In the Company of Birds event with Weekend Birder Kirsty Costa & Guests
Posted on 26 August, 2026 by Hadley Cole
As part of the 2026 Feathery Festival, Connecting Country and Birdlife Castlemaine are teaming up to present, In the Company of Birds; an evening of art and conversation celebrating the birds in our lives. This very special event offers a hopeful and uplifting evening celebrating our local birds through a panel discussion hosted by science educator Kirsty Costa, Weekend Birder podcaster. Kirsty will be chatting with award winning nature artist Kate Gorringe-Smith and local artist and BirdLife Convener Jane Rusden, all of whom have a long history of advocating for nature conservation.
Following captivating panel discussions, Nature Art Soudscapes will perform, blending live music and art making to send you floating home in awe of our local birds.
Gather a bunch of your nature and art loving friends and book a table for 8 at only $60 per head, or an individual ticket for $65! Ticket price includes a delicious dinner provided by local restaurant Melody.
This is definitely an event not to miss! For more information and bookings – click here
Read on to learn more about the amazing panelists and musicians joining us for this wonderful event!
All profits from this event will go towards Connecting Country’s restoration projects.
Kirsty Costa has made a career of asking, “What’s that bird doing?” She is the host of Weekend Birder, one of Australia’s favourite science and nature podcasts, where she invites people to get to know the birds living around them. You’ll also find her speaking at festivals, leading bird walks, hosting workshops and popping up in national media.
Wherever she goes, Kirsty combines stories, science and everyday wonder to make the world feel a little more fascinating.
Weekend Birder invites you to get to know the birds around you through noticing, stories and science. It features conversations with scientists, birdwatchers and nature lovers. Practical guides and everyday observations reveal just how fascinating birds really are. Whether you already watch birds or are only beginning to notice them, Weekend Birder turns ordinary encounters into deeper relationships with birds and the living world.
Melbourne/Naarm-based contemporary printmaker Kate Gorringe-Smith works in 2D and 3D form and installation. Her art is intimately connected to the environment and explores ways to convey the rich and unique entanglement of site, plant, human and animal life. Kate’s work at BirdLife Australia in the 1990s instilled in her a great love of birds. Her work often references migratory shorebirds to illustrate the environmental connections that link us individually and globally.
In 2017 Kate launched The Overwintering Project: Mapping Sanctuary, an ongoing environmental art project uniting artists around Australia to raise awareness for migratory shorebirds and their wetland habitat. To date, the Project has involved over 300 artists, thirty exhibitions throughout Australia and raised $51,000 for BirdLife Australia.
Kate has been exhibiting her work for over three decades. Her work has been shortlisted in major art prizes around Australia. In 2025 she won the WAMA Environmental Art Award. She has exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Australia and internationally.
In her work, Jane Rusden seeks to tap into our deep emotional spaces as humans, and draw links with the natural world of which we are a part, using birds both as a metaphor and tangible creatures. Her background in Zoology informs her art practice and how she paints and draws birds on paper, using watercolour, ink, pencil and charcoal. Bird watching and the bird survey work she does influences the species she paints.
Jane Rusden is interested in the connections between bird species and their habitat and she expresses these connections through her art materials and their interactions with water and paper. Given water brings life to our landscape and paper is an organic material.
Jane Rusden’s focus on resilience in adversity in nature and expressed through birds, is deeply influenced by bird surveys for BirdLife and Connecting Country, and her role as Convener of BirdLife Castlemaine District. Jane’s art is a celebration of hope, beauty and awe, and immersive delight and wonder of the natural world.
Nature Art Soundscapes are friends and musicians/artists Hilary Blackshaw (volin, guitar and vocals), Joel Bloom (lap steel guitar), Clara Schutz (cello) and Jane Rusden (live watercolour painting). The quartet celebrates their love and advocacy for local habitats and wildlife through weaving beautiful live art making projected on screen with evocative musical soundscapes.
Each performance explores the story, magic and wonder of local nature, offering audiences an open ended, immersive experience. Enjoy watching Jane’s painting slowly unfold while Joel, Hilary and Clara soothe your ears with a heartfelt improvised and composed soundscape.
A big Thank You to funders, supporters and partners that make this event possible; Brian D Newman Foundation, Birdlife Castlemaine, Weekend Birder, Castlemaine Goods Shed and Melody.
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