Stay longer and SAVE at Aspire Hotel Sydney

HOT DEAL! Stay longer and Save! Great value for money accommodation close to Sydney’s CBD

• Stay a minimum 3 nights and save $10 per night
• Stay a minimum 4 nights and save $15 per night

http://www.aspire-hotel-sydney.bookings.metrohotels.com.au/index.site.packages.package.1620.html

Deluxe Package at Aspire Hotel Sydney

Aspire Hotel Sydney is offering this Deluxe package including:

• Accommodation in a Deluxe room
• On-Site overnight parking
• In-room wireless internet
• Daily breakfast

Package is based on two occupants

Not valid for special events and public holidays

Book or view this hotel accommodation deal: http://www.aspire-hotel-sydney.bookings.metrohotels.com.au/index.site.packages.package.1566.html

About Aspire Hotel Sydney: Enjoy the tranquil location while still being close to Chinatown, UTS, Sydney University, Powerhouse Museum and a quick train or bus ride to Sydney attractions: Pitt Street mall, World Square shopping district, The Opera House and Darling Harbour.

Aspire Winter Hot Deal

Aspire Winter Hot Deal
This cosy Winter Hot Deal at Aspire Hotel (Ultimo) includes accommodation for two guests in a Standard room with private balcony, complimentary internet in our business centre and free car parking.

View hotel accommodation deal: http://www.aspire-hotel-sydney.bookings.metrohotels.com.au/index.site.packages.package.1979.html
Valid for stays 1 May - 31 August 2014

About Aspire Hotel Sydney: Enjoy the tranquil location while still being close to Chinatown, UTS, Sydney University, Powerhouse Museum and a quick train or bus ride to Sydney attractions: Pitt Street mall, World Square shopping district, The Opera House and Darling Harbour.

Winter In Sydney - Shows, Annual Events and Sport Events

If you are in Sydney over Winter attending any of the great events and attractions such as:

Shows:

Lion King (Capitol Theatre Sydney)

Strictly Ballroom (Sydney Lyric Theatre)

Annual Events:

Vivid Sydney

Sydney Film Festival

Sports Events:

State Of Origin

Bledisloe Cup

Winter in Sydney Accommodation - View Metro Hotels Hot Deals

Metro Hotels has four City accommodation options ideal to keep you out of the cold this winter:

Metro Hotel Sydney Central

Metro Hotel on Pitt

Aspire Hotel Sydney

Metro Apartments on Darling Harbour

Also in Miranda (Sutherland Shire) Metro Hotel Miranda

www.Metrohotels.com.au

Powerhouse Museum: the Plan to Woo Sydneysiders Back

Time to revitalise: Museum director Rose Hiscock aims to turn it into a "buzzing must-visit location for young 20-somethings"

Sydneysiders have fallen out of love with the Powerhouse Museum but new director Rose Hiscock plans to rekindle the passion, revealing a fresh strategy to bring back the crowds to its three sites.

Ms Hiscock, the director of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, which includes the Powerhouse, the Powerhouse Discovery Centre at Castle Hill and the Sydney Observatory, outlined her new strategic plan days after announcing that the institution would cut a fifth of its staff.

Employees were stunned by the announcement on Thursday and some expressed fears a predicted loss of 55 staff would be greater.

Installed as director in July last year, Ms Hiscock said the operating structure of 35 separate areas would be simplified to 16 teams, and that she had been open with staff about the need to manage the museum responsibly.

"The staff are naturally concerned about the changes and their position, but the executive team and all of our people are focused on the future of our organisation," she said.

Up to $5 million annually from staff cutbacks would be reinvested in permanent and temporary exhibition renewal, site developments, new programs and gallery spaces, with a master plan being developed to: 

1. Redevelop the Powerhouse by integrating into the Darling Harbour precinct with a new entrance expected to face the planned Goods Line walkway linking Central with Haymarket, Ultimo and Darling Harbour.
2. Ensure the Sydney Observatory becomes a leading tourism attraction as part of the Barangaroo development
3. Open up the Powerhouse Discovery Centre, the home of its giant collection store warehouse, to greater community involvement and tapping the potential of Sydney's west.
4. Pedestrians will be be able to walk the first section of Sydney's version of New York's High Line by the end of the year between Central Station and Darling Harbour. The line – part of which will consist of raised walkways – is to be built in two stages and include major destinations such as the Frank Gehry-designed Dr Chau Chak Wing Building being built at the University of Technology and the Powerhouse.

Ms Hiscock said Sydneysiders had fallen out of love with the Powerhouse Museum, with attendances declining over the longer term, but she wanted to double the number of visitors within five years by focussing on school and tertiary education students and young adults. She said the museum needed to capitalise on the revitalisation of Darling Harbour and Ultimo, turning the museum into a "buzzing must-visit location for young twenty-somethings" as a first date outing with bars, cafes and restaurants.

She said the museum also had to regain its critical reputation by revitalising and expanding its permanent exhibition galleries and focus on key disciplines including technologies, health and medicine, physical sciences, engineering, architecture and the built environment, design and decorative arts, fashion and contemporary culture.

A museum wing dedicated to fashion was cited as a possible example of how the museum's 500,000 item permanent collection could be exhibited for the general public but also work as a resource for high school and tertiary education design students as well as form a backdrop for events such as Australian fashion week.

"At the moment, we have a small and popular temporary exhibit about the work of designer Catherine Martin," Ms Hiscock said. "But imagine a wing that tells the story of fashion in Australia where you can look at creations from the beginning of settlement through to Jenny Kee, Collette Dinnigan to Catherine Martin."

Ms Hiscock said the potential of the Sydney Observatory and the Powerhouse Discovery Centre had been untapped. She said the observatory should be one of the must-visit tourist destinations, comparing "its charm" with the Royal Observatory Greenwich in Britain, which updated its attractions with the opening of a planetarium in 2007.

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Sydney Festival Off to a Flying Start

SYDNEY'S FESTIVAL VILLAGE BIGGER THAN EVER

Sydney Festival Village turns Hyde Park into a stage, with live acts into the night and a Stonehenge bouncy castle for kids.

It takes a village to raise a child, and at the Sydney Festival's village in Hyde Park that proverb has been taken quite literally.

Hundreds of children and quite a few adults wasted no time leaping on Sacrilege, the life-size bouncy castle replica of Stonehenge.

Festival director Lieven Bertels said artists Jeff Koons and Carsten Holler explored playfulness in their art but ''nobody took it to heart as much as Jeremy Deller with this one''.

A Turner Prize-winning artist, Deller invites people to jump, run and cartwheel on his artwork, and his depiction of one of Britain's ancient monuments is far from the reverential treatment it usually suffers.

''We still don't know what it was,'' Bertels said. ''It's a place of worship most likely but he does this and gives it the title of Sacrilege.''

Bertels said the squishy Stonehenge was an ideal symbol of the festival: ''We do very serious stuff and we are also perhaps the most playful of the Australian festivals.''

Sacrilege is part of the greatly expanded Festival Village, which has tripled in size with two circus tents - the Spiegeltent and Circus Ronaldo tent - providing the stage for contemporary music acts such as Amanda Palmer and the circus and cabaret shows Limbo and Scotch & Soda.

The latter are strictly adults only, especially if contortionist Philipp Tigris's jaw-dropping feats of flexibility are any guide as demonstrated to passers-by in Hyde Park on Wednesday.

''That's what I can do with an easy warm-up,'' said Tigris, who performs in Limbo. ''I only had a couple of minutes to warm up so this is the basic stuff.''

Tigris said he took up contortionism aged seven, much to his parent's displeasure. ''My family are doctors. My mum is a physiotherapist but maybe that's why I did it,'' he said.

''When mum and dad say don't do that, of course you do it.''

Ten FREE Events at Sydney Festival

You don’t need to miss out on Sydney Festival if the pennies are short after Christmas. Here are ten free events that measure up!

Sydney Festival looks great this year! But what excites us most at artsHub are the number of free events spread across the city and extending to the Festival's new hub at Parramatta. There is something for everyone - as the saying goes - from jumping castles to kookie interactive film noir and roof top jamming sessions. 

Here is our list of top ten FREE events to put in your diary this January. 

1. Christian Boltanski @ Carriageworks

16 tonnes of scaffolding with a random  filmscript moving through it, this interactive installation will captive the imagination of all ages. Chance is his first major installation to be presented in Australla, a work that was originally created for the French Pavilion at the 2011 Venice Biennale. At Carriageworks from 10 January through 23 March.

2. Climbing the walls with Leandro Erlich @ Darling Harbour

Argentinian artist Leandro Erlich is known for his ability to skew architectural perspective in his interactive installations. Known internationally, he comes to Darling Harbour during the festival turning what appears to be a standard 19thc dock-side building on its end, giant mirrors allowing anyone to have the ability to defy gravity. It is the ultimate selfie opp! Merchants Store will be at Darling Harbour 9-23 January.

3. Stonehenge in Hyde Park

Always wanted to visit Stonehenge? Well Sydney Festival brings you the next best thing, Sacrilege (pictured top). As the spiel goes this timeless monument has had ‘an irreverent makeover’. The work of Turner Prize winning artist Jeremy Deller, this giant jumping castle allows you to physically collide with history. Open 9 – 26 January.

4. Roman Ondak in Parramatta

Presented by Kaldor Public Art Projects at Parramatta Town Hall, this trio of performative art works by Slovakian artist Roman Ondak will include Measuring the Universe, previously presented in New York and London, Terrace a new work for Parramatta, and Swap, which featured in last year’s popular 13 Rooms at Pier 2/3. Be part of contemporary art from 10 – 24 January.

5. Festival Village in Hyde Park

Running throughout Sydney Festival Hyde Park will be transformed into the Festival Village, a hub for beverages, food and entertainment including the location of the infamous Spiegeltent, with nightly performance. From 8-26 January (closed Mondays), entry near the Archibald Fountain.

6. Concerts under the stars at the Domain

And the cornerstone of each Sydney Festival is the Domain concert series. Mark the dates for your diary now: 11 January is that night of popular smorgasbords both on and off stage as thousands gather with their picnic hampers under the stars; And on 26 January be prepared to enter an interstellar zone with Symphony in The Domain, with Gustav Holst’s The Planets and readings by the Bell Shakespeare company.

7. Interactive cinema at Artspace

Sydney artist Alex Davies loves to mess with your mind. ‘Step into The  Very Near Future and you’ll find yourself in th ebacklot with the cast and crew of a film noir in the making. From 16 January – 16 February (closed Mondays).

8. Pop 2014 – the street party of the year.

Street theatre, music, amazing food – it is a recipe for the coolest street party – including performances by jazz legend Ambrose Akinmusire, the soul sounds of Bella Kalolo, blues-infused funk of Ben Capalan to funk in Prince Alfred Park with Lee Fields & The Expressions. Head to Parramatta on 10 January to be part of it.

9. Donny Benet in the Spielgeltent

Donny Benet is claimed ‘the poster boy of Italo funk disco’. Mixing late nights in The Spielgeltent on 10, 17 and 24 January, it is the perfect place to drop in to keep the mood going after catching a spot of theatre during the Festival.

10. Make those summer lights last at Paradiso Lates

And more for the late night dwellers – check out the Paradiso Terrace Bar at Sydney Town Hall for after-hours entertainment. With a rolling schedule of free bands and DJs you can get down at the top, skyline and projections adding to the party buzz. Check the festival night for specific performances.

And remember to visit the Festival site to stay in touch with the latest new.

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