“CONTOUR 556” public art festival will give interstate visitors the opportunity to see Canberra at its best in sculptures, performance and installations enlivening Lake Burley Griffin, October 5-28. All program details at contour556.com.au

ANU Drill Hall Gallery’s 2018 lecture series continues as Gordon Bull speaks of “Titian in the realm of the senses”, at ANU School of Art and Design, 3pm, Sunday, October 7. Tickets at the door.

AUSTRALIAN Parliament House Open Day takes place this Saturday, October 6. A free bus pick up service is available throughout the day, occurring every 30 minutes from Parliament House, Government House, Floriade (Commonwealth avenue, Regatta Point), Civic (bus exchange) and Treasury Building carpark (park-n-ride). It’s a free event and 15 double “gold” tickets will allow winners and a friend to penetrate deeper into Parliament House but wineners must be actually at the open day to be eligible for entry. Information at aph.gov.au

“LAND and Sea” by artist Christine Scott explores Tuggeranong Arts Centre’s 2018 theme “Entropy” through the portrayal in mixed media of the earth’s physical features and the transformations caused through time and human intervention. Victorian artist Anne Warren’s first solo show here is “Mergence”, a body of multilayered, complex collage assemblages made from found image fragments in books. Both exhibitions will be opened by Julie Bradley, at 6pm on Thursday, October 4, and continue until October 27. Anne Warren will also present a four-hour collage workshop on Saturday, October 6. Enrolments to trybooking.com

IN gallery 1 at Tuggeranong Arts Centre, infants and toddlers are invited to get hands on with artwork in “Playing with Colour and Nature” by Anne-Marie Jean and her three-year-old daughter Camille Murphy, who have been undertaking a residency at Lanyon Homestead, observing nature, exploring the changing seasons and new ways of making art. Officially opened at Tuggeranong Arts Centre on Saturday, October 6.

ADFAS Molonglo Plains young artists exhibition by artists 12 to 18 years-old, will be officially opened at the Queanbeyan Art Society Gallery, Trinculo Place, under the bridge, on the bank of the Queanbeyan River at 2pm, this Sunday, October 7. All welcome.

VISUAL artist and poet Caren Florance has a new exhibition of experimental work in progress where text art and visual poetry overlap, inspired by Matthew Kirchenbaum’s ideas on the materiality of digital media works. At Megalo Print Studio + Gallery, 21 Wentworth avenue, Kingston, Tuesday to Saturday, 9.30am-5pm until October 20, with its official opening at 6pm, Thursday, October 4.

“TAKE Shape” is a group exhibition showcasing 70 individual works from 35 of PhotoAccess’s members, to be opened by treasures curator Nat Williams, at National Library of Australia, 6pm, Thursday, October 4. All welcome. The show continues until October 14.

THE next floor talk in this year’s Craft ACT members exhibition, “Place Makers”, will see ceramics artists give insights into their practice. At Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre, North Building, Civic, 12.30pm, Saturday, October 6. All welcome.

NISHI Gallery is presenting “Unit of Measure”, an exhibition by the Melbourne creative practice U-P. The exhibition uses a new unit of measure – a standard size basketball – to survey the city. The practice considers how space, objects, language or image are appropriated in ways not imagined by their designer. The show opens at 6pm, Friday, October 5. Everyone is welcome and it runs until November 24.

AIM (Art in Miniature) is holding its 18th annual “Art in Miniature” exhibition this year in Altenburg and Co Gallery, on Wallace street, Braidwood, from October 6 to November 18. Councillor Trudy Taylor will open it at 2pm, October 6. The works are in oil, watercolour, acrylic, pencil, mixed media and textiles and cover a broad range of subject matter, such as landscape, seascapes, urban scapes, figurative, flora and fauna.

MARK Van Veen’s “Outside over There” is a series of photographs carefully produced over the last five years that capture human interventions in surrounding environments and images, which “communicate something about people by what they leave behind.” The strange ambiguity of the images suggests an odd narrative is at play. Opening at Canberra Contemporary Art Space, 19 Furneaux street, Manuka, 6pm, Thursday, October 4. The exhibition continues until October 14, Thursday to Sunday, 11am-5pm.

DURING Floriade the NGA is blossoming with “Flourish” festivities, this weekend including behind-the-scenes tours, hands-on classes, and an open-air concert by ABC Kids star “dirtgirl” in the Sculpture Garden. October 6-7. Bookings an all program details to nga.gov.au springs into action with outdoor art activities, live music, and celebrity performances.

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