As the weather cools, what better way to spend your Wednesday evenings than immersing yourself in the art and culture of faraway places?

The Art Gallery of NSW’s winter program offers visitors a unique global feast, with a fascinating array of rarely seen works: ritualistic body art from the Papua New Guinea (PNG) highlands, handcrafted Japanese costumes and masks, and exquisite photographs of Paris by Max Dupain.

In light of this cultural melange, Art After Hours will be offering a diverse range of perspectives and expressions throughout the month of June. There’ll be something for everyone, no matter what corner of the globe you’d like to be transported to.

For Art After Hours, the entire Gallery will be open until 10pm with a wide array of entertainment, food and drinks on offer. Don’t forget there is a courtesy bus running every 15 minutes throughout the evening, dropping at various city transport hubs.

Program highlights

Each Wednesday, 7.15pm: Combining traditional French gypsy music with swinging originals, this month’s resident musicians Spyglass Gypsies bring back the bygone days of bohemian Paris.

4 June, 6.30pm: Son of celebrated Australian photographer Max Dupain, Rex Dupain will share memories of his father and reminisce about the Paris private series photographs now on display at the Gallery. Rex will be in conversation with actor and director Nell Schofield.

11 June, 6.30pm: Film director and author Bob Connolly joins ABC presenter Margaret Throsby to discuss his Academy Award-nominated The highlands trilogy, a documentary series chronicling the Australian presence in the New Guinea highlands during the 1930s.

18 June, 6.30pm: Internationally acclaimed scientist, conservationist and author Professor Tim Flannery joins us to discuss his adventures conducting scientific research in the New Guinea highlands and to consider the importance of material culture preservation.

25 June, 5.30pm: Delve into Japan’s oldest theatre tradition with a very special guest – our director Dr Michael Brand speaks about his favourite works in the exhibition Theatre of dreams, theatre of play: nō and kyōgen in Japan.

25 June, 6.30pm: Julie Lynch is one of Australia’s leading costume and set designers having worked with many of our most respected directors. Julie joins us to chat about the importance of costume and set design in staging productions and telling stories.

11, 18 and 25 June, 7.15pm: See ground-breaking docos in our latest film series, Papua New Guinea stories. A testament to the creative and sustained engagement of Australia’s most vital documentary filmmakers with the people of PNG.

Full program

4 June

11 June

18 June

25 June

Papua New Guinea stories film program

Art After Hours is supported by Gallery members.