Betty and Radha’s Parade Viewing Party at NAS
PROGRAM
Betty and Radha’s Parade Viewing Party at NAS
25 February 2023
National Art School
156 Forbes Street, Darlinghurst NSW 2010
6pm – midnight
Tickets: $65 (+$4 booking fee)
Children under 12 are free
Image: (Left) Betty Grumble photographed by Liz Ham. (Right) Radha on The Set, ABC TV, photographed by Jess Gleeson.
Celebrate the Mardi Gras in comfort within a stone’s throw of the parade with co-hosts Betty Grumble and Radha the Diva from India!
As a partner of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras since 2018, NAS invites you to Betty and Radha’s Parade Viewing Party at the iconic Darlinghurst campus.
On the doorstep of the parade just behind Oxford Street, you can catch all the action and excitement of the celebration without battling the crowds!
Enjoy the atmosphere with a live feed of the parade, and queer art open late across the NAS galleries.
You’ll have exclusive access to popup bars courtesy of Archie Rose, food trucks, bathrooms and plenty of seating on the stunning NAS campus – so grab a cocktail, pull up a beanbag, and watch the parade like a VIP!
View artworks by 40+ artists from within the LGBTQIA+ community participating within NAS’ Queer Contemporary exhibitions Braving Time: Contemporary Art in Queer Australia and Fulgora.
Tickets are $65 + $4 booking fee (concession options are available). Children under 12 are free! Please contact us if you are experiencing financial hardship on [email protected]. Tickets are limited to ensure minimal queues and plenty of space – so get in early!
Please note patrons under the age of 18 years must be accompanied by a responsible adult. The event is fully licensed and ID must be shown on request to purchase alcohol.
Shahmen Suku was born in 1987 in Singapore and arrived in Australia in 2009. He is a performance artist based in Sydney who explores racial, religious and cultural identity, gender roles, the home, and the kitchen through performance and storytelling. Growing up in a modern matriarchal Indian family in Singapore and moving to Australia has given Shahmen multiple perspectives on migration and displacement, race and culture, and colonisation and gender identity, and he discusses these issues in his work in different mediums such as live performances as his alter ego Radha, installations and video works.
Betty Grumble (aka Emma Maye Gibson) is a Sydney based award winning performance artist. Largely through the avatar/war mask/love letter/totem critter of Betty Grumble, she engages her body as a political and medicinal site of performative catharsis, often in a genre smash of ritual physical theatre, cabaret, performance art and multimedia.
Now open in Building 25 Project Space — Liz Bradshaw `I didn`t expect to live this long`.
For this year`s Queer Contemporary, NAS alum Liz Bradshaw presents an exhibition of large-scale sculpture and installation works that offer a personal and political queering of time, space, materiality, and ideas. Integrating new works alongside a fragment of an artwork created at NAS in the 1990s, the installation folds together the artist`s personal experiences with the complex histories of the school`s site and the broader Darlinghurst area, which served as an epicentre of Australian queer history.
On view until 7 March. Monday to Saturday, 11am–5pm.
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Installation view: Zan Wimberley
Feb 13
Students: spaces are still available in Drawing Week 2026 workshops!
These free 4-day workshops run the week before classes commence and are exclusively for students entering their 2nd and 3rd year of the BFA at NAS.
Select from one of 12 distinct focus areas and start the year with a full immersion in the process of making, looking at and thinking about drawing.
Learn more 🔗 in bio.
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Photos: Peter Morgan
Feb 10
Featured in the @sydneymorningherald`s Spectrum — SEARCHERS: Graffiti and Contemporary Art.
Co-curator @fionalowry shares, “Graffiti doesn’t so much ‘lose value’ in the gallery as shift value. On the street, it holds power through risk, speed, territory and peer recognition. In the gallery, different things become visible: form, discipline, lineage and the deep relationship to authorship and mark-making. Part of what the exhibition tries to do is hold those two value systems in tension rather than pretend one replaces the other.”
SEARCHERS continues at the National Art School Gallery until April 11. Open Monday to Saturday, 11am–5pm.
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Installation views: Zan Wimberley
Feb 9
Work at the National Art School!
We`re recruiting a Head of Postgraduate Studies to lead and shape our postgraduate programs, including BFA (Hons), MFA and DFA.
Applications close Sunday 8 March 2026, 5pm.
Learn more 🔗 in bio.
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The Postgrad Show, 2025, photos: Peter Morgan
Feb 6
Opening 12 February — Queer Contemporary, as part of @sydneymardigras
This year`s edition presents `Liz Bradshaw: I didn`t expect to live this long` — an exhibition of large-scale sculpture and installation works that offer a personal and political queering of time, space, materiality, and idea — with student exhibitions organised by Jack Oliver Owen and nikita lelu.
Join us for the opening night on Thursday 12 February, from 6–9pm.
RSVP 🔗 in bio.
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Liz Bradshaw, `Two Pair`, 2023
Feb 1
The National Art School acknowledges that for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and for many other Australians, January 26 is a day of sorrow — marking deep loss, as well as survival.
Across Australia today, communities are coming together to reflect, connect and mark the day respectfully. The National Art School is committed to listening, learning and moving forward together.
For information about events visit antar.org.au and https://whatson.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/events/australia-day-sydney
Jan 26
