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Artlands 2026
A national gathering for regional creative futures
23 - 25 September, 2026
Kabi Kabi Country | Sunshine Coast, QLD
We're thrilled to announce that Expressions of Interest for Artlands 2026 are now open.
This is your invitation to be part of something genuinely different - a curated national gathering that brings together artists, cultural workers, facilitators, thinkers and collaborators from across regional Australia for three days of deep listening, bold ideas and collective imagining.
WHAT IS ARTLANDS?
Where regional Australia's creative voices come together
Artlands 2026 brings together a cross-section of Australia's regional creative ecology to explore how creativity connects with the systems shaping regional futures. Guided by systems and design-thinking principles, and grounded in co-design and peer-led facilitation, Artlands 2026 is a carefully curated environment for sharing ideas that will help shape national advocacy.
This part symposium - part think tank - part workshop creates a genuine exchange between:
• First Nations voices
• Creative practitioners
• Regional policy thinkers
• Industry leaders
The goal is not to produce another roadmap or set of priorities. Instead, Artlands 2026 focuses on something equally important: creating the conditions for deeper dialogue, stronger relationships and new forms of collaboration across regional Australia.
ARTLANDS 2026 FRAMEWORK
Water Connects Everything
Across regional Australia, water shapes landscapes, ecosystems, industries and livelihoods. It runs through culture, memory and identity. It moves between flood and drought, crisis and recovery - revealing the systems communities depend on to live, adapt and endure.
At Artlands 2026, water is the lens, not the topic. It is a connector that opens multiple entry points into conversation, linking Country, culture, creativity and the future of regional Australia. Through this framework, artists, First Nations knowledge holders, scientists, industry voices and policymakers will explore a central question:
What can creativity reveal about the systems shaping regional Australia's future?
Water is not just infrastructure. It is Country and community, memory and story, ecology and science, healing and spirit. As a framework, it holds space for all of these - and for the many voices, perspectives and practices that Artlands brings together.
THE DETAILS
When & Where:
23–25 September 2026 at Twin Waters on Kabi Kabi Country (Sunshine Coast, QLD), where the Maroochy River meets the ocean. The venue sits across 36 hectares with all accommodation, spaces and catering onsite.
How to Attend:
There are no open registrations - attendance is via an Expression of Interest (EOI) only, through two streams:
Funded Registration + Access Grant: for independent artists and arts workers - covering registration, 2 nights accommodation (23–24 Sept), catering (excluding breakfast) and travel support ($1,000 east coast / $1,400 west coast, NT & remote)
(70 available)Fee Paying Registration: includes registration, 2 nights accommodation (23–24 Sept), and catering (excluding breakfast)
Registration Fee: $950 + GST
(70 available)
Key Dates
EOI Opens: 2 April 2026
EOI Closes: 5pm AEST, 14 May 2026
Notifications: June 2026
HOW TO GET INVOLVED
Submit your Expression of Interest
Participants join Artlands through an Expression of Interest process - designed to curate a genuinely diverse cross-section of Australia's regional creative ecology. We're looking for artists, cultural workers, community practitioners, First Nations knowledge holders and cross-sector voices.
To be considered as a participant at Artlands26 we invite you to reflect on four short questions connected to water, creativity and regional change. These reflections will form the headwaters of the Artlands Catchment of Ideas, helping shape the conversations that unfold during the gathering. We ask for short written responses, short recordings, or images in response to the questions below:
Creativity can help communities understand, interpret or respond to complex change. What role do you and your creative practice play in understanding or responding to change?
Reflect on the landscapes, communities and systems connected to water in your region. What is water revealing about change in the place you live or work?
Artlands is designed as a space for shared inquiry. We are interested in the questions and perspectives participants bring into the room. Why do you want to be part of Artlands 2026, and what will you bring?
What change do you want to see in regional, rural and remote Australia, and what might enable or challenge that change?
Anything else you want us to know?
How to respond: We welcome short written responses (up to 250 words per question), brief audio or video recordings, or images. There's no single right way to answer - respond in the form that feels most natural to you and your practice.
HOW WE GATHER
Artlands feels different
We deliberately design Artlands to be unlike a conventional conference. Here's what that looks like in practice:
1. Conversation before presentation
2. Participation over passive listening
3. Diverse voices in every discussion
4. Artists interacting directly with other sectors
5. Real practice and lived experience over theory
6. Structured enough to hold the space; open enough for emergence
7. Time and space for informal connection and reflection
WHAT WE'RE WORKING TOWARDS
What Artlands 2026 will do:
Strengthen the national regional creative ecology
We'll deepen relationships between artists, organisations and communities working across regional Australia — building a more connected and resilient national network.
Connect creativity with the systems shaping regional futures
We're opening dialogue between artists and sectors engaged with water, environment, infrastructure, science, industry and regional development. These conversations matter.
Generate new ideas and collaborations across disciplines
We're creating real space for artists, scientists, communities and industry to explore new forms of collaboration and shared practice — across artforms, across sectors, across borders.
Position creativity as essential to regional resilience
We'll shine a light on the vital role artists play in helping communities understand change, interpret complex systems and imagine future possibilities that policy hasn't caught up with yet.
ARTLANDS 2026 PARTNERS
ABOUT ARTLANDS
Our signature national gathering since 1998
Established in 1998, Artlands is Regional Arts Australia's signature national gathering and a cornerstone of our people and place-led approach. As regional Australia continues to change, Artlands provides a vital forum to reflect, connect and respond — surveying the contemporary regional cultural landscape while strengthening a national network of artists, arts workers and advocates.
Artlands is designed to be responsive, contemporary and strategically positioned — championing best practice, encouraging meaningful exchange and supporting collaboration across sectors and communities.
Artlands 2026 continues the conversation started in 2023. Where Artlands 2023 focused on identifying shared priorities for regional creativity, Artlands 2026 explores how creative practice intersects with the complex systems shaping regional futures - creating the conditions for deeper dialogue, stronger relationships and new forms of collaboration.
Artlands 2026 is supported by the Regional Arts Fund and the Tim Fairfax Family Foundation