Arts and culture | Choose Cairns
Cairns might be best-known for reef and rainforest, but we're a region buzzing with music, arts and culture. We've mapped our art and cultural business, venues, public art pieces, perfomance spaces and historical places on the Cairns Arts and Culture Map.
Cairns big-six arts venues
- Cairns Art Gallery: The Cairns Art Gallery is one of Australia’s leading public galleries recognised for the excellence of its programs and collections, which relate to the unique heritage and living culture of North Queensland and the Tropics.
- Bulmba-ja arts centre: Bulmba-ja is a theatre, gallery and creative development space in Cairns. The venue hosts resident companies JUTE Theatre Company, NorthSite Contemporary Arts, Miriki Performing Arts, The Pryce Centre for Culture and Arts and Minjil.
- Cairns Performing Arts Centre and Munro Martin Parklands: At CPAC and the adjacent Munro Martin Parklands, you can see innovative and debut performances in addition to a mix of classics and revived theatrical pieces. With multiple performance spaces across the CPAC site, the versatility of the venue enables the presentation of a variety of events including theatre, music, dance, contemporary circus, opera, film and comedy.
- Tanks Arts Centre: Situated in the Cairns Botanic Gardens precinct, just 4km north of the city’s CBD, the centre is an iconic and innovative multi-use, contemporary arts facility housed in three converted World War II naval oil storage tanks, and set amidst a lush rainforest backdrop.
- Cairns Museum: The Cairns Museum and the Cairns Historical Society Research Centre are located in the Cairns School of Arts building, in the heart of the Cairns CBD. The Society's extensive archival and photographic collections are open to anyone with a research interest in Cairns or Far North Queensland.
- The Court House: The city's newest gallery has been redeveloped from one of our oldest government buildings. The venue will present a dynamic and sometimes experimental program of shared arts experiences for a wide audience.
Art in Cairns
The rich and ancient culture of the Cairns region, better known as Gimuy by First Peoples, makes our city a hub for Indigenous art.
Annually, art collectors from around Australia and the world descend on Cairns for the Cairns Indigneous Art Fair (CIAF), which showcases new art works and fashion from Indigenous artists and designers.
Cairns Art Gallery regularly hosts touring exhibitions, among them the Archibald Prize in 2020 and exhibitions from the National Gallery of Australia, as well as showcasing artists from the Cairns region, Cape York and the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Cairns newest gallery, the Court House, is recent addition to the city's gallery precinct and progresses Cairns' ambition to become the Arts capital of Northern Australia.
Music, theatre and comedy in Cairns
Performers love coming to Cairns because of our unique venues and enthusiastic crowds. Check out the pictures for a small selection of the gigs, shows, exhibitions and performances staged in Cairns in the recent past.
A long list of international and nationally-renowned performers have graced Cairns stages and venues over the years.
Cairns hosts everything from large-scale music festivals like indie favourite, Grass is Greener, to small niche DJ sets in laneway locations. Other big festivals held in the region - Red Hot Summer and the country and rock music-focussed Savannah in the Round in Mareeba, reflect the diversity of the music scene in Cairns.
The live music scene is Cairns is active, interesting and well-supported with a wide variety of venues for performances. More than 20 venues around the city, suburbs and beaches regularly host live music as well as plentiful outdoor venues like Munro Martin Parklands and the Court House lawns.
At least monthly, you will also find renowned theatre companies and comedy festivals touring their shows in Cairns.
Fun fact: Cairns is the hometown of renowned performers, Emma Louise, Eves Karydas and Christina Anu.
Performing and making art in Cairns
We have a sophisticated arts scene in Cairns, home to many renowned artists, performers, musicians, and arts businesses.
Performer Patty Preece is one half of the award-winning performance group, Ironing Maidens, who you might have seen at festivals and shows around Australia, like the Adelaide Fringe!
Find out more about the Cairns art scene from Patty, who moved here a few years ago.
