HOT: Melbourne Open House, Melbourne

I think one of the best free events held as part of State of Design is Melbourne Open House. The 2-day event sees public and private buildings all around Melbourne throw open their doors for a rare opportunity for you and I to discover the hidden histories and spaces in and around the CBD.
There are [...]

HOT: Tim Burton: The Exhibition, ACMI, Federation Square, Melbourne

One really great way Melbourne embraces its winters is to hold special exhibitions dubbed ‘Melbourne Winter Masterpieces‘. Over the years they have had some wonderful shows, but I think nabbing the Tim Burton exhibition from the Museum of Modern Art in New York is pretty high on the wow list.
I can’t say that Tim Burton [...]

HOT: Coco Republic Lifestyle Lecture Series, 500 Church St, Richmond

I have a bulging email folder called ‘Newsletters’ which contains all the contents of the million mailing lists to which I subscribe. It’s an unmanageable beast (just like my Google Reader, currently at 1000+ unread items) but hey, I like to keep in the know.
Out of this mass of emails, a recent newsletter from The [...]

HOT Chat: Karishma Kasabia of Miss Kish

Regular readers may know that I stumbled upon Miss Kish’s blog a couple of months ago and developed a huge blog crush. Then when I met the lovely Karishma of Miss Kish in real life, I developed a bit of a crush on her too. We’re now working on an exciting new project together! Read [...]

HOT: NGV Artbus to the Yarra Valley (Part 3) – Healesville Hotel and Heide Museum of Modern Art

Click here for the first stop of the NGV Artbus Tour of the Yarra Valley at Yering Station and the second stop at TarraWarra Estate.
After two wine tastings and a gallery viewing, we were all about ready for lunch.

To my delight, the lunch venue was the lovely Healesville Hotel. Not only is this the grand [...]

HOT: NGV Artbus to the Yarra Valley (Part 2) – TarraWarra Estate

Click here for the first stop of the NGV Artbus Tour of the Yarra Valley, Yering Station.

Our second stop was the winery TarraWarra Estate, with its famous TarraWarra Museum of Art – the first significant privately funded, public art gallery in Australia. We started off with more wine tasting on the lawn, looking out over [...]

HOT: NGV Artbus to the Yarra Valley (Part 1) – Yering Station

The National Gallery of Victoria regularly runs arty bus tours for its members and non-members. Usually they’re conducted during the week and aimed at an older crowd, but for the first time in February they held the tour on a Saturday and encouraged NGV Artbeat members (the under 40s branch of NGV Members) to sign [...]

HOT: The Social Studio, 128 Smith St, Collingwood

Fitzroy/Collingwood seems to be the hotbed of social enterprise businesses in Melbourne (see my review of restaurant Charcoal Lane), and in late 2009 another one opened around the corner from me – The Social Studio.
The Social Studio is a non-profit fashion studio space staffed by approximately 20 young members of Melbourne’s refugee community and overseen [...]

HOT: In Conversation with Jennifer Byrne: Helen Garner, The Wheeler Centre, 176 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne

Did you know that Melbourne is the world’s second UNESCO City of Literature, part of UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network?
So it’s fitting that the city has created a space such as The Wheeler Centre (named after Tony and Maureen Wheeler, the founders of Lonely Planet), a centre for books, writing and ideas which launched just a [...]

HOT Chat: Matt Hurst from The Humble Vintage

Cycling is one of my passions (don’t worry, I’m no flourescent lycra bike nutter) and I’m a big fan of any business that encourages people to enjoy this wonderfully flat city by bike – ideally travelling with style over speed.
Today’s HOT Chat is with Matt Hurst, the owner of bike rental service The Humble Vintage [...]