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.  

6 + 7 November 2026 | Belconnen Arts Centre

Design and dance collide in a double-bill exploring the interplay between body, identity and cross-cultural exchange. ALTER is an Austral/Asian collaboration presented by dancers living with and without disability - offering a beautiful hybrid of ephemeral visual art and dance, illustrating the power of dissent through lived and imagined realities.  

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.  

6 + 7 November 2026 | Canberra Institute of Technology, Woden 

Fashion meets activism. Performance meets purpose. Dissent becomes a work of art.  Across one vibrant weekend, Clothing the Loop unfolds as a spectacular evening event and a full day of activities. Live dance, a runway parade, panel talks, clothes swaps, installations, tours and practical workshops celebrate the intersection of sustainable design, live performance and creative activism.  

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. 

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.

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. 

7 + 14 November 2026 | Lakeside + City

In a spirited act of dissent against the boundaries of public space, Localjinni presents two projected night walks through Canberra’s Civic Centre. Led by local artists these saunters reclaim the right to roam and creatively reimagine the city after dark.  

5 November – 12 December 2026  | Craft + Design Canberra

The National Robert Foster Metal Prize exhibition celebrates 15 finalists from across Australia who are questioning, reinterpreting and evolving the possibilities of metal as a contemporary practice. 

7 November 2026  | Craft + Design Canberra

Explore the 2026 Robert Foster Metal Prize with Craft + Design Canberra’s Exhibition Coordinator Stacy Jewell for an exhibition talk reflecting on the ideas, materials and making practices behind this year’s finalists.

5 November – 6 December 2026 | Civic Square  

NEST | Design for the Displaced Future is a major public art commission for the 2026 Craft + Design Canberra Festival, responding to the theme of Dissent. Located in Civic Square, the temporary public art installation brings together sculptural works exploring the universal instinct to nest and belong in a changing world. 

7 November 2026 | Canberra Spinners and Weavers

Join Rebecca Mayo and Canberra Spinners and Weavers for a special collaborative event as part of Living City: People, Plants and Place, supported by artsACT and the Australian National University School of Art and Design. Experience the Plant Sensibilia Machine, a large-scale, hand-operated textile dyeing device that brings the creative process from the studio to the public realm. 

7 November 2026 –  30 January 2027 | Canberra Contemporary

POWER - The Future is Here is the result of a collaboration between Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay and Biripi artist Dennis Golding and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students from Alexandria Park Community School, who designed capes informed by their lived experiences and cultural identity.

7 November 2026 –  30 January 2027 | Canberra Contemporary

Quietly Seething: Fate, Fury and Transmutation  is an immersive handcrafted installation inviting visitors to sit within a dazzling embroidered space while listening to the anonymous and deeply personal confessions of 60 female identifying and AFAB (assigned female at birth) people sharing their experiences of feminine rage. 

6 – 18 November 2026 | Q Gallery

Want to ‘give the finger’ to actions (or inaction) that cause you distress? Sick of responding to issues and concerns with anger or sadness? Radical Joy can help you find humour and hope to communicate your concerns.  

5 – 22 November 2026 | Canberra Airport

Raw and Refined is an exhibition of new work by established contemporary jeweller Phoebe Porter exploring the dualities of raw and worked, natural and cultural, and material and meaning. The project explores refinement both as an artistic act, distilling ideas and forms to their essence, and as a material process in which raw elements are transformed to become workable.