In the new year, blueBanksia will be expanding to include all art short courses, resources and events for visual arts, writing, music, digital media & production as well as theatre & drama.

To start you thinking about other creative arts courses, this month we focus on Into the Blue - CHOIR TASMANIA - EAST COAST.

Into the Blue views wilderness as a place in which to explore a range of human activities. Their Lifestyle and Creative programs take your passion or special interests and weave it into a fascinating journey. Remarkable things happen on Into the Blue trips.

14-22 April 2012 with Leonie Norton

Travel lightly with a sketchbook, watercolour travelling palette, black pen and a pencil. Holiday sketching combines a unique and enjoyable holiday with learning the art of pen and watercolour to record your visual memories.

Leonie Norton is a prominent botanical artist and highly experienced international tutor who has been taking overseas tours for many years. This is a wonderful way to travel, whether as a single or with a non participating partner, who will be well looked after as the group sketches.

Dedicated sketching stops morning and afternoon with individual attention and reviews ensure that each participant receives quality tuition. All skill levels are welcome. These limited number tours are not the traditional package tours, but more like travelling with a group of friends.

Over the past four decades, the University of Southern Queensland’s McGregor Summer School has become somewhat of an institution for arts practitioners and enthusiasts alike.

From humble beginnings back in January 1969 with three painting classes and 43 students, the Summer School has steadily grown in size and popularity.

Today, the annual School offers up to fifty classes and attracts over 500 students from across the nation and overseas to Toowoomba for the ten-day arts retreat.

How does a ‘Textile’ organisation get involved in a multi-arts event – and why in the Blue Mountains?

And where did a name like ‘CONTEXTART FORUM’ come from?...

…Suddenly this new event appeared, looking like a fait accompli. And that makes sense when you consider it’s being launched by an organisation with vast experience in running ‘Textile Forums’ – workshop based events that ‘TAFTA’ has coordinated for over 20 years now, around Australia. TAFTA being The Australian Forum for Textile Arts, Ltd.

Widely regarded as the jewel in Queensland’s crown and the ‘whale watch capital of the world’, Queensland’s Hervey Bay is well worth a visit.

The distinct and very affordable destination offers a colourful concentration of lifestyles; a wonderful subtropical climate; and unspoilt waterways which are home to turtles, dolphins, dugongs and the internationally famous humpback whales.

And what better way to celebrate such natural beauty, than putting brush to canvas or pen to paper at a long-weekend creative arts retreat?

This September, six of the nation’s leading artists will visit Hervey Bay to tutor at the University of Southern Queensland’s (USQ) fourth annual MCGREGOR ON THE BAY.