Two years ago when the COVID-19 pandemic started a lot of my friends in the arts started losing their jobs on stage or their exhibitions were cancelled.
The reason I know so many people in the arts, is a love of arts and I have produced/co-hosted a weekly arts show on JOY94.9 – Sunday Arts Magazine for the past 8 year and have made so many lovely friendships with the artists, as I invite them back on air each time they have a show or exhibition.
The more the pandemic took control the more I felt for the arts.
My first thought was how can I help, so I handed over my social media to a different visual artist each week, posting artworks & their story each day, inviting my SM friends to go directly to the artist to buy…it worked!
What could I do next? I approached visual artist/author/gallery owner Maree Coote who has a gallery & shop on Clarendon Street – Melbourne Style, who suggested to me before I asked to give me the front windows of her shop front to exhibit an artist work each week.
Maree said you are The Art Hunter! So that’s what we called the project & she even designed an Art Hunter logo!
Again I shared the exhibition in the windows on SM inviting people to walk past and check out the weekly exhibition. After only a few weeks Melbourne went into lock down, the end of the “Window Shopping” exhibition.
Then by chance, I meet two brothers at the beginning of 2021, who are film & tel makers, they were using one of the theatre’s at the Alex Theatre, St Kilda. The theatre was closed and they have a arts support charity, which they gave to Simon & Tim Barnett ( the brothers) to produce TV as we went in and out of lockdown.
They knew about my radio show & what I was doing to support the arts and offered me a weekly spot to interview a different artist every week. What an opportunity! With me knowing so many artists I went directly to them and they all jumped at the opportunity. Over the past 10 months we have produced 20 plus interview, covering all arts disciplines: play writers, visual artists, opera, cabaret, actors, dance, authors, film directors, musical theatre ect.
Mid last year we started a YouTube channel & then a month later Channel 31 picked us up as a weekly show.
The Alex theatre has been very supportive and late last year they asked me if I would like to do a live show as part of the Midsumma Festival, they offered to pay the registration & gave me the theatre for free. WOW!
The concept of the show is think ABC’s Q&A so it’s a panel show but all about the arts, with live performances by the panel of performing artists, visual artists and arts journalists. Of course I wanted to pay the artists and I was very lucky to get funding.
The show is called The Art Hunter presents Twilight Salon.
Two shows only
Saturday 29 January
Opera/cabaret, Ali McGregor
Musial theatre, John O’Hara
Visual artist, Gerard O’Connor
Arts journalist, Richard Watts
Saturday 5 February
Burlesque, Moria Finucane
Composer musical director, Warren Wills with 30 person choir
Arts journalist, Stephen A Russell
Visual artist, Maree Coote.
I would love your support with a story, so that I can continue in my quest to support the arts!
David Hunt
The Art Hunter
0408 598 957
