Serious fun: Hive Festival 2026 set to take over the Art Gallery of New South Wales

Presented in partnership with Wollongong Art Gallery, Hive Festival will transform the Art Gallery for the weekend of Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 January 2026. The fun-filled festival welcomes visitors of all ages to experience and create art through hands-on making, music, films, storytelling and interactive tours across both Art Gallery buildings – with surprises at every turn.

Art Gallery of New South Wales director Maud Page said: ‘Our young visitors are the future of the Art Gallery and Hive Festival is an event for them and their families. It’s when we throw our doors open to thousands of young imaginations and watch our spaces come alive with play, surprise and joyful movement and noise. From First Nations tours in our Yiribana Gallery to a Studio Ghibli retrospective in our cinema, Hive is everywhere – and full of surprises. The serious playfulness of artist Kate Mitchell powers the third iteration of Hive—a contemporary artist inspiring the young artists of today!’

Each iteration of Hive has the work of an inspiring contemporary artist at its heart. This year, artist Kate Mitchell has devised the Hive program, creating an array of welcoming artworks and hands-on activities based on the theme, ‘Play is serious business’.

Festivalgoers will be greeted in Naala Badu’s Welcome Plaza by Mitchell’s joyful Many bubbles blessing. Here families can chase, pop and dance their way through clouds of bubbles infused with four-leaf clover water in a shared gesture of connection and good fortune.

In the Face it workshop, play enthusiasts of all ages can contribute to Mitchell’s ‘makeshift art rally’, using felting techniques to create a self-portrait depicting how play makes them feel. The portraits will be added to three large canvas banners adorned with catchcries inspired by play theorist Bob Hughes: ‘Play is serious business’, ‘Play is real work’, and ‘Play is the work’.

Reflecting on her role as Hive Festival program lead artist, Kate Mitchell said: ‘Play is an integral part of life. It’s a way to grow, imagine and make sense of the world. Play connects us across generations, fuels the imagination and creates community. At Hive Festival, visitors of all ages can explore play as a blessing, as a source of self-power, and a form of collective power.

‘I hope visitors leave Hive Festival remembering that play is not a distraction from life but a way of being in it. If people walk away thinking of play as something vital, powerful and transformative, then the work has done its job.’

Filling Naala Badu’s central spaces with colour and humour during the festival, Mitchell’s newly commissioned moving image work, In the Eye of the Giant, will light up the 20-metre-wide screen in the Aqualand Atrium until June 2026. Taking the form of a slowly ascending digital scroll comprising hundreds of Mitchell’s ink drawings, the work visualises seven emotional states that shape the artist’s practice, developed through a 28-day ‘emotional devotional’ – a daily meditation inviting numerous emotions like joy and trust to commune with her.

Other Hive Festival 2026 highlights include the opportunity to:

• Sing along in an art-meets-music session inspired by the Art Gallery’s collection, led by the iconic Zindzi & The Zillionaires.
• Join a dynamic tour of the Yiribana Gallery and discover the stories of our First Nations art collection with educator Nebbi Boii.
• Learn to roll and make paper beads in a wearable art workshop designed by Gulumerrejin (Larrakia), Karrajarri and Wardaman artist Jenna Mayliema Lee.
• Go on a live musical journey through space, time and the unexpected, with the saxophone, guitar and electronic stylings of Moon Radio Hour from Musica Viva Australia In Schools.
• Enter the world of Ethel the penguin and the joys of having a wild and reckless friend in a storytime session led by children’s authors Ursula Dubosarsky and Christopher Nielsen.
• Discover physical expression and explore your own unique movement in a playful workshop for people of all experience levels with Sydney Dance Company’s Teaching Artists.
• Catch a screening of the Art Gallery cinema’s Studio Ghibli retrospective series, featuring classics such as Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle.
• Enjoy a specially-curated festival soundtrack by ABC Kids’ Bangers & Mash Ups, full of fun songs for kids and their grown ups.
• Move freely in the Art play soft play space filled with toys, play equipment, rugs, cushions and couches for under 5s
• Find your equilibrium on a guided mindfulness tour of the Art Gallery’s 20th century collection.

Hive Festival will also feature accessible activities and spaces for visitors with different abilities and sensory needs, including an Auslan storytime session with artist Amy Josephine Wright, a sensory storytime and artmaking session, a designated low-sensory chill zone for the duration of the festival, and a sensory-friendly early-entry hour with reduced stimuli. Learn more about accessibility at the Art Gallery here.

The children’s activity space The Patchwork Portal by Raquel Caballero will be open daily in Naala Nura from 10am to 5pm, inviting visitors to create a patch to decorate a giant doll’s dress. Free and suitable for all ages and abilities.

Children under 12 enjoy free admission to the Art Gallery’s major summer exhibitions, Ron Mueck: Encounter and Dangerously Modern: Australian Women Artists in Europe 1890 – 1940, when accompanied by an adult ticketholder. Families can also access a special Hive Festival family discount and pick up a free children’s trail.

Visitors of can also explore Mike Hewson: The Key’s Under the Mat, an underground art park featuring a playground, steam room, sauna and barbecue that’s free to enter. For Hive Festival weekend, the space will come alive with daily kids’ disco parties.

Hive Festival is a dual-site celebration co-presented by the Art Gallery of New South Wales and Wollongong Art Gallery and supported by principal patron The Bayard Foundation.

Wollongong Art Gallery’s event is anchored to Kate Mitchell: Set States, a focused exhibition of the artist’s performance videos, extending the ethos and energy of Hive into the gallery’s public spaces and learning studios for two dedicated days of hands-on, family-centred programs.

Hive Festival takes place at the Art Gallery of New South Wales on Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 January 2026, and Wollongong Art Gallery on Tuesday 20 and Wednesday 21 January 2026.

Entry and all activities are free, some bookings are required. For full details, visit the Art Gallery of New South Wales website and subscribe to the Art Gallery’s Artmail e-newsletter to stay up to date on further Hive Festival news and announcements.