What's On in Sydney: May 2025 Arts, Culture & Creativity Highlights

May 2025 is bursting with events that celebrate creativity, storytelling, community, and bold ideas. From avant-garde exhibitions to unforgettable comedy climbs and family-friendly literacy sessions, Sydney is alive with artistic energy. Here are some standout events not to miss this month:

🎨 Berlin Sydney Art Show 2025

📍 Local Edition Gallery, Glebe

📅 2–31 May | Opening Night: 2 May, 6–9pm

💵 Free Entry

🔗 Visit Website

Curated by Sydney artist Iman Irannejad, this powerful group show features 20 international artists based in Berlin. Expect vivid works across painting, textile, photography and video – all exploring identity, freedom, and creative life in Europe’s art capital. Opening Night is your chance to connect with the artists and experience Berlin’s spirit in Sydney.

😂 Climb With A Comedian 2025

📍 Sydney Harbour Bridge

📅 Selected Dates: 6–15 May | 9:10am Climbs

🎟 Book Now

💸 All proceeds donated to ActionAid Australia

BridgeClimb and the Sydney Comedy Festival bring back this unique experience – climbing the Harbour Bridge with some of Australia’s and NZ’s funniest comedians! Limited to just 13 people per climb, it’s laughter, breathtaking views, and charity all rolled into one. Expect jokes, photos, souvenirs, and stories you'll tell forever.

Line-up Highlights:

• David Correos (6 May)
• Bob Downe (9 May)
• Elouise Eftos (14 May)

🌿 Peter Watts: Tempest's Light

📍 Art2Muse Gallery

🔗 View Artist

Known for his masterful landscapes, Peter Watts returns with serene yet dramatic interpretations of Southern Australia's skies and terrain. A finalist in the Glover Prize three years running, Watts' work bridges realism and abstraction through light, movement, and mood.

✍️ Online: Writing for the Education Market

📅 One-week course | Starts May

🎟 Course Info

Curious about breaking into children's publishing? Author Louise Park leads this online course covering how to write for the Australian primary school curriculum. Participants will gain writing experience, feedback, and insights into a niche yet thriving area of publishing.

🎶 Rhymetime & Storytime at Newtown Library

📍 Newtown Library (and others)

📅 Term 2: 7 May – 2 July

💵 Free, no bookings required

🔗 More Info

Interactive sessions for babies (0–2) and preschoolers (3–5) that build early literacy through rhymes, stories, and songs. Held weekly with special events like National Simultaneous Storytime on 21 May.

🎭 Various Characters – World Premiere

📍 Flight Path Theatre

🎟 Book Here

Šime Knežević’s new play dives into the lives of six characters struggling to connect in a shifting cultural landscape. Set in early 21st century Australia, this emotionally charged piece explores identity, belonging, and the human need for connection.

☁️ Amongst the Clouds: Digital Meets Physical

📍 Artspace, Woolloomooloo

🎟 Exhibition Details

A boundary-pushing exhibition investigating how our digital and physical worlds are colliding. Featuring international and Australian artists, Amongst the Clouds tackles the ever-blurring line between virtual and material existence through immersive art.

🏺 Anne Kwasner – More Than an Object

📍 Tiliqua Tiliqua Studio Gallery

📅 Opening Night: 8 May, 6–8pm

🔗 Event Page

Anne Kwasner finds surreal inspiration in Byzantine art, transforming its strange beauty and mythology into ceramics and drawings. Expect semi-human figures, rich symbolism, and work that bridges ancient storytelling with modern expression.

🖼 Sense of Place: Chaplin & Barfod

📍 The Shop Gallery, Glebe

🔗 Gallery Blog

This thoughtful show explores emotional and sensory connections to landscapes. Chaplin captures Tasmanian coastlines through intuitive marks, while Barfod reveals emotive vistas with expressive brushstrokes. A tribute to place, memory, and the passage of light.

✂️ Chinese Craft Class

📍 Ron Williams Community Centre

💵 Free

🔗 Venue Info

Learn traditional Chinese knotting, paper cutting, and floral brooch making in this bilingual, community-led craft class. Bring your own project or discover a new skill in a friendly, inclusive space.

🎨 Learning Curve: Emotions in 17th-Century Art

📍 Art Gallery of NSW

🎟 Join the Series

Explore how painters like Caravaggio and Rubens conveyed emotion through body language and composition. Dr Lisa Beaven guides this four-part lecture series examining horror, humour, and love in classical European art.

🍽 Still Life: Image and Object

📍 Gallery LNL

🔗 Gallery Site

This exhibition honors everyday beauty – breakfast bowls, ceramics, keepsakes – with works that celebrate the objects we live with. Featuring 17 artists including Mitsuo Shoji and Sarah Ormonde, it’s a tactile and thoughtful experience.

Sydney’s cultural calendar is packed – whether you’re into contemporary art, writing workshops, or baby-friendly singalongs, there’s something to inspire everyone this May. Which event are you most excited about?