M16 Open Day 2026

Hands on Studio, 2025. Image courtesy of Cassie Abraham.

M16 Open Day | Open Studios

What: Open Studios
When: Saturday November 7, 10am – 4pm
Where: M16 Artspace, 21 Blaxland Crescent, Griffith
Cost: Free

What’s On?

Open Studios - Over 25 M16 Artspace Studio Artists will have their studios open to the public. Drop in to meet with the artists, some of whom will have works available for sale.

Open Workshops - M16 Artspace is home to 5 independent workshop spaces, Artist Society of Canberra, Canberra Art Workshop, Hands on Studio, NatureArt Lab and studioMAP. Open Day is a great chance to chat with each Workshop about their upcoming programs and classes on the day!

Exhibitions - The M16 Galleries will be open from 10am - 4pm on Open Day. See more details below for whats on show.

Artist Talk - Join exhibiting artists from Bespoke Utopia in conversation with M16 Artspace’s General Manager, Lucy Chetcuti.

More to come!

On Saturday 7 November, from 10am to 4pm, M16 Artspace invites the community behind the scenes for its annual Open Day.

Since 1985, M16 Artspace has been a home for artists and creative exchange in Canberra. Open Day is a chance to explore working studios, meet resident artists, and connect with local arts organisations while discovering more about the people and practices that make up the M16 community.

This event is presented as part of the 2026 Craft + Design Canberra Open Studios + Organisations Open Day.

Who’s Around?

Independent Organisations

Studio Artists

Detail of Elisa Crossings studio, 2025. Image courtesy of Cassie Abraham

Learn more about M16 Artspace’s current Studio Artists!

studioMAP, 2025. Image courtesy of Cassie Abraham

Learn more about the independently run Arts Orgasations housed at M16 Artspace!

All photos courtesy of Cassie Abraham, 2025.

Current Exhibitions

Public Programs | Watercolour Monotypes on Glass with Olivia Gates

Olivia Gates, Glass tool for print making 5 (Banksia), 2026, Image courtesy of Brooke McEachern.

What: Public Programs | Watercolour Monotypes on Glass with Olivia Gates
When: Sunday 4 October, 2026, 1-3pm + Sunday 11 October, 2026, 1-2pm
Where: M16 Artspace Foyer, 21 Blaxland Crescent, Griffith
Cost: Free

Public Programs | Watercolour Monotypes on Glass with Olivia Gates

Join exhibiting artist Olivia Gates for two upcoming public programs responding to her current exhibition, Imagining here from elsewhere.

Workshop | Watercolour Monotype on Glass

4 October 2026
1 - 3pm

Join exhibiting artist Olivia Gates for a hands-on workshop where you'll create a watercolour monotype using glass tools, printed on handmade paper created by the artist.Participants will create one unique print using the same techniques Olivia used in the creation of works for her exhibition, Imagining Here from Elsewhere. Drop into the M16 Artspace gallery any time between 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm, and allow approximately 20 minutes to complete your artwork.This workshop is free, suitable for all experience levels with all materials provided.

Meeting Place: M16 Artspace Foyer

Printing Performance | Watercolour Monotype on Glass

11 October 2026
1 - 2pm

Join exhibiting artist Olivia Gates for a live demonstration of the watercolour monotype printing process used in creating the artworks for her exhibition, Imagining Here from Elsewhere. Drawing on techniques developed throughout her residency, Olivia will share insights into her creative process and the unique methods behind her printmaking practice. The performance will be followed by a Q&A on Olivia's exhibition and practice.

Meeting Place: Gallery 2, M16 Artspace

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Olivia Gates is M16 Artspace's Environmental Artist in Residence for 2025/26. The M16 Artspace Environmental Artist Residency is supported by the generous sponsorship of Canberra philanthropist Thomas Boulton, The Canberra Glassworks and Megalo Print Studio.

Olivia Gates is an artist working and living between Ngunawal / Ngambri Country (Canberra) and her hometown on Dharawal Country. Working primarily with glass, Gates’ work reflects spiralling internal dialogues around the contrasting impacts of her convict/settler lineage, both in generational connection to - and ongoing destructive colonial claims on place. She makes works that gently hold space for listening, with intention to open respectful dialogues of shared experience and revised histories.

Gates graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) / Bachelor of Design from the Australian National University in 2021. She has exhibited both locally and internationally and has acquired prizes recognising her work such as the Boronia Prize for excellence in glass, the Corning Museum of Glass / Australian National University School of Art and Design Partner Scholarship, and the Nigel Thomson Travel Grant.

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Exhibition

Artist Talks | Catherine Anselmi, David Helmers, Ro Murray & Mandy Burgess

David Helmers, Collapse to Emerge, 2026. Image courtesy of Brenton McGeachie.

What: Artist Talks | Catherine Anselmi, David Helmers, Ro Murray & Mandy Burgess
When: Sunday 23 August, 2026, 3pm
Where: Gallery 1, M16 Artspace, 21 Blaxland Crescent, Griffith
Cost: Free

Artist Talks | Catherine Anselmi, David Helmers, Ro Murray & Mandy Burgess

Join artists Catherine Anselmi, David Helmers, Ro Murray & Mandy Burgess as they discuss UNruly, an exhibition using the strategy of unruliness as generator of form in their object-making practices. Their installations explore unruly themes: the flux of time and matter, transformation, and female determination in old age.

Meeting Place: Gallery 1, M16 Artspace.

Catherine Anselmi is an emerging artist from Sydney with a National Art School MFA following achievements in ceramics in New Zealand. Using varied material and digital technologies, her work explores deep time of life and its co-evolution with matter, emphasising co-responsibility and respect for place and being. Her sculptures will be in the forthcoming Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi, 2026.

David Helmers is a Canberra artist with a MFA from National Art School, is a studio artist at ANCA Mitchell. His installations of sculptural experimental porcelain forms explore the vulnerability of life, and reveal processes of emergence - adaption, transformation and transcendence. He has had many solo shows in Australia and has exhibited in Korea, Japan and China.

Ro Murray and Mandy Burgess’ collaborative art practice is in Dhurag and Gundungurra country, Mt Victoria, NSW. After studying at the National Art School, they create large-scale sculptural installations on environmental issues, and wall murals with charcoal. They have exhibited in many sculpture festivals including three Canberra Art Biennials. They each maintain individual art practices.

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Exhibition

Artist in Conversation | Keziah Craven with Dr Jen Webb

Keziah Craven, Faces of the Unseen, 2026. Image courtesy of M16 Artspace.

What: Artist in Conversation | Keziah Craven with Dr Jen Webb
When: Saturday25 July, 2026, 2 - 3pm
Where: Gallery 1, M16 Artspace, 21 Blaxland Crescent, Griffith
Cost: Free

Artist in Conversation | Keziah Craven with Dr Jen Webb

Join artist Keziah Craven and Dr Jen Webb as they discuss Embodied Trauma, an exhibition exploring how wearable art, sculpture and performance can give form to lived experiences of trauma. Drawing on her PhD research and collaborative practice with survivors, Keziah examines how art can become a language for resilience, transformation and reclaiming agency.

Jen Webb is Distinguished Professor Emerita of Creative Practice at the University of Canberra. Recent books include Art and Human Rights: Contemporary Asian Contexts (Manchester UP, 2016); Gender and the Creative Labour Market(Palgrave 2022), and the poetry collections Moving Targets (2018), Flight Mode (with Shé Hawke, 2020), and The Daily News (2024; shortlisted for the ACT Poetry Book of the Year 2025). She is co-editor of the literary journal Meniscus and the scholarly journal Axon: Creative Explorations.

Content note: This exhibition and conversation explore themes of trauma, violence and survivor experiences that some attendees may find distressing.

Meeting Place: Gallery 1, M16 Artspace.

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Exhibition

Artist Talk | Anna Bonshek: Friends

Anna Bonshek, Zarafshan Sobti, 2023. Image courtesy of the artist.

What: Artist Talk with Anna Bonshek
When: Saturday 4 July, 2026, 2-3pm
Where: Gallery 2, M16 Artspace, 21 Blaxland Crescent, Griffith
Cost: Free

Artist Talk | Anna Bonshek: Friends

Join Anna Bonshek at M16 Artspace, Gallery 2, to experience, and take a closer look at the exhibition Friends with the artist. Anna talks about being inspired by the materiality of natural form, weaving layered meaning through symbolism, historic references, and personal connections with people and place. She encourages you to reflect, offer insights, and will respond to questions on site.

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Exhibition

In Conversation | Artists and Curator of The Quiet Between

Olivia Gates, 1 of 3 things, 2026. Image courtesy of Brenton McGeachie

What: Artist Talk with The Quiet Between Artists and Curator
When: Sunday 31 May, 2026, 1:30 - 2:30pm
Where: Gallery 1, M16 Artspace, 21 Blaxland Crescent, Griffith
Cost: Free

Facilitator: Eason Lin
Artists: Ross Andrews, Olivia Gates & Saskia Haalebos

In Conversation | The artists of The Quiet Between

M16 Artspace studio artists Ross Andrews, Olivia Gates & Saskia Haalebos in conversation with curator Eason Lin discuss The Quiet Between. The exhibition cultivates a quiet and open environment in which meaning gradually emerges through attentive viewing, encounters with artworks, and sustained observation. Hear from the artists themselves to deepen your understanding of their practice as its explored in this exhibition and reflect on your own place in The Quiet Between.

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Exhibition

Artist Talk | Charlie Jay & Grace Walters

Image courtesy of Grace Walters

What: Artist talk with Charlie Jay & Grace Walters
When: Sunday 24 May, 2026, 1 - 2pm
Where: Gallery 3, M16 Artspace, 21 Blaxland Crescent, Griffith
Cost: Free

Floor Talk with the artists of JUNKYARD

Journey through the junkyard with Grace and Charlie in Gallery 3 at M16 Artspace. They will discuss the evolution of this collaborative exhibition and together we will uncover the hidden stories within the works. They invite you to join them in reflecting on this series of sculpture, found objects, drawings and textiles.

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Exhibition

Artist Talk | Helen Brancatisano and Miriam Cullen

Helen Brancastisano, View from Aloft #2, 2025. Image courtesy of the Artist.

What: Artist Talk with Shorelines artists Helen Brancatisano and Miriam Cullen
When: Sunday 3 May, 2026, 2 - 3pm
Where: M16 Artspace Foyer, 21 Blaxland Crescent, Griffith
Cost: Free

Walk and Talk with the Artists of Shorelines

Take a walk through M16’s exhibition, Shorelines, with Helen Brancatisano and Miriam Cullen, two of the exhibiting artists. They will talk about how the three artists spend time in the landscape, their individual ways of seeing and working translating into the variety of works in the exhibition.  Works include monotypes, artist books, 3D paper works and ink drawings. They will discuss the works and answer questions about their inspiration, methods and materials.

About the Artists

Helen Brancatisano is a Sydney artist whose work springs from observing the way people navigate their lives through their unique circumstances of place and time. Drawing on historical, literary and personal narratives she explores these themes through drawing, painting and monotype printmaking. The freedom and unpredictability of the monotype is often the springboard for other ideas and guides her processes. 
She is also keenly aware of how birds enter our consciousness and lead us to consider the broader world around us. 
Spending time on the Central Coast of NSW, the rocky shorelines and the sounds of birdlife drew her once more to consider our connection to their world. This reflection forms the basis of her work for the group exhibition Shorelines, consisting of monotypes and ink drawings. 
As well as her five solo exhibitions, Helen has been a finalist in numerous art prizes, including the Lethbridge Small Works Prize, Gallipoli Art Prize, the Blake Prize Director’s Cut, the North Sydney Art Prize, Gosford Art Prize, the KAAF Art Prize and the Waverley Art Prize. She has won several prizes in drawing and printmaking. 

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Miriam Cullen is a linocut printmaker and watercolour painter, interested in the ways we shape our identity over time. Her hand-coloured linocut prints, watercolour paintings, painted relief blocks and three-dimensional paper sculptures examine the ways we are changed by contact with the natural world and our significant relationships. These interactions inform and transform how we see ourselves. 
She teaches literacy, visual arts and gardening to adults and enjoys playing with language and with the plant and animal life around her. Her paintings and prints are held in galleries and private collections in Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. 
As a coast dweller, Miriam does much of her art-thinking while swimming. Building a body of work for the "Shorelines" exhibition has enabled her to reflect on what she loves about the sea and sky. In these works, Miriam has moved away from her customary detailed linocuts and used simplified shapes to capture the pared back coastal space and to revisit snippets from childhood beach holidays in vivid colour. 

Exhibition

Printmaking Demonstration | Mokuhanga with Trish Yates

Trish Yates. Image courtesy of the Artist.

What: Introduction to Japanese woodblock printing
When: Saturday 2 May, 2026, 2 - 3pm
Where: M16 Artspace Foyer, 21 Blaxland Crescent, Griffith
Cost: Free

Mokuhanga Demonstration with Trish Yates

Join exhibiting artist, Trish Yates, in discussing the origins of Japanese Woodblock Printmaking and showing examples of Mokuhanga prints. She will bring along wood blocks, tools, special brushes and barens. Trish will explain the registration method, the papers, pigments, and tools used in creating Mokuhanga prints. She will demonstrate the printing technique using water based colours on Japanese paper.

About the Artist

Trish Yates is a Sydney-based printmaker. Her background is Visual Arts teaching but since retiring she has become a full- time artist/printmaker. She has done additional studies at Meadowbank TAFE, The Stables Studio, Galston, Santa Fe, New Mexico USA and at MI-Lab, Kawaguchiko, Japan.
Themes that have always interested her come from the natural environment. Proximity to Sydney bushland, travels in Australia and more recently excursions to the Central Coast, NSW have greatly influenced her work and have enhanced an innate affinity she has with the natural wonders of our unique landscape. 
Trish has been using Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock technique) for 15 years to express her ideas but she also enjoys working and experimenting with Monotypes, Collagraph, Intaglio and other Relief techniques. In 2018 she won a 5-week residency in Japan to further her knowledge of Mokuhanga printmaking techniques. 
The process of researching with drawings, paintings and photographs completed on site on the Central coast has provided a springboard for artworks completed later in her studio. These works on paper will form part of the group exhibition “Shorelines” 

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Exhibition

Painting Demonstration | Patrick Hromas

Patrick Hromas. Image courtesy of the artist.

What: Demonstration | Introduction to Grisaille: A Contemporary Approach
When: Saturday 28 March 2026, 1:00 - 2:00pm
Where: Gallery 3, M16 Artspace, 21 Blaxland Crescent, Griffith
Cost: Free

Introduction to Grisaille: A Contemporary Approach

Join artist Patrick Hromas for a short oil painting demonstration. In this session, the artist will demonstrate a timeless oil painting technique that allows for almost limitless adjustments as the painting develops. The demonstration explores a a technique used by Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael: grisaille, but with a twist! 

About the Artist:

Patrick Hromas has recently exhibited in three group exhibitions in England and participated in Arte Laguna World, Italy. His multidisciplinary practice spans oil painting and works on paper, drawing on theatre, cinema, and the landscapes of the Blue Mountains, NSW as key conceptual foundations.

At the age of sixteen, Hromas performed in an ad hoc production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a park in Turramurra in 1989. This formative experience shaped his enduring engagement with theatricality and performance. In 2003, he produced a drawing of Neil from Dead Poets Society, the first work in what became the Film Still Series.

Influenced by Henri Matisse and Édouard Manet in motif and composition, and by Toulouse Lautrec and Edgar Degas stylistically, Hromas combines historical reference with contemporary imagery. His recurring interest in archetypal characters and his commitment to resolving complex compositions underpin a practice that bridges landscape, history, and staged narrative.

Exhibition

Poetry Workshop | Brenda Goggs

Brenda Goggs, Medieval is not old, 2024. Image courtesy of the artist.

What: Poetry Workshop with Brenda Goggs
When: Saturday 7 March 2026, 2:00 - 3:00pm
Where: Gallery 2, M16 Artspace, 21 Blaxland Crescent, Griffith
Cost: Free

Writing the landscape: Seeing is believing

In a short writing workshop participants will have the opportunity to write poetry or short prose inspired by pieces in the exhibition, Holding up the Sky. The artist will be on hand to lead, challenge and encourage would-be writers.

About the Artist:

Brenda Goggs has a foot in two worlds as a practising Visual Artist and former teacher of English. Exhibiting woven tapestry over the past 25 years, she has focused on Australian identity and the landscape as an ‘object’ in an imperial ‘cabinet of curiosities’ and during this time has witnessed a national shift towards a search for understanding of our colonial past and our culpability in a quest for ownership.

She is excited by connections between things, where art and literature, words and pictures collide and where everyday moments reveal the sublime, just for a moment. She insists that the world continues to be a place of wonder, even in the suburbs, and even when things go wrong. These ambiguities provided the inspiration for her first published poetry collection Cracks in the Path, (Ginninderra Press, 2025), about living in the national capital surrounded by the public monuments which frame suburban life.

As a visual artist, Brenda has interrogated literature and interpreted work by Gerald Murnane, Patrick White and David Malouf, and collaborated with poets Geoff Page and Alan Gould.

Exhibition

Floor Talk | Kerry Shepherdson

Kerry Shepherdson, Things and Thoughts, 2025. Image courtesy of the artist.

What: Floor Talk with Kerry Shepherdson
When: Saturday 7 February 2026, 1:00 - 2:00pm
Where: Gallery 2, M16 Artspace, 21 Blaxland Crescent, Griffith
Cost: Free

Join artist Kerry Shepherdson for a floor talk that looks at the everyday objects we collect and live with, and the memories and experiences they carry. Through her still life paintings, Shepherdson slows things down, focusing on familiar spaces and the quiet details often overlooked in daily life. Her work plays with colour, pattern, and texture, using fluid paint and expressive brushwork rather than light and shadow. Influenced by her formative training in Chinese Brush painting and her years living overseas, Shepherdson’s practice invites audiences to pause, reflect, and see the beauty and meaning in ordinary things.