UQ Art Museum

14/10/2026

🎨 Help bring the new UQ Art Museum to life!

For 50 years, UQ Art Museum has brought people together through art, ideas and new perspectives. Now, as we look to an exciting new chapter in the Forgan Smith Tower at UQ’s St Lucia campus, you can help shape the experiences that will inspire the next generation.

We’re raising $50,000 for 50 years to create inspiring, inclusive and accessible learning experiences for students and our wider community. Your gift will help us deliver artist-led workshops, student activities, inclusive access initiatives, enabling people of all ages to engage with art and artists, build creative confidence and deepen their understanding of culture and community.

💛 Be part of the next 50 years! Donate today: https://givingday.uq.edu.au/campaigns/uq-art-museum-1/?appeal_id=6ab4b3b626e673373cd61c32

Images: 1) Mediators during exhibition training day, 'How We Remember Tomorrow', 2024. Photo: Joe Ruckli; 2) Education Producer, Logan Bobongie facilitates a workshop, 2026. Photo: Joe Ruckli; 3) Curator Freja Carmichael and Blaklash Curatorial Intern, Braelyn Rolfe-Chase facilitating a discussion, 'A Love Letter to Country and Community', UQ Art Museum, 2024. Photo: Joe Ruckli; 4) Archival image of staff discussing artwork at UQ Art Museum, Forgan Smith Tower, 1994. Photo: UQ Art Museum Archives; 5) Archival image of staff installing artwork, 'Acquisitions 1973-1983', UQ Art Museum, Forgan Smith Tower, 1983. Photo: UQ Art Museum Archives; 6) Archival image of staff at UQ Art Museum, Forgan Smith Tower during, 'Young Turks' exhibition, 1988. Photo: UQ Art Museum Archives.

13/10/2026

✨️ REGISTRATIONS NOW OPEN ✨️

Relational Ordering: Reflective Motives Keynote Conversation with Aunty Mary Graham and Tristen Harwood

Over decades Dr Aunty Mary Graham has theorised and put forward a relational-ethical order adequate to this task. The relational logic developed in her political philosophy offers both a ground for imaginative possibility and everyday practices that recognise distinctiveness and autonomy as well as nourishing collective life-systems.

Reflective Motives presents Relational Ordering, an in-conversation keynote between Graham and Tristen Harwood, which considers what Graham’s political philosophy asks of us, the possibilities it opens, and forms of collective life it might yet enable.

🤍 Free event - registration essential
📆 Thursday 12 November, 5-7pm
📍 Dr Mary Mahoney AO Amphitheatre, UQ St Lucia
🔗 Register here: https://events.humanitix.com/relational-ordering

This is an inclusive, outdoors event at the Dr Mary Mahoney AO Amphitheatre, with live streaming available for those unable to attend in person. Please register to attend. Bring a picnic dinner. While the content of this conversation will be philosophical, art historical and political, children and families are welcome.

Reflective Motives is hosted by UQ Art Museum in partnership with the Climate Aware Creative Practices Network and is supported by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body, and by Monash Art Design and Architecture.

Image credits and references: 1) Dr Aunty Mary Graham (headshot), image courtesy the speaker; 2) Tristen Harwood (headshot), image courtesy the speaker.

12/10/2026

🎉 Thank you to everyone who joined us for St Lucia Block Party 2026! 🎉

🌞 It’s hard to believe it’s already been a month since we gathered in the Great Court for a day of creativity, culture and discovery at UQ St Lucia! Despite temperatures soaring above 35°C, it was wonderful to see so many families and children joining us to explore the campus, many for the very first time.

💜 From temporary tattoos and live performances to artworks, workshops and hands-on activities, the day was filled with curiosity, creativity and connection.

📚 A huge thank you for the support from the School of Music, UQP Books, Anthropology Museum, RD Milns Antiquities Museum, Fryer Library and UQ Art Museum teams for sharing their knowledge and enthusiasm, and to our wonderful partners Brisbane Festival and local councillor Penny Wolff for helping make the event possible.

✨ We’re still reflecting on the wonderful energy on the day and are so grateful to everyone who came along and made it special.

🎉 We look forward to seeing you all at the next event!

Images: 1) St Lucia Serenades perform, St Lucia Block Party 2026; 2) Picnic goers, St Lucia Block Party 2026; 3) Keemon Williams, 'I'm sure we're taller in another dimension', 2026. Installation view, St Lucia Block Party 2026; 4) Sue Ray performing, St Lucia Block Party 2026; 5) Cali Rd performing, St Lucia Block Party 2026; 6) Mandana Mapar facilitating a tour of 'Shields: Design and Functionality', Anthropology Museum; 7) Fryer Library: Rare Book and Collection Display; 8) 'ΝΟΣΤΟΙ | Homecomings: Stories of the Ionian Island Diaspora in Queensland', RD Milns Antiquities Museum; 9) Drop-in drawing activity, St Lucia Block Party 2026; 10) Temporary tattoos at the UQ Arts Tattoo Trail, St Lucia Block Party 2026.

📸 All photos: Claudia Baxter

09/10/2026

🤩 Congratulations to Curatorial Advisor Aunty Sana Balai, Curator Jocelyn Flynn and Education Producer Logan Bobongie who were awarded a Galleries and Museums Achievement Award last night! 🤩

We won for our work showing Yuriyal Bridgeman's extraordinary large-scale installation "SUNA (Middle Ground)", which was located at the heart of the UQ St Lucia campus throughout Semester 2 last year.

From the moment it appeared on the lawn outside UQ Art Museum, this incredible artwork generated conversation and connection, bringing people together and providing space for exchange. We're so grateful we could share it with the community, and we thank Museums and Galleries Queensland for the recognition and congratulate the other museums and galleries whose work was shared last night.

🥳 Big congrats also to our friends at the RD Milns Antiquities Museum, who were highly commended for their wonderful exhibition "ΝΟΣΤΟΙ | Homecomings: Stories of the Ionian Island Diaspora in Queensland", which combines artefacts, documents, garments and photographs from public and private collections with newly recorded oral histories to create a rich tapestry of how the islands are remembered, experienced and passed on to future generations.

Images: 1) Aunty Sana Balai, Jocelyn Flynn and Logan Bobongie with UQAM Director Peta Rake 2) and 3) Yuriyal Bridgeman and Haus Yuriyal, "SUNA (Middle Ground)", 2020. Installation view, The University of Queensland, 2025. Photos: Joe Ruckli. 4) R.D. Milns Antiquities Museum Manager James Donaldson with community curator Chrys Zantis and Museum Director Professor Alastair Blanshard.

06/10/2026

29/09/2026

✨️ Expressions of interest now open for Reflective Motives workshops ✨️

Reflective Motives is a two-day gathering hosted by UQ Art Museum in collaboration with the Climate Aware Creative Practices Network (CACP). Participants are invited to submit their interest for our artist-led workshops facilitated by Bronwyn Bailey-Charteris, Dominique Chen, Caitlin Franzmann, Libby Harward, Bianca Hester, Coen Hird, Eugenia Lim and Lleah Smith. It is an invitation to engage with artists working with place, Country, matter and language.

🌿 Free, in-person workshops, UQ St Lucia.
🔗 Participation via EOI (closes Sunday 25 October).
Numbers limited - please submit EOI via links below and register for the two-day program here: https://art-museum.uq.edu.au/event/session/4174

Dust of these domains: walking workshop with Bianca Hester
📆 Thursday 12 November 2:30pm-4:30pm
https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=z3fjtrOdy0aRovrZYFuxXNAyROdb4MBBswOwGaASIjhUOVRTRVcwRkhBMTE0WjYxVFJWUlYxMUNNVy4u

Searching for the Knowledge Tree: a plant-oriented walk with Dominique Chen, Caitlin Franzmann and Libby Harward
📆 Thursday 12 November 2:30pm-4:30pm
https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=z3fjtrOdy0aRovrZYFuxXNAyROdb4MBBswOwGaASIjhUMzRYMlE0MzA4VFJVRlkwUjFCRDIyTzNPSi4u

Mumurations with Coen Hird and Eugenia Lim
📆 Friday 13 November, 5:30am-9:00am
https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=z3fjtrOdy0aRovrZYFuxXNAyROdb4MBBswOwGaASIjhUM05IWUtOR01PNzFXVERSRldERjlDTkZYQy4u

Salty Dog: a workshop exploring material, method and metaphor with Bronwyn Bailery-Charteris and Lleah Smith
📆 Friday 13 November, 10:00am-12:15pm
https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=z3fjtrOdy0aRovrZYFuxXNAyROdb4MBBswOwGaASIjhUM05YMVBQQTNWSFhGQU5VN01XTlUzOEFKUy4u

Reflective Motives is hosted by UQ Art Museum in partnership with the Climate Aware Creative Practices Network and is supported by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body, and by Monash Art Design and Architecture.

Images: 1) Bianca Hester, detail of Dust of these domains, Gadigal/Bidjigal Land Paddington NSW, performance presented in association with the exhibition Lithic Bodies, 2024. Photo: Anna Hay; 2) Image courtesy Dominique Chen, Caitlin Franzmann and Libby Harward; 3) Eugenia Lim, film still from Metabolism (2023), 2K video, colour, sound, 29:15. Originally commissioned by Public Art Commission. Cinematographer: Tim Hillier. Courtesy of the artist; 4) NASA Expedition 19 crew, Solar Evaporation Ponds, Atacama Desert, 2009. Courtesy NASA/Wikimedia Commons.
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09/09/2026

"It brightens my day to see artworks around campus. I love encountering new ones when I visit other buildings. This artwork drew me in as soon as I saw it; I loved the earthy, organic forms and to me, the pattern feels almost like the skin of a snake, while also suggesting the tangled structure of a fishing net. There is something delicate and powerful in the work, as if the forms are shifting between the natural world and something woven or gathered. The earthy colours and textures invite you to pause and look more closely."

— Nina Mullins, Senior Manager and Head of Planned Giving. Advancement and Community Engagement

📍 Level 3, Michie Building 9, UQ St Lucia
🕚 Open 10am-4pm Mon-Fri

Clare Jaque Vasquez is an emerging Indigenous artist of the Gomeroi/Kamilaroi people. She lives and works on Bindal and Wulgurukaba Country in Townsville, North Queensland. Jacque Vasquez works in layers, painting or ‘weaving’ acrylic paint into diverse motifs that dance across the canvas that can take up to 12 weeks to complete. She uses a range of tools including natural brushes, branches, sticks and palm tree fibers, specifically used to connect the works with Country.

Her first solo exhibition, 'Weaving with Paint', explored memories of three generations of Gomeroi/Kamilaroi women and the evolving relationship between First Nations practices, Country and contemporary life. Represented by Vivien Anderson Gallery, she won the Ellen José Award for her work, 'Silent weapons for quiet conflicts' and in 2024, was a finalist in the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Awards and was awarded the First Nations Artist Award in the Queensland Regional Art Awards. She also held a major solo exhibition at the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts, Brisbane.

There are over 400 artworks from the UQ Art Collection on display around our campuses as part of the Art On Campus program.

Learn more here: https://art-museum.uq.edu.au/art-on-campus

Images: 1) Clare Jaque Vasquez, 'Singy's song', 2024. Installation view, The University of Queensland. Collection of The University of Queensland, purchased 2024. Photo: Joe Ruckli. 2) Quote from Nina Mullins. 3) Clare Jaque Vasquez, 'Singy's song', 2024. Detail view, The University of Queensland. Collection of The University of Queensland, purchased 2024. Photo: Joe Ruckli.

01/09/2026

✨️ Old Words, Finding New Places: First languages in creative practices panel ✨️

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages sustain living connections to Country, lands, waters, skies and place across generations. The continuation and strengthening of first languages are vital for culture, identity and community, carrying knowledge forward for future generations.

Bringing together Indigenous peoples, including Elders and artists from diverse language groups and creative practices, this collective conversation celebrates and explores how old words are finding new places and resonance within contemporary Indigenous creative practices.

Join us for the first in a series of public conversations highlighting the embodiment, activation and renewed presence of First Nations languages, featuring:

🌿 Ngugi artist Elisa Jane Carmichael
🌿 Gunditjmara artist Dr Vicki Couzens
🌿 Gurindji/Malngin artist Leah Leaman
🌿 Gamilaraay/Wailwan and Biripi artist r e a
🎙️ Led by Pakana Curator Dr Zoe Rimmer

📆 Monday 28 September, 5:30pm-7:30pm
📍 Viewpoint Room, Building 33, UQ Sport
🔗 Free event, register here: https://art-museum.uq.edu.au/event/session/4191

Presented in partnership with the School of Languages and Cultures and funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC) Laureate Fellowship Kathleen Fitzpatrick Award (FL250100115). This event is the result of an ongoing collaboration between Professor Felicity Meakins (School of Languages and Cultures), Ocean Pathways Education Producer Logan Bobongie and Curator Freja Carmichael (both UQ Art Museum).

Image credit: Vicki Couzens, Kooramookyan, 2019. Photography Jody Haines.

31/08/2026

👀 You may have spotted a few pieces of this artwork or even taken a seat on some of them in the Central Library!

💚 We’re bringing it all back together at St Lucia Block Party!
For the duration of the event, come and arrange, lounge, sit and relax on 'DEMOS (Sandstone)', 2020 - one of our favourite interactive artworks by Athens-based artist and architect Andreas Angelidakis.

📍 Great Court, UQ St Lucia
📅 Sunday 6 September
⏰ 12–4pm

🔗 Read more about Andreas Angelidakis’ artwork via the link in bio
🎟️ Register for the St Lucia Block Party via the link in bio

See you in the Great Court!

Image: Andreas Angelidakis, 'DEMOS (Sandstone)', 2020, foam, vinyl, fifty parts. Installation view. Photo: Carl Warner.

26/08/2026

📢 FREE DROP-IN WORKSHOP & NEW COMMISSION: KEEMON WILLIAMS 🎨

🌿 A new commission by Keemon Williams will be on display at the upcoming St Lucia Block Party in UQ’s Great Court. Join us for a free drop-in workshop and make your own Wind-Dancing Scribbly Gum inspired by Keemon’s new work!

📍 Great Court, UQ St Lucia
📅 Sunday 6 September
⏰ 12–4pm

Come along, get creative and enjoy an afternoon of family-friendly entertainment, art and community connection. 💚

🔗 Read more about Keemon Williams’ commission:
https://art-museum.uq.edu.au/article/2026/07/keemon-williams

🎟️ Register for the St Lucia Block Party:
https://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/events/brisbane-serenades-st-lucia-block-party

Image: Keemon Williams, 'I'm sure we're taller in another dimension', 2026. Installation view, The University of Queensland. Photo: Joe Ruckli.
Video: 'Make Your Own Wind-Dancing Scribbly Gum' prototype, 2026.