Home

What's on

Accessibility

Visit

Past kids programs

Guiding principles

Plan a class visit

Past education programs

For educators

Kids

Expressions of Interest

Community Gallery

Ipswich artists

Art Workshop

Community

Heritage Collection

19th and 20th Century Art Collection

Modern and Contemporary Art Collection

Our Collection

Support

Acknowledgement of Country

About

Past exhibitions & events

Shop

Contact

Testing

Saved Section Bottom Tiles and Support Gallery

Privacy Policy

Terms of Use

Booking terms and conditions

Past events

Copyright

5.png

Pattern Play

Just for Kids

IAG-Kids-Stamp-Duo-Reds.svg

Ipswich Art Gallery takes play seriously. Our goal is to create dynamic pathways for lifelong relationships with art. 

Journey through the landscapes, stories and traditions of First Nations peoples in this all ages, interactive exhibition.

walking-Together-80-x-80-cm-.jpg

IAG Kids: Walking Together

Walking Together: Toddler Time

Walking Together

Join us for hands-on activities, song and sensory play - designed to engage and nurture artistic expression and build connection.

20240817-IAG-0835.jpg

Toddler Time

Coming later

A hands-on, immersive exhibition where everyone is encouraged to take part! Make It Slow is about relaxing the pace and focusing on the act of making.&nbsp;

Make-It-Slow-tile.jpg

IAG Kids x Slow Art Collective

Discover design.it — an innovative all-ages program, blending art, design, and language to inspire creativity in a hands-on environment. 

design-it-final-sq.jpg

design.it | art language design play

Welcome to Toddler Time! Join us for play-based explorations of our current exhibition, design.it - designed especially for our youngest artists!

Untitled-design-3-1-.png

design.it | Toddler Time

Discover the magic of shape and design with Pattern Play.

Ipswich-Art-Gallery-20240303-HR-128.jpg

Pattern Play: IAG Kids

Families can get hands-on with STEAM-based exhibitions and activities throughout the school holiday period!

PromoImage-VibrantVessels-Square.jpg

School Holiday Workshops: Vibrant Vessels

This summer, enter a spellbinding world of possibilities in our Children’s Gallery exhibition Worlds of Wonder. Take inspiration from the innovative work of our Junior Curators and embark on a journey of creativity. 

IAG-2023-Worlds-of-Wonder-Logo.jpg

Worlds of Wonder

Let’s get messy!  

IAG Kids Clay Studio, based in our Children’s Gallery, offers children and adults alike the chance to get creative with their hands.

2819-IAG-Clay-Social-Tiles-1080x1080px-2-AW1.jpg

IAG Kids Studio: Clay

It’s Toddler Time!

Roll it, squish it, press it, poke it!

Come and play with clay.

toddler-IAG-Clay-Social-Tiles-1080x1080px-7-AW1-1-.jpg

Toddler Time: Kids Studio Clay

From crunching chips to tapping your toes, sweeping the floor or listening to birds singing, musical sounds surround us every day. Make Some Noise is a brand-new exhibition for children to explore these everyday musical concepts through hands-on open-ended activities and experiential play spaces.

IAG-KIDS-Make-Some-Noise-Pink-Portrait.jpg

Make Some Noise

Thomas-Oliver-Make-Some-Noise-1-H.264-.mp4

It’s Toddler Time!

Join us for a morning of movement, music and making noise.

Thomas-Oliver-Make-Some-Noise-12.jpg

Toddler Time: Make Some Noise

Can we save our stories when the robots arrive? And how can a whalebone help with it? 

IAG-KIDS-Whalebone-2023-with-Title.png

Whalebone

See your creation take flight, soar to the ceiling and defy gravity by hovering high overhead… or just fall to the floor. It’s all about air and invention, with a little bit of mid-air mayhem!

Artboard-29-copy-35-1.jpg

Wind Tubes

WIND-TUBES-MOTION-06-copy.mp4

It’s Toddler Time! Join us for a Friday morning filled with flying, floating and fun!

Wind-Tubes-Toddler-Time-Video-Still-1.jpg

Wind Tubes for toddlers

Spinning discs and supersized Spirographs… come and play with the Drawing Machines!

IAG-KIDS-Spirograph-image-small.png

Drawing Machines

Join us this summer as we transform our Exhibition Gallery into a hands-on portrait studio for young makers.

IAG-KIDS-Just-Be-Your-Selfie-2022-Graphic-Colour-Grid-Square-Cutout.png

Just Be Your Selfie

Kids, come and take over the Gallery… it’s time to Celebrate Your Selfie at this exclusive Gallery party!

IAG-Just-Be-Your-Selfie-Celebrate-Square.jpg

Celebrate Your Selfie

Imagine a flower...
Imagine a car...
Imagine a bird...

IAG-KIDS-Imagine-This-2018-Install-Image-04-A6190009--1672376215

Imagine This...

Award-winning Bunk Puppets, creators of ‘Swamp Juice’ and ‘Sticks Stones Broken Bones’, present this raucous, new, all-ages adventure!

Bunkasaurus 792x680 V2

Bunkasaurus

Does your brain play tricks on you? Is my reality the same as yours?

Perception Deception Purple Logo

Perception Deception

Join us in the Ipswich Community Gallery for Four Days of Fun!

Four Days of Fun - Web Slider 2 Glitter adj

Four Days of Fun

Start your engines... Built for Speed is back! Thrills, spills and awesome crashes are guaranteed!

IAG-KIDS-Built-for-Speed-2011-Kids-12-A6197260-.jpg

Built for Speed

Enter the dazzling world of LightPlay where children can explore their artistic potential in an interactive space created especially for them!

IAG-KIDS-Light-Play-2021-promo-image-sml-A7780761-.jpg

LightPlay for Kids

Calling all babies and toddlers! Come and enjoy an exciting experience in the LightPlay exhibition space.

Light Play Toddler mornings 680x792

LightPlay Baby & Toddler

Enter an interactive transport world created in collaboration with illustrator James Gulliver Hancock.

IAG-KIDS-On-The-Move-2021-Hero-Plane-Girl-A7457042-.png

On the Move

Experience the thrill of discovery these school holidays!

IAG-KIDS-Treasure-Hunt-2018-Two-girls-digging-A6160880-.jpg

Treasure Hunt

See colour as you’ve never seen it before!

IAG-KIDS-Colour-Questacon-2020-02-A6673085--1672392201

Colour: See the world in a new light

Unleash your inner engineer with the return of the popular Ball Run – an awesome hands-on activity within Construction Site Summer Fun.

IAG-KIDS-Ball-Run-Construction-Site-2017-2013-26-A6219301-.jpg

Ball run

Back bigger and better! Come and experience playing in the unique, immersive, multi-sensory STEM environment of the TapeScape!

Kids-Ex-2019-Tapescape-Pinks-Facebook.jpg

Tapescape

Visit Construction Site for awesome, hands-on summer fun the whole family can enjoy.

IAG-KIDS-Construction-Site-2019-BB-01-300dpi-A6206827-.jpg

Construction Site Summer Fun

Make your own motorised scribble machine and take it home to keep! 

IAG-KIDS-Scribble-Machines-2016-2048x1536-A6181702-.jpg

Make a Scribble Machine

Step out of the darkness and into Playing with Light. This full-body interactive exhibition explores our big bright, colourful world full of light, lasers and lenses. 

IAG-KIDS-Playing-with-Light-2018-Blue-light-burst-2048x1536-A5846481-.jpg

Playing with Light

Make a Shadow Puppet

Shadow puppets in space! Two brothers embark on an epic quest to find a new home planet.

IAG-KIDS-Slapdash-Galaxy-2018-Media-Images-Geddes-5-A6264139-.jpg

Slapdash Galaxy: A Bunk Puppets Show

Reach new heights these Easter school holidays at the Ipswich Art Gallery!

IAG-KIDS-Climbing-Web-2018-Media-image-close-up-of-web-A6158696-.jpg

Climbing Web

Start your engines, Built for Speed is back! Thrills, spills and awesome crashes are guaranteed!

IAG-KIDS-Built-for-Speed-2011-Brand-and-Car-A6197289-.jpg

Built for Speed 2017

Experience extraordinary visual theatre, set in a wondrous tinkering heaven! 

IAG-KIDS-Loose-Ends-2017-Brisbane-Kids-1-A6263675-.jpg

Loose Ends: Theatre for Families

Get your hands dirty when you Play with Clay at our free drop-in workshops these school holidays.

IAG-KIDS-Create-with-Clay-Workshop-2014-01-A6181594-.jpg

Play with Clay

Discover a kaleidoscope of epic proportions! Be mesmerized by the psychedelic imagery of The real thing a human-scaled, interactive kaleidoscope.

IAG-KIDS-The-Real-Thing-Video-Still.jpg

The real thing

Be inspired by Towers of Tomorrow with LEGO® Bricks, an exhibition where architecture meets creative play.

IAG-KIDS-Towers-of-Tomorrow-2017-Boy-with-Sydney-Tower-A4970958-.jpg

Towers of Tomorrow with Lego® Bricks

Bickering snails, neurotic snakes and opera singing mice… welcome to a swamp like no other!

IAG-KIDS-Swamp-Juice-2016-Mr-Bunk-Magnifying-Glass-01-A6263222-.jpg

Swamp Juice

Enter the dazzling world of Light Play where children can explore their artistic potential in an interactive space created especially for them! 

IAG-KIDS-Light-Play-2021-Promo-06-Brisbane-Headshots-A7780753-.jpg

Light Play 2015

Sticks, Stones, Broken Bones is a fun-filled hilarious, shadow-puppet show full of surprises, captivatingly performed by Jeff Achtem of Bunk Puppets.

IAG-KIDS-Sticks-Stones-Broken-Bones-2015-Mr-Bunk-with-Shadow-Puppets-A6262970-.jpg

Sticks, Stones, Broken Bones

Crafted by Evelyn Roth Festival Arts, the climbing web is a large-scale multi-coloured crocheted net suspended from the gallery ceiling.

Climbing Web 2015

A thingamabobbish theatre-circus family show which combines circus skills, clowning, puppetry, magic, strange contraptions, wacky mechanisms and unexpected music in a quirky and ingenious extravaganza.

Squaring the wheel,flying shaker cups

Squaring the Wheel

Discover the art of expanded drawing at the interactive children’s exhibit Tape It!

IAG-KIDS-Tape-It-2014-Hero-A5999046-.jpg

Tape It!

Troy Emery Wild Thing

Wild Thing: Wild Colours, Wild Ideas, Wild Fun!

Join the Dreamer’s quest to rescue a leafy sea dragon in this spectacular black-light puppet show for the whole family, Dreamer in the Deep.

2010 Dreamer in the Deep 680x792

Dreamer in the Deep

Back by popular demand, bigger and better than ever, Disco Puppy: Stayin’ Alive brings kids even more funky moves to learn and explore as they interact with art in their very own disco dance party. 

IAG-KIDS-Disco-Puppy-2008-kids-interaction-A6210214-.jpg

Disco Puppy: Stayin' Alive

TapeScape is a tri-level, creative play space for kids in Construction Site Summer Fun.

Explore the tunnels and slides made from more than 115,000 metres of packing tape designed and created by artist Eric Lennartson &mdash; direct from the US! Spark your sense of wonder about the unusual use of materials and unexpected forms in this latest TapeScape &mdash; an Australian exclusive at the Ipswich Art Gallery this summer.



Socks MUST be worn on the TapeScape. Bring your own or buy specially designed TapeScape Socks at the Gallery.

Design and create wearable works of art and explore process based making in our pop-up open studio. Express your individual flair with magical shrinky charm jewellery and badge making. Then fashion a one-of-a-kind keychain to personalise your schoolbag and create radical '80s friendship pins to share with your BFFs. 











Caution: These activities involve cutting tools, permanent pens, and choking hazards.

LightPlay Baby & Toddler sessions are hands-on creative fun where the very young can discover the different properties of light at their own pace and in their own unique way. 



Explore the beauty of light using special play stations and experiment with objects to create reflection, shadow and colour. It's sure to spark your little one's curiosity and creativity!





<h5></h5>

Start by creating your own treasure bag, then dig for treasure in the massive Treasure Hunt sand pit. What you discover is yours to keep&hellip; so fill your treasure bag with jewels, gems and special things. 







Treasure Hunt is a playful experience for young children aged 3–8 years (and their families)*. It is the perfect way to learn about fossicking and geology while having fun.









*WARNING: Due to the choking hazard posed by 'treasure', this activity is unsuitable for children under 3 years old. A separate safe area is provided to cater to younger siblings under 3 years, admitted free of charge.

LightPlay transforms the entire Children’s Gallery into a dynamic light-based studio, with over-head projectors, illuminated light boxes, spotlights, interactive light tables and a multitude of diverse recycled materials. Children will investigate the different properties of light and discover how light interacts with materials, and then create their own kaleidoscopic patterns and luminous constructions. 









LightPlay embraces the philosophies of Reggio Emilia and REmida to make a creative space for young children aged 3–8 years, which encourages collaborative play, experimentation and discovery-based learning. The exhibition was developed by Ipswich Art Gallery staff in collaboration with early childhood specialists.









Curriculum Links: Essential Learnings (Visual Art, Mathematics) Australian Curriculum (Science). View our <a href="/uploads/IAG-Light-Play-2021-Education-Resource.pdf" target="_blank">LightPlay Education Resource</a>. 











<table width="100%"><tbody>
</tbody>
</table>

Enter the dazzling world of LightPlay… a unique exhibition that explores the creative potential of light.

Light Play EDU 680x792

LightPlay for Education Groups

Design, build and race your LEGO® hot rod, dragster or supercar down rad ramps and slick tracks. Modify your vehicle for extra speed, then re-race your ride for ultimate victory! Whose machine will reign supreme? 





Built for Speed encourages children to play, design, modify and make using the familiar material of Lego. Children will learn about design and engineering through hands-on learning using their imagination, spatial ability and fine motor skills to construct a range of shapes, designs and creative outcomes.





WARNING: Choking hazard – contains small parts. Children must be supervised by an adult over 18 years.

Questacon’s family-friendly Perception Deception exhibition explores how our sense of ‘reality’ is formed by our brains using sensory information &mdash; but our senses can sometimes deceive us! 







Perception Deception consists of hands-on and multimedia experiences, each using perceptual tests and illusions to reveal how our brains edit, prioritise and even add information about the things and people around us. The exhibits cover themes of visual, audio, audio-language, tactile and social perception.







Perception Deception investigates how the brain interprets and reports information received from touch, sight and sound. We assume what we see, hear and feel is real, but our reality is really only our perception &mdash; and no two of us perceive things exactly the same way.

Along the way you’ll discover fascinating facts about different modes of transport and types of vehicles. Construct a paper plane and see how it flies, and build a vehicle of the future to test on our track. Discover how transportation works in busy cities, and how the fuel choices you make can have a positive impact on the environment. You’ll learn amazing facts about Australian journeys and inventions, and meet the people behind them. See how vehicles have evolved over time – and imagine what they might be like in the future! 









On the Move is an interactive exhibition curated by <a href="https://sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/">Sydney Living Museums</a>' Mel Flyte.









WARNING: Choking hazard – contains small parts. Children must be supervised by an adult over 18 years.