A lot is happening at ArtSound! Read on for news about:

  • Introduction to Radio Broadcasting Course
  • Garden Concert
  • Canberra Southern Cross Club Sponsorship
  • Call for radio-drama scripts
  • Young Virtuoso Competition
  • Pacific Neighbours
  • Programming update
  • ArtSound & The Holey Dollar
  • ArtSound’s podcasting meetup
  • 2025 membership marathon
  • Donations
  • ArtSound’s 2025 Membership and Fundraising Drive
  • How You Can Help

Introduction to Radio Broadcasting Course

ArtSound is offering its popular “introduction to radio broadcasting” course on four Tuesday evenings in April. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to sit behind the microphone and present a radio program, this four-week course will provide you with the basics, and perhaps whet your appetite to discover more.

Participants can expect a mix of hands-on, in-studio practice as well as presentations by some of ArtSound’s experienced presenters. The course begins on Tuesday April 1 from 5.30pm to 9pm (with a refreshment break), and continues on the three following Tuesdays: April 8, 15, and 22.

Tuition is $300 per person and includes all materials. Enrolments are open until Friday March 21. For more information or for any questions, email training@artsound.fm or simply go online to book your spot.

Garden Jazz Concert at the Manuka Arts Centre

Our next outdoor concert — the last until the warm weather returns in the spring — is set for Sunday March 16 at 3pm (gates open at 2:30pm).

Do come! The concert features two sparkling jazz groups — vocalist Rachael Thoms, a specialist in vocal jazz at the ANU School of Music, appears with her longtime accompanist, guitarist Lachlan Coventry.

Plus, saxophonist Danny Junor heads his thrilling trio with “ArtSound’s own” Nick McBride on drums. (Nick is the host, every other Monday, on Down in the Basement (8-10pm), with co-host Col Hoorweg.) Lachlan Coventry is on bass.

Tickets: available at the gate. POP-UP BAR on site. Beer, wine, soft drinks, nibbles! All proceeds support ArtSound. Brings your friends and family members. This is a picnic style event with seating provided but you’re welcome to bring your own blankets and chairs for maximum comfort.

It promises to be a delightful way to see out the summer, and welcome in Canberra’s best season. Later in the year, we’ll have a series of indoor concerts at local venues, too. And then more outdoor concerts starting in the spring. More details on those, soon.

Rachael Thoms; photo: Kyle Manning

Canberra Southern Cross Club Sponsorship

Yes, we spent all of 2024 asking you to donate to ArtSound. Well, the need is still there but this time we’re mixing it up a little — a small gesture from you can make a big difference to the station. We are back on the Canberra Southern Cross Club community rewards list, this time with a special deal.

All you have to do is click this link: https://csccmarketing.wufoo.com/forms/m1ti98210e4gdsx/ add your CSCC member details. Then every time you buy food and drinks at the CSCC, the station will get 7.5% towards our equipment upgrades.

It’s a pretty sweet deal for all concerned.

Radio plays wanted

Do you have a script that would be suitable for radio, or even an idea for a radio play but you’re not sure where to start? ArtSound Radio Theatre, which airs Sundays at 4pm (repeated Mondays at 10pm), may be able to help. Drop us a line at admin@artsound.fm.

Young Virtuoso Competition

Each year, ArtSound hosts the ACT regional finals of the Young Virtuoso Competition, which identifies outstanding classical music performers around the country.

Could you help ArtSound to stage the ACT leg of the competition? We’d be most grateful for sponsorship covering the cost of sending the ACT winner to the nationals. This year, those will be in Adelaide. We cover the regional winner’s travel and accommodation expenses to attend the final.

If you can help, please contact us at admin@artsound.fm or phone 6295 7444 Monday-Friday 10am-2pm.

(2024 ACT winner Zachary Li)

Pacific Neighbours

ArtSound is preparing a new weekly radio program featuring music of Australia’s Pacific Neighbours.

We’re defining “Pacific Neighbours” quite liberally, casting our net as far afield as South East Asia to the west and western South America to the east.

If you’re from that broad region, and knowledgeable about your nation’s musical heritage, and would like to take part in the program, please get in touch. You can then work with an ArtSound producer who’ll do all the techie stuff while you simply talk a little about your country’s music.

It’s simple, and fun!

Please write to programmingcommittee@artsound.fm

Programming update

ArtSound now has one of the country’s very few programs focusing on composition and performance of the last 80 years. On The Music of Now, classical pianist Jacob Wu shares works and performances from around the world, but with a special emphasis on Australian and even Canberra-area composers and performers.

The Music of Now airs at 6pm on Sunday, and repeats at 10pm on Wednesdays.

ArtSound & The Holey Dollar

Aspiring numismaticians dream about two quarries: the 1930 penny (currently worth well over a million dollars if in uncirculated “proof” condition) and the “holey dollar.”

The latter was fashioned from a Spanish piece of eight royals for use in the colony of New South Wales after its founding in 1788. Like many colonies, NSW sought to solve a currency shortage by punching out the centre of the Spanish coin, and circulating the “holey dollar” that remained. British, Dutch, Indian and Portuguese coins were also used. (The centre “dump” also circulated as a coin.)

In February Bart Meehan represented ArtSound upon the invitation of the Embassy of Poland at a ceremony marking the return of one stolen piece of eight, fashioned in 1813, to its rightful owner, Poland.

Over 100 years ago, the Holey Dollar, derived from a Charles III Spanish Silver Dollar minted in Mexico in 1777, and one of 40,000 Spanish reales imported by Governor Lachlan Macquarie, was part of a collection donated to a museum in Toruń, Poland. Sometime between 2011 and 2016, it was stolen and fenced through several auctions. In August 2024, acting on advice from the Australian Government’s Office for the Arts, and a restitution request from the Republic of Poland, Australian Federal Police officers seized the coin under the Protection of Movable Cultural Heritage Act 1986.

Last month, Tony Burke, Minister for Arts, handed the coin back to Marta Cienkowska, Poland’s Deputy Minister of Culture and National Heritage. ArtSound was among invited guests. According to the Polish Embassy, Burke said at the ceremony that he was motivated to hand the coin back to the museum “by a simple principle guiding the Australian authorities — condemnation of theft in all its forms.”

If you can legitimately find another one, well-worn examples are worth $50,000 or more, while any in fine condition can fetch more than $400,000.

ArtSound’s podcasting meetup

Members are invited to attend ArtSound’s fortnightly Podcasting Meetup. It’s an informal meeting of podcast enthusiasts who gather to discuss and plan podcast skills and content.

The group generally meets every second Monday from 5:30-6:30pm in ArtSound’s dedicated podcast studio.

To inquire about joining in, write to podcast@artsound.fm. The next meeting is on Monday March 3 at 5:30pm.

2025 ArtSound membership marathon

Through all of 2025, ArtSound is running a membership drive.

Currently, membership accounts for about 10 percent of the organisation’s annual income. We’d like to double that.

The Board recently announced modest membership-fee increases from January 1, 2025. The new annual fees are: individual membership, $75; family membership $110; concessional membership (with seniors or student ID) $50 per year.

For a limited time, new members will receive a free copy of the latest ArtSound Press publication, Gertrude’s Sweetheart: Monologues for Readers and Actors.

ArtSound aims to increase the benefits that members enjoy. Already members, and non-members, receive 24/7 radio every day of the year, but we’d also like to increase the number and range of businesses that will offer discounts to our members. We’ll list these on our website’s membership page.

Can you help us to identify or recruit such business supporters? If you know of any that might be interested, please write to Bart Meehan (bart.meehan@gmail.com) with details (including any contact details, if you have them).

Or, contact us and talk about how you might help: admin@artsound.fm

Donations

We’re always grateful to receive donations to support our work, which includes featuring about 1,000 ACT-region artists on air annually along with specialty programming that supports and fosters arts activities in the ACT region.

ArtSound does this as an all-volunteer community radio station with expenses to run to more than $110,000 each year, about half of it from the costs of transmitting to the ACT from Black Mountain and Mt Taylor.

If you can help, please do so. Simply use the QR code to go directly to the ArtSound donation page. Or get in touch to talk about how you might help: admin@artsound.fm or 6295 7444.

Thank you.

Other ways you can help

Do you have skills that you’d be willing to lend to the ArtSound cause? Please let us know. Below are some areas where you might be able to help – but perhaps you have skills that we don’t know how to profit from, until you tell us!

Needs include:

Welcoming Committee members

Writers of scripts for on-air announcements, press releases, and the like.

Management and financial wizards

Advertising reps

Presenters

Program producers and assistants

Concert recording engineers

Music library helpers

If you can help, please send your contact details and a description of how you think you can help to help@artsound.fm. Or phone 6295 7444 weekdays between 10am and 2pm.

If you associate with artists of any kind, you could promote the station to them.

Any way you can spread the word is useful to ArtSound.

 

ArtSound FM’s mission is to cultivate a vibrant arts community in the ACT region. Your memberships and donations sustain our year-long programming including our artist-centred features and interviews and our many broadcasts of live recordings of concerts in and around Canberra.

Thank you for being part of ArtSound!

Please go online to artsound.fm to take out membership or donate. Or, send your contact details and a description of how you think you can help to help@artsound.fm.

Or phone (02) 6295 7444 — if you don’t reach someone right away, please leave a message and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Donations of $1 or more are tax deductible.

ArtSound is an all-volunteer community radio station.

 

Please forward this newsletter to any possibly interested friends and family members. And if you have any suggestions about items to include in this bulletin, please send them to newsletter@artsound.fm at least three days before the end of the month.