The ABC Arts channel has launched on iview, featuring original, hand-picked, high quality arts content.
This month ABC Arts will showcase more than 70 titles and 35 hours of arts programming with new content added regularly.
Rebecca Heap, head of ABC TV strategy and digital products said: “The most exciting aspect is the opportunity to commission new, unique content specifically for the channel, adding to the overall conversation and making arts programming more accessible, exploring new stories and shorter form content.”
Original Australian video series for ABC Arts includes:
•#OnAssignment hosted by Australian photographer James Simmons;
•The Imitation Game: Marina Abramovic, inside an art-world experiment with the matriarch of performance art;
•Thrill and the Fury, an antidote to the effusive celebration of street art;
•Fashpack Freetown, celebrating the irrepressible forces of creativity in a town known more as a civil war battleground than a fashion hotspot; and
•The Critics with Zan Rowe, a new review show dissecting screen culture from film to video art and the latest web series.
Other highlights include curated arts documentaries such as Finding Vivian Maier, Chuck Close, Beautiful Losers, Getting Frank Gehry, Finding Fela and Stranded.
ABC Arts will also bring cult art shows from abroad such as Park Bench with Steve Buscemi and hours of clips from the ABC archives including rarely seen live performances and interviews with Public Enemy, Bon Scott, Regurgitator, Silverchair, Oren Ambarchi, Midnight Oil and others.
ABC acting head of arts Kath Earle said: “We’ve created a channel filled to the brim with hand-picked arts content which will lead audiences to surprise discoveries and classic favourites. Where else would memorable moments from ABC’s Recovery sit comfortably alongside the grandmother of performance art Marina Abramović, celebrated photographer Trent Parke and the superstar of Nigerian funk Fela Kuti?”