The SmartFone Flick Fest returns for its fourth year as Australia’s international smartphone film festival, presenting the best short films in this exclusive red-carpet event at the Gala Final Awards Screening. From over 700 entries, the very best in new age filmmaking will be presented with awards from 11 different categories, including top VR/360 films. Extra exciting news – you can experience these films with the state of the art Samsung VR Headsets!

WHAT: Film Festival
WHEN: 7 – 9PM
WHERE: Sydney Opera House – Bennelong Point, Playhouse Theatre.
HOW MUCH: Tickets $30 – more details here

Karen Stein, architectural advisor and Executive Director of the George Nelson Foundation, will deliver the 4th World Architecture Day oration. She is the author of Aldo Rossi Architecture, a contributor to 30 Years of Emerging Voices: Idea, Form, Resonance and her writing has also been featured in a variety of publications, including Architectural Record, New York Magazine, a+u, The Wall Street Journal Magazine, and The World of Interiors. Her talk will address the question: What is architecture? Who makes architecture, and what makes it meaningful?

WHAT: Talk
WHEN: 10:30am – 12pm
WHERE: Sydney Opera House – Bennelong Point, Utzon Room
HOW MUCH: Tickets $40 – more details here

Peer into a side of Australian life that you have never encountered. Or perhaps you encounter every day. Australian Life is an outdoor gallery of finalist images from our annual photography competition. Framing our country through the lens of professional and first-time photographers.

WHAT: Australian Life 2018 Photography Exhibition
WHEN:13 September to 7 October
WHERE: Hyde Park, Sydney
HOW MUCH: Free, more info here

Let your imagination run wild as you and your little one fly into a realm of new worlds and fill them with fantasy creatures. Draw out your own flying machine or character and or go on an adventure through the Creative Studios, making friends along the way.

WHAT: Contemporary Kids school holiday program: Magical realms
WHEN: 2–6 October
WHERE: NCCL: Level 3, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
HOW MUCH: $15-$20, more info here

FBi favourite Latai Taumoepeau is opening up her studio to visitors during a 2-week residency, as part of Blacktown Art Centre’s ‘Stitching the Sea’ – an ongoing program that explores issues affecting Pacific communities. Centred on her participatory installation, Hg57 (Human Generator 57), Latai Taumoepeau will host an ongoing series of gatherings, exchanges and actions around climate change activism. Hg57 invites visitors to complete a fitness circuit to generate a single cube of ice, and is a rallying call for climate change action now.

WHAT: Program / Installation
WHEN: 10 AM – 5 PM
WHERE: Blacktown Arts – 78 Flushcombe Road
HOW MUCH: Free – More info here

William Robinson AO is recognised as one of Australia’s most important contemporary landscape painters, celebrated in particular for his original and powerful approaches to depicting the Australian environment through a multi-dimensional viewpoint. Genesis brings together a selection of rarely seen works alongside those that have been exhibited more widely, allowing the viewer to clearly see the development of Robinson’s distinctive use of colour and the artist’s move towards the multidimensional perspective for which his large landscape paintings are so acclaimed.

WHAT: Exhibition
WHEN: 10 AM – 5 PM
WHERE: S.H. Ervin Gallery – Watson Road, Observatory Hill.
HOW MUCH: $10 – More info here

Australian minority women writers have been inventively engaged in rewriting and revisioining the history and culture of the white nation to include perspectives that have been ignored or obscured. Meet authors Roanna Gonsalves, Paula Abood and Maryam Azam in a conversation facilitated by historian and ABC journalist Kate Evans as they discuss the challenges they face and the courage they show in changing what counts as Australian history.

WHAT: Panel Discussion
WHEN: 6:30 PM – 8 PM
WHERE: Io Myers Studio – 2 High Street, Kensington.
HOW MUCH: $5-$10 – More info here

Tom Christophersen and Michael Simms have been described as two of Australia’s most exciting and talented queer, figurative artists. INTERFACING is their first collaborative exhibition, featuring a body of new works that articulate the entanglement of technology and the human experience. Born in the same year in neighbouring Adelaide suburbs, the two met serendipitously in Sydney as adults – the same day Michael discovered Tom’s work hanging in Stanley Street Gallery he received a tweet from Tom who had just seen Michael’s work online and suggested a meeting. The result is INTERFACING.

Wed 11 AM · Stanley Street Gallery
WHAT: Collaborative exhibition
WHEN: 11 AM – 6PM
WHERE: Stanley Street Gallery – 1/52-54 Stanley Street, Darlinghurst
HOW MUCH: $10 – More info here

The Museum of Faces is a giant interactive installation based on Synarcade Audio-Visuals’ invention: The Lumiphonic Creature Choir, a twelve-headed creature that comes alive and begins to speak. Every day will feature a new question, centering on five main themes: Being Human, The Community, Politics, The Environment & Art.  Tonight is the opening night party so come and check it out!

WHAT: Exhibition / Opening event
WHEN: 6 – 8PM
WHERE: 107 Projects, Redfern
HOW MUCH: Free – more here

Before it closes, head to King Street Gallery to see a solo exhibition from Jumaadi – an Indonesian born artist who has a unique approach to art, rendering his own poetry within his dream like watercolours and paintings. It’s worth seeing his work, which has been described as “totally original and one-off, with ideas that come from his Indonesian background of poor villages and folklore”, with cultural roots informing his practice as a sculptor and installation/performance artist.

WHAT: Exhibition
WHEN: 10AM – 6PM
WHERE: King Street Gallery on William – 177 William Street, Sydney, Australia
HOW MUCH: Free – more info here:

This October, APY Gallery is proudly hosting Nganana Kurantjukutu Ma-Palyani – For Our Future Generations, a special exhibition from the artists of Iwantja Arts. This exhibition is a fund-raising event toward urgently needed upgrades to Iwantja Arts infrastructure. These upgrades are crucial to the ongoing success of Iwantja Arts. Regarded as one of the premier Indigenous owned and governed art centres in Australia, Iwantja Arts is renowned for its innovative projects that celebrate Anangu cultural strength and artistic excellence.

WHAT: Exhibition / Opening Launch
WHEN: 6 – 8PM
WHERE: APY GALLERY – 45 BURTON STREET, DARLINGHURST
HOW MUCH: Free – more here

Sydney Craft Week is an inspirational festival that speaks to our fundamental human urge to create, while also showcasing exceptional contemporary craft. Uniting the very active craft sector within Sydney’s creative community – including ceramicists, jewellers, quilters, knitters and other textile artists, plus timber workers, print makers, leather crafters, Indigenous makers and creatives of all kinds who work with their hands. In the second year of the festival, Sydney Craft Week is bigger than ever, with 109 workshops, 47 exhibitions and 200+ events total. Something for everyone!

WHAT: Workshops / Exhibitions / Events!
WHEN: Friday 5th – Sunday 14th October
WHERE: Varies, across Sydney
HOW MUCH: Varies! See more details here

Landless bodies speaks to our experiences of female identity and culture, that stay with us regardless of geographical context. This exhibition brings together the different practices to present a familiarity of concerns that are not bound by geographic, social contexts or time. Exploring contemporary diasporic Arab women artists’ experiences of gender without fixed locales, artists are invited from Morocco and Australia, creating a rich cultural experience that reflect the role of women as leaders in the private and public realm.

WHAT: Exhibition Opening / Launch
WHEN: 2 – 5PM
WHERE: Casula Powerhouse
HOW MUCH: Free – More here

As part of Campbelltown Arts Centre’s 30th Anniversary, they are celebrating the Sister City relationship between Campbelltown and Koshigaya. For one day only, Campbelltown Arts Centre will be hosting a special family event in the Japanese Gardens: overflowing with free workshops & performances, celebrating Campbelltown and Koshigaya who generously donated the gardens and tea house in 1986. This free family event is set to include: origami, kirigami, kimono dress ups, games and a paper plane throwing contest. The event will also launch and conclude with taiko drumming and traditional dance performances.

WHAT: Garden Event
WHEN: 11:30 – 4PM
WHERE: Campbelltown Arts Centre
HOW MUCH: Free – register here

Curated by Hetti Perkins and Jonathan Jones, the South East Aboriginal Arts Market will showcase the cultural heritage of South-Eastern Aboriginal Australia. Featuring 27 stalls, the line-up is a mix of established and emerging creative collectives and independent artists, employing traditional and contemporary materials including weaving, literature, ceramics, carving, photography, painting, shellwork and textiles, and offers a unique opportunity to ‘meet the makers’. The artists presenting wares at South East hail from Australia’s Eastern coast, ranging from regional and coastal New South Wales, ACT to southern Victoria, the Murray basin catchment and Tasmania.

WHAT: Market
WHEN: 10 – 3PM
WHERE: Carriageworks – Eveleigh
HOW MUCH: Free – more here

Hazelhurst is holding its annual art, design and gourmet food market today! Made by Hand is a curated artisan market with 100 stalls showcasing ceramics, jewellery, wearable art, fashion, toys, textiles, candles, chocolates, Greek sweets, vegan treats, fresh flowers, homewares, paintings, photography, food and skin care, all lovingly made by hand. Visitors will also be able to enjoy sketching in the garden, face painting, live music by Endless Summer Beach Party, family craft activities, open studios and the exhibition Alexander McKenzie: The adventurous gardener.

WHAT: Art, Design & Food Market
WHEN: 10 – 3PM
WHERE: Hazelhurst Arts Centre – 782 Kingsway, Gymea
HOW MUCH: Free – more here