Itineraries

Blurb

First Nations Voices

Experience powerful First Nations stories, culture and creativity through exhibitions, public art and conversations led by artists and knowledge holders.

2026 Program

Are we measuring Canberra all wrong?

6 November 2026 | National Film and Sound Archive of Australia

In line with the Craft + Design Canberra Festival theme of Dissent, this conversation asks whether we are measuring the things that matter most. As Canberra grows and changes, are we optimising for the metrics that are easier to count, or for the things that make our city a better place to live? This discussion will explore how the measures we choose influence the places we create, and whether it is time to broaden the way we define success.

BOLD Dissent

12 – 13 November 2026 | Canberra Museum and Gallery

BOLD Dissent is a two-day conference featuring leading dancers, designers and thinkers from across Australia and the world bringing a focus on dissent. Shaking up the way we create and present performing arts and the ways in which organisations and artists can create more accessible and inclusive environments for the future.

Dissent by Design | Creativity as a Tool for Change

6 November 2026 | National Film and Sound Archive of Australia

Dissent by Design explores creativity as a form of dissent: the ways artists, designers, activists and storytellers use their practice to resist, imagine and rebuild.

Elder Art

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.

GRAPHIC INTERVENTION

5 – 15 November 2026 | Various Locations

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POWER – The Future is Here

7 November 2026 – 30 January 2027 | Canberra Contemporary

In the spirit of Dissent, Canberra Contemporary presents POWER – The Future is Here by Denis Golding, curated by Kyra Kum-Sing, alongside Tal Fitzpatrick's solo exhibition Quietly Seething: Fate, Fury and Transmutation. Together, these exhibitions interrogate power, resistance and transformation through bold and uncompromising contemporary practice.

Walk On Country

15 November 2026 | Black Mountain

Walk on Country with Tyronne Bell (Ngunawal ) through the tracks and trails of Black Mountain, gaining a First Nations understanding of bush foods, artefacts and stone tools, with panoramic views of Canberra along the way. This tour reads the landscape through Ngunawal knowledge held and carried forward since long before Canberra was planned, offering the 2026 Festival theme of Dissent as continuity of culture on Country.

Weaving Waters

5 July – 13 December 2026 | Tuggeranong Arts Centre

In dissent against the decline of the Murray Cod, Tuggeranong Arts Centre invites you to join collaborative community weaving sessions, using natural fibre and recycled materials to complete a large scale textile sculpture. Hear First Nations stories and learn about the environmental conservation efforts surrounding this threatened and culturally significant species.

Canberra City of Design

Trace the city’s origins, uncover its hidden landmarks and meet the makers and thinkers shaping Canberra’s design future.

2026 Program

ALTER – a double bill of Design, Dance, Disability and Dissent

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.

Are we measuring Canberra all wrong?

Canberra Open Homes

9 – 15 November 2026 | Across Canberra

Explore Canberra's award-winning Architecture with new landmark buildings and ingenious sustainable residences through the Australian Institute of Architecture's Tour program.

Delightly

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.

Designing Currency

6 November 2026 | Royal Australian Mint

2026 marks the 60^th anniversary of Decimal Currency, designed by Australian industrial designer Stuart Devlin and minted in Canberra at the Royal Australian Mint. To mark the anniversary, the Mint presents an in-conversation event with coin designer Adam Ball and brand designer Mike Jackson.

Dissent: Opposition/Proposition

10 November 2026 | Nangari Street Carpark

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.

Raw and Refined

5 – 22 November 2026 | Canberra Airport

Raw and Refined presents new work by established contemporary jeweller Phoebe Porter, highlighting the origins of the materials she employs and the labour of making. The exhibition celebrates the handmade as an act of creative dissent, challenging consumerism, mass production and conventional notions of value through thoughtful, enduring design.

Adapt our World

Explore how design is driving more sustainable, resilient and imaginative futures through exhibitions, talks and creative experiences.

2026 Program

Bespoke Utopia

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.

Clothing the Loop: Circular Design Festival

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.

EMERGENCY | Signal, Adapt, Repair

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.

NEST | Design for a Displaced Future

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.

Northbourne Avenue Flats | A Walking Tour with the FixIt Chicks

10 + 12 November 2026 | Northbourne Avenue

Join The Fix It Chicks, architect Jenny Edwards and broadcaster Lish Fejer, for an evening walking tour exploring the retrofit of Canberra’s mid-century public housing on Northbourne Avenue, including access inside one of the retrofitted maisonettes.

Revitrification

5 – 15 November 2026 | Australian National Botanic Gardens

Revitrification transforms discarded architectural waste glass into sculptural installations at the Botanic Gardens, in the process researching circular methodologies that give new value to landfill-bound materials. The project embodies dissent, rejecting the convention that discarded glass has reached the end of its useful life in our designed city.

Make + Connect

Get hands-on with workshops, artist-led activities and creative experiences that invite you to make, learn and connect.

2026 Program

2026 Craft + Design Canberra Open Studios + Organisations Open Day Program

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.

2026 Craft + Design Canberra Undercurrent Design Market

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.

Dissent through Decal: Ceramic Decoration Workshop

10 November 2026 | Craft + Design Canberra

Explore Art Deco design with artist Sarit Cohen. Decorate a ceramic bisque-fired cup using geometric decals and clear glaze, experimenting with colour, pattern and composition to reflect your personal perspective on place.

Hacking Histories: Sonified Textiles

11 November 2026 | Craft + Design Canberra

Create an embroidered soft circuit inspired by a memory of early digital technology. Combine stitching, copper tape and sound interaction to explore how personal stories can spark small, creative acts of dissent.

Reflective Clay

14 November 2026 | Ainslie Arts Centre

Slow down with clay. Use a mindful approach to make an unfired 'thought bubble' vessel. Watch it decay in nature over time when you are ready.

Slow Stitched Talismans: Acts of Gentle Dissent

12 November 2026 | Craft + Design Canberra

In quiet dissent against a world that values speed over stillness, this workshop invites you to explore hand stitching techniques to slowly shape and adorn a talisman made from natural fibres and filled with flowers. Slow stitched talismans honour care, imperfection and the power of handmade objects as vessels of memory and protection.

Textile Transformations: Radical Rugs

9 November 2026 | Craft + Design Canberra

Transform an old t-shirt into a new patch or artwork with a message of protest, resistance or rebellion using traditional rug making techniques.

Very Cross Stitch

11 November 2026 | Canberra Contemporary

Join feminist artist and craftivist Dr Tal Fitzpatrick for a ‘Very Cross Stitching’ workshop as part of her solo exhibition Quietly Seething: Fate, Fury and Transmutation at Canberra Contemporary. Participants will be invited to stitch directly into Tal’s exhibition artwork, while sharing and connecting over what makes them cross.

Kids + Families

Discover a playful program of hands-on activities, performances and experiences designed to inspire creative minds of all ages.

2026 Program

2026 Craft + Design Canberra Undercurrent Design Market

Canberra Kinetic Sculpture Race

14 November 2026 | National Carillon

The 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.

Digital Dissent – Microgames Showcase

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.

Pattern Play

14 November 2026 | Ainslie Arts Centre

Discover the infinite possibilities of simple printmaking in this playful workshop. Using recycled materials and reclaimed textiles, you will create your own patterned cloth to take home, a small and wearable act of dissent.

Radical Joy

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.

Wing It! A Children’s Atelier for Hatchlings of Change

- November 2026 | The Learning Nest Co.

Wing It! Is a bold, hands-on children’s atelier where young ‘hatchlings’ explore a range of unexpected materials such as UV paint, odd car parts and splatter tools in a creative mess. This boundary-breaking workshop invites children to experiment freely and challenge expectations through invention, imaginative problem-solving and creative risk taking.

Walk + Explore

See the city differently. Guided tours, nocturnal walks and public art installations that turn Canberra's streets, parks and waterways into the festival venue.

2026 Program

Braddon Mural Magic | A Walk Through Creative Corners

8 November 2026 | Braddon

Discover Braddon’s bold murals on an immersive guided walk exploring how artists use public walls to challenge ideas and spark conversation. Find hidden corners, encounter striking works up close and uncover the stories shaping Canberra’s most eclectic suburb. Braddon Mural Magic invites all ages to see the city as a living, creative gallery.

Dissent and the Griffins’ Canberra | Canberra Modern Coach Tour

14 November 2026 | City

Canberra Modern’s tour will take you to significant sights around Canberra. Experience the Griffin’s internationally significant plan from an act of creative dissent, through to implementation as a city embodying democratic ideals. Visit locations in the central national area from elevated vantage points to hidden sights, including the historic Cork Oak plantation, General Bridges grave, the Incinerator and much more.

GRAPHIC INTERVENTION

5 – 15 November 2026 | Various Locations

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Moonlight Meanders Night Walks

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.

NEST | Design for a Displaced Future

Nightwalks with Teenagers

12, 13 + 14 November 2026 | City

Nightwalks with Teenagers is created with local youth, who plan, design and lead public walks through Canberra at night, exploring the neighbourhood with members of the community. It is focused on the power of walking together, bringing together teens and adults to have a unique social experience in shared spaces.

Revitrification

Stories in the Dark

5 – 15 November 2026 | Civic Square

Stories in the Dark is an animated public light installation in Civic Square by Eggpicnic. Shifting between daylight and nighttime hours we see and hear species and ecosystems that have been ignored or erased, challenging us to confront ecological neglects. Transforming our attention into responsibility and making dissent a deliberate act of ecological care.

Walk On Country

See Full Festival Program