There’s always arts news in arts editor HELEN MUSA’s world. Here’s her latest “Arts in the City” column. 

“GAUGUIN’S World: Tōna Iho, Tōna Ao,” one of the most ambitious exhibitions the National Gallery of Australia has ever staged, will open in winter 2024 and run at the gallery until October.

SONGSTRESS Kate Miller-Heidke’s “Catching Diamonds” will see her stripped-back mode, accompanied by her long-term collaborator Keir Nuttall on guitar. She’ll be playing her hits, loved pop songs, tracks from her original musicals “Muriel’s Wedding the Musical” and “Bananaland” and covers, also taking requests and performing new material from her coming sixth studio album.

“I HAVE a fascination with seed pods and seashells,” wood sculptor Hape Kiddle says. “These exquisite chambers of life, holding, hiding, waiting.” Kiddle’s exhibition of new works, “Holding Time”, will be at Bungendore Wood Works Gallery until the end of February.

CREATED by the Museums of History NSW with illustrator James Gulliver Hancock, “On the Move” explores transport in all its forms and offers children and families the hands-on discovery of journeys, unique inventions, amazing vehicles and intrepid explorers. It shows how fuel choices can have a positive impact on the environment and how transport modes have evolved. Canberra Museum and Gallery until January 28.

YOUNG Music Society’s popular Summer Music School is up and running at Canberra Girls’ Grammar School until January 19, with the 2024 theme of “How to Tell a Story with Music”. There are classes in soundscapes, being a “Foley” artist, music, dance, drama, first nations music and dance, theory games and the chance for participants to sing their hearts out in choir and create beautiful sounds in an experimental orchestra.