Craft and Design Canberra has two new exhibitions. Firstly, Rewild Artists-in-Residence Exhibition presents new work by artists Michele Grimston and Hannah McKellar, developed through the 2025 Craft + Design Canberra Artist-in-Residence program at Cinerea Cottage, located within Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve. Then there’s STAUNCH. This exhibition is an introduction to the STAUNCH Collective, a collaboration presenting works created by seven Blak artists who connected through conversations about Culture as First Nations Peoples.  Both exhibitions will be on display until Saturday 23rd May. Craft & Design Canberra is in the North Building on London Cct in Civic. Gallery hours are Wednesday to Saturday 12pm -4pm.
At the Wesley Music Centre the Andromeda Sax Quartet presents the Australian premiere of Gemma Peacocke’s enchanting Hazel: a concert that will flow through mesmerising rainscapes by Jabra Latham, to the dappled moonlight of Alex Turley. The performance will take place on Friday 17th April at 7:00pm. For further information visit the Wesley Music Centre’s website.
The next Braidwood Concert Series will be classical guitarist Tommaso Girotto performing works by Bach, Sculthorpe, Crivici, Takemitsu, Albeniz and Dean. The concert will be at the Braidwood Uniting Church on Sunday 19th April at 3pm. For further information on this performance and upcoming concerts visit the Braidwood Concert Series Facebook page.
The next Canberra Rep theatre production will be Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Set in pre‑Revolutionary France, Les Liaisons Dangereuses follows the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont, two aristocrats who wield seduction like a blade. Their dangerous games spiral into betrayal, obsession, and devastating consequences, revealing the rot beneath society’s polished veneer. Les Liaisons Dangereuses will be performed from Thursday 23rd April until Saturday 9th May. The Canberra Rep theatre is at Repertory Ln in Acton and for further information and performance times are available from their website.
The next Lakeside at 5 live music series will be vocalist Rachael Thoms joining forces with two of Canberra’s most sought-after musicians, guitarist Lachlan Coventry, and bassist Chris Pound performing soulful, sophisticated, playful, and intimate live music. The concert will be at Tuggeranong Arts Centre from 5:30pm on Friday 24th April. For information on the event and upcoming Lakeside at 5 sessions visit the Tuggeranong Arts Centre’s website.
The next ANU Meet the Authors event will be Caillan Davenport in conversation with Edward Watts on Caillan’s new book Behind Ceasar’s Back: Rumor, Gossip and the Making of Roman Emperors, a thrilling exploration of what Romans thought about their emperors, and how rumours and gossip—ranging from new taxes to rulers’ sex lives—shaped leadership. The event will take place at the ANU Kambri Cinema on Thursday 23rd April from 6:00pm.To find out more information and to register for this event visit the events section of the ANU website.
At the Grainger Gallery Staying with Trouble is an evolving project of inquiry between four artists whose purpose is to explore environmental connectedness and crisis through their creative practice. The exhibition will be on display until Sunday 2nd May. The Granger gallery is at Dairy road Fyshwick opening hours Wed – Sun 11am – 5pm.
Tuggeranong Arts Centre has three new exhibitions.Â
Firstly, in Nature Speaks, sculptor Vladimir Gottwald work features naturally shaped pieces of black limestone that share remarkable similarities to human and animal forms and emotional expressions. Then fellow artist Kate Shaw’s soft pastel, charcoal, and pencil, combines with wet media and selected found objects to create a large 6-meter-long drawing that provides a counterpoint to Gottwald’s stone sculptures.Â
Next, Pigment, Powder, Wax, Sand is a group exhibition born from kinship, friendship, and years of shared dialogue in a coming-together of practices that have long run in parallel.
And lastly, There and Back Again by Peter Bitmead looks closely at the differences between Canberra and two properties on the Emu River in Tasmania and draws similarities past and present.Â
All three exhibitions will be on display from Friday 17th April until 13th June. For more information visit the Tuggeranong Arts Centre’s website.
At the Megalo Print Studio Ten Trips Around the Sun celebrates a kaleidoscope of work produced by Naarm-based Helio Press that specialises in illustrative risograph printing and DIY publishing. The exhibition will be on display until 23rd May. The Megalo print studio is at Wentworth St, Kingston. Opening hours 9.30am – 5pm, Tuesday – Saturday.
The National Library of Australia is hosting the launch of Landslide: The 2025 Australian federal election. Veteran journalist Nick Bryant will be in conversation with Associate Professor Jill Sheppard to discuss this new publication, exploring the unexpected landslide victory of the Labor Party in the 2025 election. The event will take place on Thursday 16th April at 6pm. For more information and to register for the event visit the National Library of Australia website.
The Free-Rain Theatre presents Constellations. What happens when two people meet at exactly the right — or wrong — moment? And what if that moment could play out a hundred different ways? What if every choice you’ve ever made — or didn’t make — created a new universe? This play explores love, choice, and the infinite possibilities of parallel universes. Constellations will be performed from Thursday 16th till Saturday 25th April at the ACT Hub which is at Spinifex Street in Kingston. Further information and performance times are available at the ACT Hub website.
Belco Arts has six new exhibitions:
Firstly, Stained with Light  by Sarah Murray is a series of paintings in acrylic and oils that explore an embodied experience of landscape.
Then, Mental Health and Nature by Jennifer Adams is an experimental exhibition that challenges the narrow view that mental health treatment is a clinical activity, taking place within four walls instead of seeing our experience of nature as vital to our mental health.
Next, Inhabiting Change by Fiona Heard explores the nature of impermanence, framing the present not as a static destination, but as a dynamic threshold between what was and what will be.
Witness by Jeanette Muirhead focuses on the pursuit to explore, experience and bear witness to reef and coastal ecosystems undergoing critical change.
In the exhibition Between What Remains, David Manley and Hilary Wardhaugh reunite creatively in their hometown of Belconnen to reflect on lives once intimately connected and now forever interwoven through friendship and a shared artistic vision.
And, lastly, Chasing Alice by Annie Lok features her latest works in her ongoing series entitled Rabbit Holes, where each piece features a female Alice protagonist navigating her way through these carefully constructed compositions.
All six exhibitions will be on display until 17th May. Belco Arts Gallery hours are 10am – 4pm, Tuesdays – Sunday.
Strathnairn Arts has the Emerging Artists Support Scheme 2025. This exhibition brings together works by three emerging artists whose practices engage with materiality, identity and the complexities of contemporary experience. Working across ceramics, mixed media and painting, their works explore themes of ecological fragility, grief and repair, and cultural reclamation. The exhibition will be on display until 3rd May. Strathnairn Arts gallery hours are 10am -4pm Wednesday to Sunday.Â
At Rusten House in Queanbeyan William Verdon’s Some Things I Saw is a collection of photographs of things both large and small, captured in a particular moment and perspective of everyday encounters. The exhibition will be on display until Saturday 2nd May and Rusten House is at Collett St in Queenbeyan.
At the Q Gallery, A Heart Wrapped in Cheesecloth is a solo exhibition by Anthony Chicco featuring a body of work that reflects a sustained return to painting while navigating the long term effects of an electrical injury. A Heart Wrapped in Cheesecloth will be on display until Thursday 16th April. The Q Gallery is at Edgar Street in Ainslie and opening hours are 2:30-6:00pm Wednesday to Saturday and 10:00am-3:00pm on Saturday.
Canberra Potters has two new exhibitions. Firstly, Collected Works brings together a curated selection of 60 works from the over 4,500 works in the Australian Pottery Collection at Bemboka. Then, Gathered Time by Lisa Stevenson operates less as an exhibition and more as a field of inquiry, where woven ceramics, bioplastics, and sculptures evidence the artist’s ongoing investigation into material experimentation and narratives of place.Both exhibitions will be on display until 26th April. Canberra Potters is at Aspinall St Watson. Gallery hours are 10am to 4pm, Tuesday to Saturday and 11am to 3pm Sunday.
The Free-Rain Theatre presents & Juliet: a bold, high‑energy reimagining of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet that asks what might happen if Juliet chose her own future instead of meeting her tragic end. & Juliet will be performed until 26th April at the Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre. Further information is available at the Free-Rain Theatre website.
At the Canberra Contemporary Platform The Weather and What Is explores Olive Burgess’ lived experience as a lesbian woman within a dualistic society, working to dismantle dominant Western narratives that marginalise queer, embodied, and ecological ways of knowing. The exhibition will be on display until 26th April. The Canberra Contemporary Platform is at Furneaux Street, Manuka. Gallery hours are Friday to Sunday, 11am – 5pm.
The Canberra Art Fair is a three day community celebration of the arts. Artists can sell directly to the public, exhibit their work, teach or attend a workshop and network with other artists. The Canberra Art Fair will be held at the Fitzroy Pavilion at Epic until Sunday 17th May. Registrations are now open for artists to participate in this event at the Canberra Art Fair website.
Canberra Glassworks has End to End. Artist Louis Grant uses his sculptural practice to centre on glass as material and metaphor to explore the themes of queer identity, perception and transformation through light and inspiration. End to End will be on display until 26th April. Canberra Glassworks is at Wentworth Avenue, Kingston. Gallery hours 10am – 4pm Wednesday to Sunday.
At the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House Behind the Lines 2025: ‘Are We Rolling?’ celebrates the year’s best political cartoons. This year’s exhibition theme is the cinema, acknowledging that, like some of our favourite movies, 2025 has been full of thrills and spills, romance and heartbreak, with plenty of unexpected plot twists. Our cartoonists and illustrators have tackled many of the issues that made news, including the federal election, the cost of living, energy policy, interest rates, housing security, the economy, climate change and stories from overseas.  Behind the Lines 2025 will run until November 2026. The Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House is open daily from 9am to 5pm.
At the National Archives of Australia, In real life: inventors, innovators and opportunists explores the colourful history of Australian innovation, from First Nations creativity to 150 years of patents, trademarks and designs registration. The exhibition features the stories behind iconic inventions and household brand names. In real life: inventors, innovators and opportunists is on display at the National Archives of Australia each day from 9am to 5pm, until 17th May.
At the National Library of Australia the Treasures Gallery exhibition explores the story of the Library. The exhibition includes pages from the First Folio of William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, a cedar bookcase carved by Dorothea Mackellar, a tactile map of Australia embossed with Braille script from 1889; phrenologist and fortune-teller Zinga Lee’s fortune telling cards; images from the nation’s photo album; and a display of The Wiggles’ websites from 1997 to today. For more information visit the National Library of Australia website.
At the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House Gurindji Freedom Banners: From the darkness into the light is a striking exhibition that tells the story of the Gurindji and neighbouring peoples, who on 23 August 1966 led by Vincent Lingiari – walked off Wave Hill Station in the Northern Territory. Their demands for fair working conditions and the return of their traditional lands sparked a landmark shift, leading to the first handback of Aboriginal land on 16 August 1975 that paved the way for the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976. For further information on the Gurindji Freedom Banners exhibition visit the Museum of Australian Democracy website.
