Head to Heide Museum of Modern Art for Molto Italiano! 

Heide’s two-day community festival celebrating Italian culture and showcasing the exhibition Molto Bello: Icons of Modern Italian Design. Activating the whole of the Heide site, this festival offers something for everyone. 

Molto Italiano! will have activities for all ages, from lawn bocce to art making, pop-up exhibition talks in Italian and English, an ‘Art Bambini’ program for the little ones with Heide’s art therapist, and an Italian-themed ‘Design Roadshow’ where visitors can bring an Italian design object from home for expert assessment. Authentic Italian food and drink will be on offer throughout, including pizza, pasta, gelato, spritz, and more from specialised food trucks as well as Heide Kitchen. Italian bands will add atmosphere, along with traditional Italian songs from the Veneto Club choir. 

Celebrate all things Italian this summer with Heide!

Active Manningham is running an online workshop to assist sports clubs understand marketing, promotion and social media.

MK Consulting will facilitate the session. Topics covered include:

• Effective marketing strategies for community sport.
• Understand how to tailor your marketing and promotion to reach diverse audiences.
• Learn how to maximise your club’s social media impact.

Active Manningham is running an online workshop to assist sports clubs with membership retention and acquisition.

MK Consulting will facilitate the session. Topics covered include:

• Unpacking the latest participation data and trends impacting membership in community sport
• Understanding barriers and motivating factors for sports participation to increase retention
• Learning how to grow and diversify your membership base.

Beyond the Table: The Dinner Party Reimagined  is a reimagining of a traditional dinner party, with a nod to 1970s nostalgia and celebrating one of the key gathering spaces in our homes, the humble dining table.

The installation is on display at Manningham Art Gallery as part of Melbourne Design Week, Australia's premier design festival featuring events across Melbourne and regional Victoria.

Emerging Manningham artist Isobel Goodman responds to and selects works from Manningham Council’s ‘Potters Cottage Collection,’ a grouping of vessels created by the Potters Cottage co-operative. The co-operative was founded in Warrandyte in 1958 to advocate for and sell handmade functional Australian pottery.

Goodman hand builds her signature papier mâché and plaster sculptures – organic and abstracted forms to reference a dinner party table setting – vases, cutlery, plates, and candlesticks that play off and create a contemporary juxtaposition against the Potters Cottage vessels from the 1970s. 

Surrounding the central dining table presentation is a display of paintings from local Manningham artist Jade Piltz. These works depict bright, layered and abstract domestic objects that encapsulate the exhibition’s celebration of communal gathering and ritual. 

During Melbourne Design Week (15-25 May) visitors can take home a flower to celebrate this exhibition. 

Artist Bios: 
Isobel Goodman was recently awarded a Bachelor of Fine Art from the University of Melbourne. Her practice focuses on sculptural exploration and the body’s navigation of space and environment through the perspective of APD (Auditory Processing Disorder). She invites audiences to examine their relationship between the physical self and how we navigate the world around us.

Jade Piltz is a Warrandyte painter and ceramist. She is fascinated by our innate search for belonging, our desire for meaning and relationships to change and transition. Using mark making, she explores the ways our interactions with surrounding spaces and objects, narrate and inform our lives.

This Exhibition was supported by Gabriela Mello, owner and director of Warrandyte Pottery, through artist mentorship and technical and conceptual support and curated by Lucy Beattie Hughes, Manningham Council’s Creative Industries Officer.

Jade Piltz, Alone, Together (detail), 2024,  acrylic on canvas, 168 x 122cm. Image courtesy of the artist. Photo by: Emily Brookfield.
 

 
Melbourne Design Week is Australia’s largest and leading annual design festival and takes place from 15 to 25 May 2025.

The 2025 program spans 11 days of 350+ events, exhibitions, talks, and installations throughout metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria.

Melbourne Design Week is a vital platform for emerging and established creative practitioners, offering the Australian design community and audiences the opportunity to engage with a diverse program of talks, tours, exhibitions, installations, and workshops. Melbourne Design Week is an initiative of the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria and is curated and delivered by the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV).

Visit designweek.melbourne to view the full program.


 

Hounds of Heide is back!

In collaboration with the Rose Street Artists’ Market, we have curated a selection of stalls featuring canine themed designs by cartoonist Oslo Davis, as well as an eclectic mix of art, design, and handcrafted goods.

Highlights this year include:

• a special appearance by ABC News Breakfast stars Kubrick the dog and Zak (aka film critic, film programmer and cinema manager Zak Hepburn)
• dog obedience experts
• a dog kissing booth
• face painting
• activities for children and the whole family.

Dogs must be kept on lead at all times. There is an off-lead dog park located in Banksia Park. Please ensure you clean up after your dog.

Illustration by Oslo Davis.

Playhouse Pantomimes returns to the Doncaster Playhouse with their fan favourite, original musical adaptation of 'Cinderella', written by Blake Everett, with music and lyrics by Blake Everett and Matt Wallace.

Cinderella, originally by Charles Perrault, is a favourite among children and adults alike. The Playhouse Pantomimes have taken this tale, adapted, and updated it, turning it into a non-stop comedic romp for all ages. The story features many iconic and instantly recognisable characters, such as Cinderella, Prince Charming and The Ugly Step Sisters.

Join us for a vibrant, comedic, pantomime-style retelling of this classic tale. Oh, and make sure you're wearing clean socks, just in case Prince Charming asks you to try on a shoe.

Presented by Playhouse Pantomimes.

A terrible water shortage has crippled the Gotham-like town that serves as the setting for Urinetown.

In a mad attempt to regulate water consumption, the government has outlawed the use of private toilets. The citizenry must use public, pay-for-use amenities owned and operated by the corrupt and iron-fisted Caldwell B. Cladwell. The privilege to pee is expensive, draining and dangerous. Anyone who refuses to pay to pee is immediately and without question hauled off to Urinetown.

What is Urinetown? Nobody knows, for those who are sent there are never heard from again. But it's really a love story and there's a revolution all before the end of Act I. Will the revolution succeed? Can true love be found in Urinetown? All these questions and more are answered in Urinetown.

Auslan interpreted performance: Friday 8 September, 8.00pm to 10.00pm.

Presented by Phoenix Theatre Company.

Supported by Manningham's Community Grant Program.

Wurundjeri Woi-wurrong elders, in collaboration with Manningham Council, are hosting a meaningful, reflective, and respectful event in a demonstration of togetherness on 26 January. 

Hosted at MC Square, this event will be free and feature story-telling, music and art. It is open to everyone who would like to attend.

At the height of the Great Depression, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow went from two small-town nobodies in West Texas to America's most renowned folk heroes and Texas law enforcement's worst nightmares.

Fearless, shameless and alluring, the Tony-nominated Bonnie and Clyde, from the legendary Frank Wildhorn (Jekyll and Hyde, Civil War, Dracula) is the electrifying story of love, adventure and crime that captured the attention of an entire country.

When Bonnie and Clyde meet, their mutual cravings for excitement and fame immediately set them on a mission to chase their dreams. Their bold and reckless behaviour turns the young lovers' thrilling adventure into a downward spiral, putting themselves and their loved ones in trouble with the law. Forced to stay on the run, the lovers resort to robbery and murder to survive. As the infamous duo's fame grows bigger, their inevitable end draws nearer.

Photo by Galean Pitt

Presented by Waterdale Theatre

Supported by Manningham's Community Grant Program.

Active Manningham will be running a free Intro to Strength class.

This class offers beginners an overview of strength training basics, equipment usage, and the benefits of this style of training. It emphasizes safe and effective techniques, making it ideal for those new to strength training.

Due to limited spaces registration is essential.

Catherine Opie has an international reputation as one of the leading photographers of her generation. The exhibition at Heide combines key works from across her oeuvre with a focus on notions of affiliation.

It traverses Opie’s early, most recognisable works exploring constructions of gender and sexuality, through alternative conceptions of the nuclear household—chosen family portraits that transcend traditional familial ties—to more recent musings on solidarity and collective action in the face of proliferating global crises.

In 1994, Heide exhibited eighteen of Opie’s portraits in the exhibition Persona Cognita, curated by Juliana Engberg. That exhibition represented Opie’s first showing in Australia, and now almost three decades later Heide will host the first survey of the artist’s work in this part of the world. 

Catherine Opie - Oliver in a Tutu. Image courtesy of the artist.

Phoenix Theatre Company Inc is excited to announce their production of "I Wish".

This one-of-a-kind show invites passionate and talented individuals to step into the spotlight, performing the iconic roles they’ve always aspired to play - even those they’ve never imagined auditioning for. 

From classic showstoppers to contemporary hits, “I Wish” celebrates the joy of musical theatre, showcasing a diverse array of performances that reflect the dreams and aspirations of its cast. 

Join us for an unforgettable weekend where dreams take centre stage and come to life in the most dazzling way possible!

Director/Choreographer: Renee Maloney and Ally Denovan

Music Directors: Simon D'Aquino and Ben Noble-Saroto

Presented by Phoenix Theatre Company.

Women and girls in Manningham are invited to join the Manningham Walking Group for Carers Multicultural dance lesson.

This session will include a range of dance styles - line dancing, Bollywood dancing, belly dancing.

Coffee and snacks will be provided after the session.

Suitable for women and girls of all age, no prior experience needed.

Come down, meet some new people and have fun.

What to wear: comfortable clothes.

What to bring: a water bottle.

Register via email at info@manninghamwalkinggroup.com.au.

#ManninghamGirlsCan

Bring your friends, family and party vibes.

We are showcasing our incredible local Manningham artists with our local businesses throughout Summer.

Anthony Vartuli soothes the soul with the dulcet sounds of Flamenco and Latin guitar tunes. Be carried away by the tranquil and relaxed style of Anthony's artistry. Perfect for relaxing while enjoying local food, shops and drinks.

Local artists. Local businesses. Live performances. All summer long across Manningham. 

Come down and enjoy a training session with the Manningham United Blues, other female footballers and female staff. 

This session is for females aged 6 and over. No previous experience required. All fitness levels are welcome.

All equipment will be provided.

What to wear: Active wear and runners

What to bring: A drink bottle

Footy 4 Fun inclusion is for children aged 5 to 12 that identify as having a disability.

The program will involve fun and modified AFL and sport activities delivered in a safe and inclusive environment.

All abilities are welcome, no prior experience playing AFL is needed.

Facility is wheelchair accessible.

Plenty of parking available on site. 

Are you a person with disability? Are you on the NDIS or not on the NDIS? Perhaps you're a carer, friend, family member, or just interested in disability inclusion?
Do you want to know more about local opportunities for people with disability and how to remove barriers to inclusion?

The expo includes:

• Support services
• Social inclusion 
• Arts
• Sport
• Recreation
• Housing
• Education
• Employment

Celebrating International Day of People with Disability, come along to Inclusive Connections.

The expo, in Function Room 1 and 2, starting at 12.00pm

We'll have many service providers for you to connect with. Discover what services and programs are available for people with disability in Manningham.

Speaker program, in Function Room 3 , starting at 12.20pm 

There’ll be three live talks and a panel on during the event. Topics include:

• Navigating the NDIS, with Christine Scott from VALID
• An easy guide to the Social Model of Disability, with Mark Glascodine
• Inclusive fashion, with JAM the label
• A panel discussion about barriers and enablers to access and inclusion, with the Manningham Disability Advisory Committee

Art exhibition, in the foyer  

Art by world renowned artist with disability, Alan Constable, in the foyer of the Civic Centre. This exhibition will run from 17 November to 17 December.

This is a mask friendly event and includes a quiet space.