Six New Shows at Maitland Regional Art Gallery From 8 November 2026: Free Entry, Dates, Hours and Kids’ Art Sundays (Maitland, NSW)

Maitland Regional Art Gallery opens five new exhibitions on Sunday 8 November 2026 and a sixth on Saturday 14 November, and entry to the gallery is free. The shows run into February and March 2027, so there is no rush to see them this weekend.

The details below come from the My Maitland event listings and the gallery’s venue listing, all run by Maitland City Council and all read on Sunday 8 November 2026. Each exhibition has its own page on the My Maitland events calendar, and the venue page is the Maitland Regional Art Gallery listing.

Which exhibitions are opening, and when do they close?

Exhibition	Opens	Runs to	What it is
Too Deadly: Ten Years of Tarnanthi	Sun 8 Nov 2026	Sun 14 Feb 2027	More than 30 works from a decade of the Tarnanthi festival
Sun Room	Sun 8 Nov 2026	Sun 7 Feb 2027	Paintings by Newcastle-based artist Dan Nelson
Operation Art | Maitland	Sun 8 Nov 2026	Sun 28 Feb 2027	50 student artworks from a Children’s Hospital at Westmead program
Mimili Maku Arts	Sun 8 Nov 2026	Sun 21 Feb 2027	Public launch of an Aboriginal-owned art centre’s living collection
By Popular Demand	Sun 8 Nov 2026	Sun 21 Feb 2027	Jack Hodges and his character Gary the Dolphin
Dance With Me Darling	Sat 14 Nov 2026	Sun 7 Mar 2027	Contemporary artists who use movement in their work

All six listings give the same daily window of 9am to 4pm and the same address. Times are New South Wales local time, which is AEDT (UTC+11) at this time of year.

What is Too Deadly: Ten Years of Tarnanthi?

Tarnanthi is a national festival of contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art presented by the Art Gallery of South Australia, in partnership with BHP and with the support of the South Australian Government, assisted by the Australian Government’s Visions of Australia program. The festival has run since 2015.

Too Deadly is a national touring exhibition that gathers highlight works from that decade. The listing says it has more than thirty works by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists from across the country, some conceived for Tarnanthi and several of them monumental in scale. It is the longest-running of the six, closing on Sunday 14 February 2027.

What is in the smaller shows?

Sun Room is a series of paintings by Dan Nelson, who is based in Newcastle (the listing uses the name Muloobinba). The listing describes her paintings as luminous and thinks of them as “light-filled rooms”, which both artist and viewer can enter. It says the series moves between still life and landscape. It closes on Sunday 7 February 2027.

Mimili Maku Arts comes from an Aboriginal-owned and governed art centre in Mimili Community on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in South Australia. The listing says the exhibition marks the public launch of Alpiri Kuwari, the centre’s Living Cultural Collection, and brings together works made during recent bush camps with key works by founding artists. It closes on Sunday 21 February 2027.

By Popular Demand is by Jack Hodges, who is based in Nambucca Heads on Gumbaynggirr Country. His work centres on a character called Gary the Dolphin, a laid-back human-porpoise hybrid, and on recorded street conversations. The listing says that in 2026 Gary comes to the streets of Maitland. It also closes on Sunday 21 February 2027.

Operation Art | Maitland is a touring exhibition from Operation Art, an initiative of The Children’s Hospital at Westmead run with the New South Wales Department of Education. Students from Kindergarten to Year 10 across the state make artworks for children in hospital, and 50 works are selected to hang at the hospital. The listing says this touring show features those selected works. It runs to Sunday 28 February 2027.

When does Dance With Me Darling open?

The sixth show opens a week later than the rest. The My Maitland listing gives its dates as Saturday 14 November 2026 to Sunday 7 March 2027. It describes the exhibition as spanning moving image, sound, sculptural interventions and performance, with contemporary artists from across Australia who all use movement in their practice. The listing does not name the artists or say whether any performance happens on opening day, so check with the gallery if you are planning around that.

Is entry free, and can kids join in?

The venue listing says: “Maitland Regional Art Gallery is free, fully accessible, and always has drop-in activities available for children and families.” The entry-cost field on the same page reads “Free Entry”.

The gallery also runs Art Sunday, a free family activity from 10am to 12pm. The listing runs from Sunday 8 November 2026 to 30 June 2027. Each activity takes about half an hour and is led by art tutors, all materials are provided and no bookings are needed. The listing adds that children cannot be left unattended, so a parent or carer needs to stay.

What else is at the gallery?

Part of the building	What the listing says
Café Seraphine	At the rear of the gallery, with indoor dining and an alfresco area in a boutique garden
Retail store	Wares from local, national and international artists and craftspeople, including jewellery, cards, books, scarves, bags and homewares
Maitland Visitor Information Service	Inside the gallery, with staff who can advise on attractions, events and accommodation
The collection	More than 7,000 artworks by Australian and international artists

The council’s visitor-services line gives the gallery as open Tuesday to Sunday. The exhibition pages show a daily 9am to 4pm window for every date, including Mondays, so the safest plan is to avoid Monday and ring ahead if you are unsure.

How do I get there?

The address is 230 High Street, Maitland NSW 2320. The listings do not give parking details or directions, so this guide does not either. The gallery’s phone number is 02 4934 9859, and the email address is artgallery@maitland.nsw.gov.au.

What else is on in Maitland this month?

The My Maitland calendar lists several other November events, including Street Eats at East Maitland, a True Crime Tour and a river cruise from Morpeth to Newcastle. We have put them in one place in our Maitland weekend of 13 to 15 November guide. For wider Hunter plans, see the Dalwood Estate reopening on 6 December.

Sources

• My Maitland — Too Deadly: Ten Years of Tarnanthi (dates, description; read 8 November 2026)
• My Maitland — Sun Room (read 8 November 2026)
• My Maitland — Operation Art | Maitland (read 8 November 2026)
• My Maitland — Mimili Maku Arts (read 8 November 2026)
• My Maitland — By Popular Demand (read 8 November 2026)
• My Maitland — Dance With Me Darling (read 8 November 2026)
• My Maitland — Art Sunday (read 8 November 2026)
• My Maitland — Maitland Regional Art Gallery (address, contact, entry, facilities; read 8 November 2026)

Photos: the gallery building by DaHuzyBru and Blb789, Maitland Railway Station and Morpeth Bridge by Bidgee, and Ray Lawler Reserve by JulieMay54, all on Wikimedia Commons. The station and Morpeth photos show other places in the Maitland area, not the gallery itself (text added).

OZ Local Updates is an independent local guide and is not affiliated with Maitland Regional Art Gallery or Maitland City Council. Dates and details can change; check with the gallery before you go.