RiAus stands for (the) Royal Institution of Australia, and they are residents at The Science…read moreExchange which used to be the Adelaide Stock Exchange, so it is a beautiful historic building to start with, and you are welcome to go and wander about checking out its beauty. That's the first bit of great news because the second bit is this is all free so far so good! Now the next bit of great news is that The Science Exchange is a venue you can hire; well actually there are several spaces inside the historic building here you can hire. The Thinking Room, The Theatre, a Science Room - each have a great deal of character and that's just too easy for me to say - you must go and look for yourself. Start by checking out my photographs of the place and you will see what I'm getting at. Talk about a beautiful place! The next (there is more) thing that is truly wonderful is that RiAUS are really concerned about making science and maths and thinking a really cool accessible thing to all people but especially young people. So they hold all sorts of events and happenings and create programs that engage community in a vast array of really fascinating things, and most of the time it costs nothing to be involved or to go and look at whatever it is - check out the knitted or crocheted reef in the photos I took. It has an informative website where you can get a lot more complete detail that will blow your mind. It's blown my mind. I love going in and just wandering around. There is always something wonderful but get involved and you will be really astonished at how truly great it really is. One significant word of warning. The office workers from the surrounding high rise buildings do come down to the courtyard behind The Science Exchange to have their cigarettes, so if you are a non smoker like myself you need to be aware that there's a lot of smokers around the various approach ways from Grenfell Street in particular. Not right outside the RiAUS building directly, but a few meters away at most approach ways; I was horrified to encounter the filthy and stinky smokers chattering away and puffing away at their cancer sticks. A big yuck against the area, but what can you do other than be aware particularly if you are a school teacher bringing kids into RiAUS which wouldn't be an unusual thing. Maybe just case the joint and chose your entry from the street carefully so as not to have to walk in between so many people hell bent on costing the health system and themselves dearly at the whim of a blooming' multinational corporation growing addictive drugs. Just don't smoke folk! Check out RiAUS at The Science Exchange - you will love it. I think if you head in towards it from Pirie Street you are likely to encounter fewer smokers because there are a couple of eating places in the lane way you'd be walking down... just a thought.

Up until 1991 this building was the Adelaide Stock Exchange. Now it's the 'Science Exchange'…read morehousing the RiAus, a charitable science institution. As Dave J. mentions, they host a holy-shit-they're-crazy number of cool events, which are often free to attend. Built in an 'Arts and Crafts' style the building is a fascinating historical nugget of Adelaide. It has a spire. Not on a main road, it's buried between Grenfell and Pirie Streets having been completely boxed in by sky scrappers. Best accessed through a pedestrian path running between the Adelaide City Council and James Place. I saw a local TED Talk (TEDx) here in 2011. It was clear the RiAus was a robust choice of venue; the auditorium felt intimate yet held 150 people or so. The presentations were also live streamed to stragglers in the basement (overflow room) and online. They've succeeded in creating a modern and comfortable environment that works hard to focus the crowd's attention on the speaker, the ideas, etc. A very professional venue. Vivacious website - visit for upcoming events.

If you enjoy outdoor markets, live music, and vegan food, the Marion Peace Markets are for you!…read moreHeld monthly on the lush grounds of the Living Kaurna Cultural Centre, it's a relaxing way to spend an afternoon. It's family and dog (leash) friendly; bring a picnic rug, buy a mug of chai, feast on the well priced food (all under $10) and enjoy the chilled tunes! When I attended on 27/10/12, reggae, roots/blues, and South American (think Mardi Gras!) style drumming was featured. Clothing and a range of arts and crafts were also for sale. A gold coin donation is gently requested by the event organisers to help them cover PA and other essential costs. Pack sunscreen and a hat on a warm day - this is an event best visited during the warmer months. Peace!

Arts SA is the South Australian Government department focused on arts funding and supporting South…read moreAustralian cultural heritage. It is basically where aspiring artists writers performers and such will go searching for some funding to mount their work, production or what have you. They are a typical government department enjoying all the benefits of being able to say they support the arts while handing out money to the same groups year after year sometimes for decades at a time, obviously this means others are missing out somewhere along the line and this is a problem with the way funding is given out. Arts SA, like most government departments also deny having ever made any mistakes, and always behave as though the money only goes where it's deserved, and of course they never have enough money to go around adequately. The great irony of arts funding is that some organisations believe they are entitled to ongoing funding year after year for doing very little or the same old stuff again and again. A prime example is the SA Writers Centre that is making moves to monopolise the whole process of funding for writers by becoming the peak organisation that attracts funding from the federal governments Arts Council as well as Arts SA and yet they have less than 1000 actual members and do very little for them. Most of the writers I know personally will do what they can to avoid the Writers Centre because of the poor reputation it has as an advocate for writers, and yet it receives the largest portion of funding for writers available in the state, and the bulk of this funding pays for office staff not actual creative writers. The office staff are also paid to appraise work by aspiring writers which seems rather odd. To cut a long story short, all you need to do is run at a loss for ten odd years and tell everyone how fabulous you are in order to secure on going funding. Younger artists and writers come along and are either ignored by the establishment who run the show by giving each other all the available work and grants, or they are put off from attending anything because despite the massive amounts of funding they receive to pay staff, the staff seem to do very little at times besides feather their own nests and the nests of their mates. It is quite a contentious area, but they wouldn't say that; they'd say they were working hard for all writers in South Australia (yawn). Another example of the irony in Adelaide is the Leigh Warren Dancers company who every couple of years, after a good decade - have their ongoing funding cut. They kick up a stink in the press, get all their mates to write to their MP and make a lot of noise about how fabulous they are and how they are entitled to ongoing funding, when they never seem to be able to generate an income to sustain them; so in the meantime over a decade a whole lot of other dancers, choreographers etc etc come and go and simply do not get a look in. Yes, it's a very tough game and the public purse gets extended way beyond what is fair or reasonable; to the extent that individuals will purchase their house with their taxpayer provided income while others actually never ever get a single grant to develop a single idea. The Arts SA system decides who gets the funding based on outcomes of peer group reviews of applications that people put in to the department. It can be a frustrating maze that gets you nowhere or it can work for you if you are connected with the right peers and have the right background. Many artists leave South Australia for work elsewhere rather than have to rely on an unpredictable little handout of money here and there while large organisations get the major benefits of triennial funding and spend it as they wish. A lot of people will suggest my opinion is negative and 'blames' Arts SA for the problem, that is not the case. My opinion is based on 40 years of working in the Australian Arts Industry in many genres and at times dealing with large amounts of money delivered to major theatre companies that I have been managing. Arts SA does plenty of good work, but overall the system is badly flawed and it drives artists away from South Australia which is extremely counter productive for all concerned.

I agree with many of the criticisms of Arts SA Dave J. has made, but I've decided to give Arts SA…read morethree stars, because they certainly support plenty of the best South Australian cultural projects out there. While there definitely are some groups who seem to be hanging on to significant amounts funding without doing much new or interesting stuff, Arts SA can't take all the blame for this. Indeed, if the state government saw fit to invest in South Australian talent instead of importing stuff for big festivals, there would be more funding for new and exciting stuff that is grown here in our own independent arts organisations. There are days when I wonder if more arts funding is spent on paperclips than art, but nonetheless Arts SA fund some great stuff - and not all of it has been running for twenty odd years. A few examples of new projects driven by young people that have been partially funded by Arts SA; Format Festival, FELTspace, Ray Harris's amazing aEaf exhibition in 2011 and Amy Joy Watson's Grant Pirrie Sydney exhibition. Arts SA also fund a huge range of excellent community programs, including Cirkidz, Mental Health Coalition and the Riverland Youth Theatre. There is much to be done in the Adelaide arts community, but not all of it can be done by Arts SA. The truth is that many artists leave South Australia, and the lack of excellent independent arts organisations here is a contributing factor. While some of Arts SA's work could be done better, this is also dependent on better policy from the State Government. Despite the issues at play, Arts SA are certainly helping some excellent stuff happen in South Australia.

The Hub is a modern studying environment equipped with technology, collaborative study spaces and…read moresome pretty cool study rooms. Level 4, the level you enter when you walk in, has a range of cafes and places to buy food. These outlets are great catering for everything from Chinese food to baguettes, coffee, snacks and everything in between. Level 3, is where the main facilities are though. There are quite a few desks and benches and couches. You are allowed to rearrange the furniture as you wish and there are quite a few Macs and PC's around the place. You can also quickly hop across to the Barr Smith library on this level too as the two buildings are connected. Whilst being a great open plan study environment and a must go for university students, it does have a few issues that I am sure will be improved over the coming years. The first of which is the fact that it is borderline impossible to find a place to sit between 10am and 2pm each day as the place is packed. On quite a few occasions, I have had to venture down two flights of stairs to level 1 of the Barr Smith Library to get a spot to study. The toilets are also far from numerous too. While there is a decent sized one on level 4, level 3 houses only one male toilet with a small urinal and a small cubicle. More often than not, I find myself having to go upstairs or downstairs as the toilet is usually occupied. Also power points can be an issue. While there are quite a few outlets, the places where they are present tend to go first. If you need to charge your devices and the hub is busy, then level 1 of the Barr Smith Library is probably your best bet. A really good thing about this place is the fact it houses the Writing Centre and Maths Learning Centre. These services are free and can be used by students to help get feedback on essays or to get support with mathematics. The two centers are on level 3 and are open 10am - 4pm Monday to Friday, If you have to study at night or on the weekend, you can access the hub 24/7 during the year (except for during the summer holidays, Christmas and New Year's Day) by using your student card. I went here on the Good Friday public holiday to finish an assignment. All in all, this place is great for individual study and collaborative learning, it just is very busy and could perhaps do with being slightly larger.

I'm skeptical about universities at the best of times. So when I heard Adelaide Uni was building a…read more'learning hub', I was even more skeptical. Oh great, a big room with lots of weird shaped cushions and good wireless. And there is that, but there is some other really useful stuff too. Adelaide Uni developed the design through student consultation processes, which is perhaps why it is actually so useful. It seems to be part of their attempt to become tangibly more 'up to date' - it's a futuristic learning centre right in the middle of a historic sandstone campus. It certainly makes me sniff a little at UniSA's City West campus. So what is in the hub? A whole bunch of green grass blocks and Space Odyssey furniture - relaxed study spots, special booths for group work that have AV facilities, 200+ computers, printers (you can print from your laptop which you can't do at UniSA if you have a Mac), lockers, skype booths, a maths and writing learning centre, student kitchens (THAT is a good idea), cafes, a post office.... During the year it seems to be populated by students either making out, sleeping or actually studying. I'm pleasantly surprised though - it doesn't feel like a big fat flop, it feels genuinely useful!

Fantastic school, I graduated in 1997 and I attended there from years 8 to 12. I would recommend…read morethis school to everyone. Brilliant school.

Absolutely perfect and it's probably worth going to uni to have access to this place. Whoever…read moredesigned this place is a genius. Feels like a cafe to go to that is for working, the right balance so I feel like doing work as opposed to an actual cafe that I feel like just relaxing and chatting in. Full kitchen facilities for poor students to get cheap food and prepare cheap eats like grilled cheese sandwiches.

The Adelaide College of the Arts is many things to many people. It houses a couple of theatres that…read moreare used as schoolrooms to teach technical production to students as well as provide acting students an opportunity to perform in a state of the art venue; it also provides this experience to the dance students who get a degree in dance at the college. The theatres are also for hire at different times of the year, particularly during the Adelaide Fringe Festival and that's when any number of theatre companies may be appearing in public seasons of plays, stand up comedy or dance. The facility houses galleries where exhibitions are constantly featuring work by graduates of the variety of courses on offer at the school including print making, jewellery and sculpture. Most often the work is available for sale. The large foyer area hosts small scale exhibitions of work related to student productions and there are many opportunities to purchase work by students and view productions by students. One of the best things for the public is the cafe housed in the foyer where you can get a coffee or other beverage, a muffin, a wrap or toasted sandwich and sit at one of the indoor or outdoor tables and relax for a while watching the creative types come and go. Outside there is a small but rather beautiful cactus garden bed, and inside on the last Tuesday of each month a poetry reading is held free of charge between 1 - 2 PM, so there is often something to listen to as well as watch. Music usually plays in the foyer area as well. AC Arts is transitioning into an independent business and encourages the public to use the cafe facilities and attend the exhibitions and poetry readings on site. Always an interesting place to meet for a drink in the city and who knows, you may just bump into the next Picasso, Cate Blanchett or Judy Davis!

It's always a fun art exhibition opening to go to. Packed full of people creating an excited buzz,…read morevariety of artwork, abundance of artwork and some lovely Fox Creek wine to accompany it. Tonight was a graduate exhibition and I love those as there are always proud parents and other supporters of the emerging artists there, which creates some sentimental moments if you're people watching! Penny Griggs, SALA CEO gave a warm and wonderful speech. One tip is to collect the booklet as well as the listing of works. In the booklet all the artists are featured, which makes a great reference for following the up and comers as they grow and develop and exhibit in future shows.

We were fortunate to be invited to a buffet luncheon at Salford College Commercial Cookery School…read more It was outstanding.The students were friendly and delightfully efficient. They prepared and presented the food well, with a huge choice of mouth watering dishes. A lovely dessert choice followed which was received with delight. To end, coffee and a kitchen tour with their friendly chef. It seemed a great place to learn.