from her new album – she accompanies her powerful vocals with the kora (21-stringed African harp) and acoustic guitar. Also the band Jazz Nouveau, consisting of Sandro Bueno from Brazil on percussion, Joseph Calderazzo on guitar and jazz soul singer Evelyn Duprai on vocals.

January 2015 has been all about POP. The Wednesday evening sessions include a guided tour of the current Pop to Popism exhibition, talks by experts and artists on pop art in Australia, pop cinema screenings (including Basquiat, one of my all-time faves – lookout for David Bowie’s hilarious cameo as Warhol) and live bands playing pop covers.

For more information and the current schedule, click here.

MEET THE LOCAL: LAC-VIET

Image. Photo by Ryan Santamaria.

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