Canvas of Cairns Community Artwork CallOut

Cairns Festival 2026 |  Pitch Your Light Sculpture Figurine Artwork Now!

Canvas of Cairns is calling and this is your chance to turn the Esplanade into your canvas. We are transforming our community into a living, glowing, larger than life artwork, powered by bold ideas, big stories, and brilliant local talent.

As part of Cairns Festival and the Cairns Celebrate 150 Years program, we are inviting artists, makers, dreamers and rule breakers to submit expressions of interest for a landmark Light Sculpture Figurine installation.

Your work will not just hang on a wall, it will ignite.

Selected artworks will be brought to life across a series of illuminated figurine sculptures, scaled up and set loose along the Esplanade. Think glowing forms. Think moving light. Think your creativity impossible to ignore.

Each sculpture becomes a beacon of story and identity, a collective, electric snapshot of who we are as a region, told through the eyes of our community.

We are chasing work that is bold, thought provoking, visually striking and deeply connected to place. Work that celebrates people, culture, history and the raw, unique energy of Cairns.

A chance to transform your art into a large scale, illuminated experience seen by thousands.

All creative voices are welcome. No gatekeeping. No playing it safe.

*The image above provides a mock-up of the figurine structures and demonstrates how selected artworks/designs will be integrated as the central visual element within each sculpture