5 November 2026 | Craft + Design Canberra

Join us to formally launch the 2026 Craft + Design Canberra Festival and celebrate the opening of 4 exciting exhibitions in the Craft + Design Canberra Gallery and Civic Square. 

7 + 8 November 2026 | Various Locations

Step inside the studios of Canberra’s makers and discover the creative practices of local craftspeople, designers, artists and arts organisations. Proudly supported by home.by.holly.  

13 - 15 November 2026 | Ainslie Arts Centre

The Undercurrent Design Market brings together over 50 accomplished makers from across Australia, showcasing contemporary work in jewellery, glass, ceramics, textiles and diverse creative mediums.  

23 October – 15 November 2026 | M16 Artspace

Bespoke Utopia presents Canberra artists whose practices embrace the principles of slow design that is grounded in care, material knowledge and long-term thinking. Linking global conversations around sustainable design with Canberra’s rich craft history, the exhibition invites audiences to consider how design shapes everyday life and how thoughtful creative practices can challenge fast, disposable production models.  

9 – 15 November 2026 | Miko Designs

Break // Make: UC x Miko is a multidisciplinary design collaboration between University of Canberra students and Miko Designs. Exploring Dissent, students challenge convention, blend tradition with technology and push the boundaries of craft, architecture and design to envision our sustainable and creative futures.  

7 November 2026 | National Carillon

Canberra Kinetic Sculpture Race is a one-day spectacle of human-powered, amphibious art machines. Teams create imaginative sculptures that travel across land, sand, and water in a whimsical celebration of creativity and dissent. Audiences can explore, watch, and cheer on these inventive, handmade moving artworks. 

12 November 2026 | Canberra Airport

Join acclaimed contemporary jeweller Phoebe Porter and craft writer and curator Kevin Murray for an in conversation event at Canberra Airport, surrounded by Phoebe's new exhibition Raw and Refined. 

13 November 2026 | National Film and Sound Archive

Join the new Craft Australia for a screening of the classic documentaries on Australian craft by Peter Rushforth and Gillian Armstrong, followed by drinks with the new board. 

5 – 25 November 2026  | Canberra Glassworks

Delightly revives endangered scientific glassblowing skills, transforming salvaged laboratory glass into plasma-illuminated vessels. Harriet Schwarzrock creates objects whose luminous behaviour shifts with viewer proximity, taking science out of the museum. Darkened, subtly interactive installations offer multi-sensory wonder, merging curiosity with playful public engagement in glass and light. 

1 – 28 November 2026 | Designcraft

Design Deviation celebrates the intentional mistake, showcasing furniture by Designcraft employees who have deliberately broken the rules of 'best practice' to discover new aesthetics in unusual materials and unconventional assembly. 

6 November 2026 | Royal Australian Mint

2026 marks the 60^th anniversary of Decimal Currency, designed by Australian industrial designer Stuart Devlin and minted here in Canberra at the Royal Australian Mint. To mark the year, the Mint presents an in-conversation event with coin designers Neve Foxcroft and Lydia Ashe.

7 – 8 + 14 – 15 November 2026 | National Film and Sound Archive

Digital Dissent is an interactive showcase of innovative microgames exploring dissent, presented by Canberra Game Developers Association (CanDev) and hosted by the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA). Play the games, then join Digital Dissent in Discussion to hear local designers reflect on how Canberra’s game design community embraces dissent.  

7 November 2026 | National Film and Sound Archive

Digital Dissent in Discussion brings together local game developers to reflect on the evolution of Canberra's game design scene, dissecting the innovative microgames presented in Digital Dissent and exploring how Canberra's games industry continues to blaze a trail and break the mould.

10 November 2026 | Reconciliation Place

Presented by Architectus in partnership with SONA and EmAGN, Dissent: Opposition/Proposition brings together emerging thought leaders from architecture, urban design and adjacent fields to interrogate the role of sanctioned and unsanctioned design in the city and explore how opposition can become a proposition for change. 

14 November 2026 | ANU School of Medicine and Psychology

How do we view, hear and learn from the human corpse? Artists and anatomists from the Australian National University School of Medicine come together to explore how art and narrative can protect and preserve the humanity of the human body.  

7 – 29 November 2026 | Civic Art Bureau

Down and Out presents a series of intimate paintings by local artist Kate Stevens, reflecting upon 25 years of quiet sustained artistic practice, maintained alongside the radical act of care required of single motherhood. 

6 – 22 November 2026 | Queanbeyan Hive

A powerful act of dissent against the marginalisation of older voices, Elder Art is an exhibition of artworks by older members of the community. Through art and artist talks, the exhibition amplifies these voices, celebrating the richness that a long life and diverse experiences of history can bring to our shared community. 

5 November – 12 December 2026  | Craft + Design Canberra

EMERGENCY: Signal, Repair, Adapt brings together artists and designers working across ceramics, glass, textiles and media to examine what it means to make objects in a time of disruption. A major exhibition that affirms the power of creative practice to imagine alternatives where established systems have failed. 

7 November 2026  | Craft + Design Canberra

Join curator Stacy Jewell and exhibiting artists from EMERGENCY | Signal, Repair, Adapt for a shared conversation exploring resilience, transformation and repair. 

6 November – 29 November 2026 | Canberra Potters

When does patience run out? When does silence become complicity? When is enough finally enough? This powerful exhibition brings together three nationally recognised artists to explore the nature of labour, activism and social commentary through the intersecting practices of contemporary ceramics, art and design.