PODCAST · arts
SmartArts
by RRR - Triple R
Visual art, theatre, film and literature. Segments include:- 'Art Attack' - fortnightly visual arts reviews with Ace Wagstaff and Tai Snaith.- 'Shoot the Messenger' - fortnightly theatre news & reviews with Fleur Kilpatrick.- 'Drawn Out' - monthly chat about comic books and graphic novels with Bernard Caleo.Please email [email protected] for all interview requests.About the PresenterRichard Watts has many years experience working in the arts industry, including five years as the Artistic Director of the youth arts organisation Express Media, seven years on the Board of Melbourne Fringe (including three years as Chair), and six years on the Committee of Management at La Mama Theatre, where he currently serves as Chair. Richard has helped program a range of festivals including Next Wave, the National Young Writers' Festival, the Melbourne Queer Film Festival and the Emerging Writers' Festival (which he founded) and he has written for various broadsheets, journals, zines and magazi
Episodes
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That's A Wrap!
Although the podcast format of SmartArts has now wrapped, this show continues to be broadcast on Triple R. You can now listen to new episodes on Triple R’s FM On Demand service at rrr.org.au/explore/programs/smartarts. Thanks for listening!
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Smart Arts 20th Anniversary Special
SmartArts takes over the Triple R Performance Space for a very special broadcast to celebrate the show's 20th anniversary! Richard Watts OAM first brought Triple R's flagship morning arts program to life in December 2004, hosting hundreds of conversations every year with local artists…
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Marina Prior on Follies, Midsumma Festival 2025, Red Stitch 2025, TarraWarra's Intimate Imaginaries & ACCA’s new CEO and Artistic Director Myles Russell Cook
Join Richard Watts for his penultimate episode before he closes out 2024 with his 20th anniversary next week! Details for the live event happening on Thursday 19th can be found here: https://www.rrr.org.au/events/smartarts-20th-anniversary-special Whether you’re a Midsumma Festival veteran or...
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Stuart Braithwaite, Women's Circus annual showcase, art & music therapy and the NDIS, My Brilliant Career, Skating in the Clouds
Malia Walsh, the guest director of Women’s Circus annual Member Cabaret, tells us all about the end of year showcase, Braver than a Bear. Music therapist Paul Byrnes joins discusses the federal government’s decision to remove Music Therapy as a recognized therapeutic support under the NDIS;...
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ANAM's Sounds of Australia, La Mama & St Martins Youth Theatre fundraising, Adelaide Festival 2025 & PIECES
Tai Snaith is back with Art Attack! She checked out the latest exhibition at the new Ordinance Gallery, Cardboards by Darcey Bella Arnold. The Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) Head of Percussion Peter Neville stops by to tell Richard about their festival, Sounds of Australia. It runs...
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Final days of MQFF, Parched, Waves and Bubbles, Big Music, and a Dancehouse double feature
With MQFF closing on Sunday November 24th, filmmaker Alice Maio Mackay and actor Connor Pullinger join Richard to talk about the last few days of the festival. Alice’s film Carnage for Christmas screens on Sunday 24th (last day of MQFF) at 3.15pm at Cinema Nova. Connor’s film Bulldog is a…
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Asia Topa, Geelong Gallery, Benjamin Rivers, Glen Downey and Close Company
Jeff Khan previews the 2025 Asia Topa program, Katarina Paseta discusses two Geelong Gallery exhibitions (the Noel Counihan retrospective A People’s Press which is on display until March 10th 2025 and Social Studies which is on display until February 9th), actor/psychotherapist/applied theatre...
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The Poltergeist at La Mama, Gertrude Studios' 2024 exhibition, The Tina Turner Musical, Perth Festival 2025 & Your Name Means Dream at Red Stitch
Richard speaks to actor Tamblyn Lord on the Australian premiere of Philip Ridley's play The Poltergeist, at La Mama Theatre. Gertrude Studios curator, Dr Amelia Winata, introduces the 2024 exhibition. Giovanni Adams joins Richard in studio to discuss his role as Ike Turner in Tina, The Tina…
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MQFF, Dominic Kavanagh, Rhinoceros & Sydney Festival 2025
Buckle in for another ride of the SmartArts-coaster! Richard Watts OAM, is here to guide you through all the twists, turns and thrills of this weeks episode… Kicking off with a Melbourne Queer Film Festival (MQFF) program overview with program director Cerise Howard and CEO David Martin Harris....
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An Evening with Stephen Fry! Irish Film Festival, Adam Elliot, Victorian Opera 2025, The Rabble’s Wake AND Golden Blood
This week on SmartArts with Richard Watts, As we all know, Melbourne is the most Irish city in Australia, and Dr Enda Murray, the Festival Director of the 2024 Irish Film Festival is here to tell us how we can embrace our Irish-ness through cinema. Showing from 24-27 October, find something on…
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Malthouse 2025, Amanda Haskard on ACMI, plus MELBOURNE FRINGE MINI SPECIAL: Alix Kuijpers' Grim Grinning Ghosts, Mitch Jones' Apocrypha and choreographer Oli Mathiesen
Richard starts off this week's show with a Malthouse Theatre 2025 season overview with Artistic Director Matt Lutton. Gunai/Kurnai woman and curator Amanda Haskard talks ACMI's major exhibition The Future and Other Fictions. And three interviews about Melbourne Fringe: performer and choreographer...
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Dredge, Radiant Pavillion 2024, Rick Prackoff's Verdi's Requiem and Michael Fikaris
Welcome to another fabulous episode of SmartArts, where Richard Watts OAM is serving up a delightful platter of comic book chat, theatre and art. First up, it’s Bernard Caleo’s monthly Drawn Out comic books segment. To talk about the upcoming Femmural production, Dredge, is Rosa Ablett-Johnstone,...
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Poster Protest Art, The Cost of Living & Mother
Richard Watts is joined by Director Anthea Williams and Actor Rachael Edmonds to talk about upcoming Melbourne Theatre production "The cost of Living" which won the 2018 Pulitzer prize for drama, written by Polish-Amercian Playwright Martyna Majok. Plus, we dive into the political power of…
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Disability advocacy in the arts, MAGMA exhibitions, PURE oil paintings, You're the Man and Around the World in 80 Days.
Richard is joined in today's show of Smartarts by a whirlpool of talent including: artist Cindy Campbell, Sharmini Kumar & Arthur Pontonio of Around the World in 80 Days and Paul Mitchell & Theresa Borg who discuss their latest theatrical, You're the Man. From the behind the scenes we peak into…
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And This Time the Well Is Alive, Secret Mall Apartment, Frankenstein, Stephen Cummins Retrospective and the Clyde Chabot Trilogy
Richard Watts OAM has a plentiful basket of curators, directors, artists and critics for you to choose from this week. If you’re looking for an art exhibition, and perhaps you’ve been chewed up by bureaucratic systems… look no further than Gertrude Contemporary Exhibition, And This Time the Well…
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Drawn Out Comics, Fox Galleries, the heart whispers and whirls, Asia TOPA, MIFF and AG Founder Andrew Gyopar
Richard is joined by a whole slew of guests including: Bernard Caleo to talk all things comics, Tai Snaith with the fortnightly Art Attack, Nela Trifkovic who is the vocalist behind new performance 'The Resonant Heart – The Heart Whispers and Whirls', Jeff Khan pops into the studio to chat about...
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Irish rappers KNEECAP, Circus Arts, SCI-FI Exhibitions & National Poetry Month
Richard Kicks off this jam packed episode with Simona Jobbagy of NICA and Sam Jacob, CEO of Collarts as they talk about Australia's only Bachelor of Circus Arts finding a new home for 2025. We have Tilly Boleyn, Science Gallery Melbourne’s Curator & Gail Chin Curator from Art/Science Museum...
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Scandinavian Film Festival, How do we remain; at the Melbourne Recital Centre, Ānanda: Dance of Joy and Two Remain.
Host Richard Watts is joined by Christof Wehmeier, head of international & festival promotion at the Icelandic Film Centre, and they discuss the 2024 Scandinavian film Festival program and highlights. We also have Artist Madeleine Flynn and Arts Centre’s Director of Programming Marshall McGuire...
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Midsumma needs a new home, Tristan Meecham's Queering the Collection, Melbourne Art Fair's New Director, Romeo & Julie plus movie turned opera, Breaking the Waves
Richard Watts OAM reporting for SmartArts! As always, he's here to give you an inside look into the fabulous people behind all of the brilliant goings-on of Naarm's flourishing art scene. Let's go! Amid the housing crisis, Midsumma’s CEO Karen Bryant is on the hunt for office space. The festival…
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Redeveloping the Melbourne Arts Precinct, reviving Three Magpies in A Tree, Artist Kate Wallace, La Belle Epoque and Reclaim the Crone
SmartArts with Richard Watts OAM back to keep you company on these chilly winters days... Starting out with Artist Kate Wallace on her new exhibition ‘Details of a room and other places’ - on now at LON Gallery. In the coming years there will be a big redevelopment of the Melbourne Arts Precinct…
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A Streetcar Named Desire, art partners, Jon & Jero and Abby Howells
Richard Watts OAM (!!!) is back in the studio after taking a mental health reset. He’s back, and he’s got the best of Melbourne’s performance, art and comedy for you to fill your diary with. First up, Bernard Caleo is in for Comic Books Chat, telling us about all the fabulous local creators we...
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Thirty Years of APHIDS, Young Broadway Actors Chat Shrek & Opening Up Melbourne
Steph Teitelbaum fills in for Richard Watts this week for chats with Lara Thoms, the Executive Director of experimental theatre collective APHIDS about their 30th birthday; Young Australian Broadway Chorus talent James Pringle and Charlie Abbot-Higgins stop by to talk about bringing Shrek JR to...
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A scent-sual play, a sensual play, a sense-ual play and 50 years of Art Access Victoria
For one week more, Oliver Coleman keeps the seat nice and toasty for resident SmartArts host, Richard Watts. And what a cracking show to end the run! Writer Georgia Ketals & scent artist Erin Adams tell us about Recollection, a unique play that offers a sensory experience. Based on a story about…
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Piinpi: Contemporary Indigenous Fashion, Lucy Guerin Inc and run away to the NICA Circus
Back to fill the enormous SmartArts shoes of Richard Watts OAM is resident funny guy, Oliver Coleman. Kicking off the show is Tai Smith with the latest visual arts reccs - think cutesy wholesome for the Under Five Windows exhibition at A Reading Room, collaging fun at the Ripped - a Punk Collage...
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MIFF 2024, CLIPPEDKilda and Blackout Songs
Welcome back to another instalment of SmartArts! Oliver Coleman is steering the ship for you again and boy are we in for a cruisy ride... First up, CLIPPED music video festival director Samuel Bright and James Tran going Oliver to talk all things CLIPPEDKilda, music video festival championing the...
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The Shannon Michael Cane celebration, Michelle Hamer's 'I'm A Believer' and Arkadia, a dance opera
Oliver Coleman takes the SmartArts seat this week, and he’s keeping it toasty for the next few weeks while Richard is on break. Tai Snaith comes in for Art Attack to talk all things Melbourne Design Week and Melbourne’s thriving design scene. Oliver and Tai recommend finding an art opening and...
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The Odd Couple, Beings, Cutting through Time, and Comedy In The West
Oslo Davis fills in for Richard Watts for a jam packed show. Oslo chats with Mark Kilmurry, the Director of Neil Simon's 'The Odd Couple' at the Comedy Theatre, and John Gethin Lewis, the Creative Director of a new exhibition at ACMI called 'Beings'. Also joining Oslo on the show is Geelong…
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Hold Me Closer Tony Danza, The Huxleys, Arts Wellbeing Collective's Navigate Well Resources
This week, Dan & Steph Teitelbaum take the SmartArts reins and gallop effortlessly into another episode... this episode (as always) is jampacked with recommendations, artist deep dives and what's coming up in Melbourne's performing arts scene. Tai Snaith gives a raving review of ACCA’s current...
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Pia Johnson’s Re-Orient, Possum Magic and a couple of funny guys
It’s that time of year again… Melbourne International Comedy Festival! You can’t escape it… so let’s embrace it, with two fabulous comics joining Richard on the program. But he's got art and theatre covered too, of course! Kicking off with comedian Darby James whose kooky cabaret, ‘Little Squirt’...
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Arts Project Australia, State of Australian Regions Report, Akaraka and Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons!
Join Richard Watts in the studio with Liz Knowles, the new Executive Director of Arts Project Australia about their upcoming 50th Anniversary, Tai Snaith for the fortnightly review of current Melbourne exhibitions, and Director Charlotte Rogers and Hazel Pigrim on their production called Lemons,...
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Palestinian Film Festival 2024, The Mary Wallopers, Dungeons & Dragons 50th anniversary, PHOTO 2024, and theatre theatre theatre!
Richard kicks off this week’s epic show with Irish band, The Mary Wallopers. The cheeky, rowing brothers, Charles and Andrew Hendy, talk sibling rivalry, genre shifting, and their anticipation of Ireland’s global domination… Professor Lisa Given is on the line to celebrate Dungeons & Dragons 50th...
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Yentl, Counting and Cracking, When We Were Young, Back to Back and Not Natural!
Richard Watts is back in the studio to chat to director Gary Abrahams and actress Evelyn Krape on the production of Yentl, an adaptation of a Yiddish short story. Plus, S.Shakthidharan, the writer and associate director of Counting and Cracking for the 2024 RISING festival; conductor Carlo...
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Rock Musicals, Northern Irish Chavs, and 7 Hours of Theatre
Jess McEvoy talks about their solo rock musical, 'The Show,' and the way that the show came about naturally after years of performing as a singer-songwriter between Naarm and New York City. Sandrine Lescourant, dancer and performer in Oona Doherty's piece 'Hope Hunt and the Acension into…
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Celebrating local artists, program releases, cabaret, and a Broadcast Birthday!
SmartArts' 19th birthday was celebrated on the day of broadcast (December 14, 2023), which was also Richard's last show for 2023! Richard is joined by Liam James, Deputy Director of Linden New Art. They discuss the gallery's Postcard Show 2023-24; how it celebrates the hobby artists, makes art...
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Marshmallow Lasers, Robot Painting Dogs & the 2024 Sydney Festival
Artist Agnieszka Pilat on her optimism towards AI in art and walking Richard Watts through the process of training three robot dogs to oil paint, for her new exhibition at the NGV Triennial; Ersin Han Ersin, director of Marshmallow Laser Feast collective on their latest installation, ‘Works of...
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Exploring “Place”: 56 Printmakers Connect with Country & the Friendships Built Liberating Homelands
Writer and director Glenn Shea on his unabashed new play ‘MI: WI 3027,’ unpacking the unlikely friendship between an Indigenous soldier and a Jewish-German ethnologist and prisoner of war, as they bond over the notions of freedom and country; Curator Rona Green unveils ‘Whereabouts: Printmakers...
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Triennials, the Legacy of Blade Runner, the Resilience of Women and the Art of Waacking
Ewan McEoin, the Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture, NGV and lead curator on Triennial for a NGV Triennial overview chat; Primal Screen’s Flick Ford & Zero G’s Rob Jan talking about the legacy of film Blade Runner ahead of Blade Runner live at Hamer Hall; Jennifer Monk &...
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Performance Art Mania & Remembering Ukraine
Ruth McKenzie, Artistic Director of Adelaide Festival gives an overview of the exciting new festival program; Dynamic duo, choreographer Stephanie Lake and composer Robin Fox astonish Richard with their exhilarating performance art piece, Manifesto, featuring a frenzied nine-person troop dancing…
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Dumplings, Dodgeball and Dancing 'In the Club'
Ania Reynolds & Alisa Tanaka-King join Richard to talk about their show 'Dumplings Darling' and their approach to cultural sharing; being un-pretentious and inclusionary, using the cultural cross-section that is made up of food, music and storytelling. Joining Richard next is Anna Louey, the...
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Sci-Fi Superheros Fighting Diabetes & Lighting up Laneways with Glowing Comics
Writer and performer Candy Bowers reveals the horrors of type 2 diabetes and its disproportionate effect on Black communities, in her afro-futuristic, genre-bending show, ‘Sweet Mama’; Deborah Cheetham Fraillon, AO, On her composition of ‘Eumeralla, a War Requiem for Peace,’ written in the...
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Insomniac Mixtapes, Art Fairs and Photography at the NGV
Artist Telia Nevile on her new one-woman cabaret performance ‘Insomniac Mixtape’ at Melbourne Fringe Festival, capturing the unsettling and relatable descent into chaos that is sleep deprivation, through a range of bizarre goth, electronic and punk tunes; Melbourne Art Foundation CEO and…
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Festival Frenzy: Irish Films, Fringe and Melbourne Jazz
Irish Film Festival Director Dr Enda Murray walks listeners through the exciting 2023 program overview for the Irish Film Festival; Program Director Hadley Agrez unveils the diverse 2023 Melbourne International Jazz Festival lineup; Accessed via a real phone number audiences can call, Kasey...
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Queer Bushrangers and the Brand New Merribek Festival
Co-producers Tim Sneddon and Jeff Achtem explain how accessibility and the need for low-cost family festivals drove them to create the new Merribek Family Festival, walking listeners through their exciting program; Nina Sanadze, founder of Collective Polyphony Festival, and artist Camille Perry...
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The Art Inspired by Being Struck by Lightning, and the 41st Melbourne Fringe Festival
Composer and cellist Zoë Barry on how her unlikely experience of being struck by lightning on three separate occasions inspired her new artistic work in ‘The Nervous Atmosphere’ at Arts House; Simon Abrahams, Creative Director and CEO of Melbourne Fringe walks listeners through the exciting new...
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Radiothon 2023
It's Radiothon time here at Triple R - the time of the year we ask our listeners to help support SmartArts and all the other programs on RRR by financially supporting the station by taking out a subscription. Listen to a very special edition of SmartArts as Richard is joined by regular guests and...
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Breaking the Conventions of Theatre with Pony Cam
Contemporary theatre performers Dominic Weintraub and Hugo Williams of Pony Cam exhibit the process of knowledge sharing across generations, breaking theatre convention by collaborating with mass community-led ensemble cast of locals aged 55+ in ‘All This Could Be Yours’; Artistic Director…
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Godless: The Eastfield Exorcism
Director Nick Kozakis talks how his childhood horror movie obsession and the resurgence of the horror film genre in Australia influenced his new independent horror, ‘Godless: The Eastfield Exorcism’; CEO and creative director of Geelong Arts Centre, Joel McGuiness on Geelong’s blossoming art…
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Road-tripping with two queer alien Elvises & ‘The Fence’
Richard is away this week, guest host Daniel Santangeli fills in! Playwright Fleur Murphy explores ordinary acts of bravery and the ethical concerns of witnessing domestic violence in her award-winning play ‘The Fence,’ set in Melbourne suburbia; Visual artist and performer Will Huxley captivates...
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Gail Mabo’s ‘Current’ & Swinburne Circus Art students face uncertainty
First Nations artist Gail Mabo talks shouldering the legacy of her father, activist Eddie Mabo, and her new exhibition ‘Current’ at McClelland Gallery with fellow First Nations artists Lisa Wuap and Dominic White, transporting audiences to her home in Murray Island; National Institute for Circus...
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The Impacts of the US writers and actors strike on Australian Art & a fresh take on Romeo and Juliet
Tiffany Lyndall-Knight, Vice President of Actor’s Equity for the MEAA breaks down the US writers and actors strike, uncovering how streaming and AI technologies have threatened livelihoods in film and the potential impacts of this on Australian art; Leading actors Jacob Warner and Rose Riley on…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Visual art, theatre, film and literature. Segments include:- 'Art Attack' - fortnightly visual arts reviews with Ace Wagstaff and Tai Snaith.- 'Shoot the Messenger' - fortnightly theatre news & reviews with Fleur Kilpatrick.- 'Drawn Out' - monthly chat about comic books and graphic novels with Bernard Caleo.Please email [email protected] for all interview requests.About the PresenterRichard Watts has many years experience working in the arts industry, including five years as the Artistic Director of the youth arts organisation Express Media, seven years on the Board of Melbourne Fringe (including three years as Chair), and six years on the Committee of Management at La Mama Theatre, where he currently serves as Chair. Richard has helped program a range of festivals including Next Wave, the National Young Writers' Festival, the Melbourne Queer Film Festival and the Emerging Writers' Festival (which he founded) and he has written for various broadsheets, journals, zines and magazi
HOSTED BY
RRR - Triple R
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does SmartArts have?
SmartArts currently has 332 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is SmartArts about?
Visual art, theatre, film and literature. Segments include:- 'Art Attack' - fortnightly visual arts reviews with Ace Wagstaff and Tai Snaith.- 'Shoot the Messenger' - fortnightly theatre news & reviews with Fleur Kilpatrick.- 'Drawn Out' - monthly chat about comic books and graphic novels with...
How often does SmartArts release new episodes?
SmartArts publishes regularly with 332 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to SmartArts?
You can listen to SmartArts on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts SmartArts?
SmartArts is created and hosted by RRR - Triple R.
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