Swell Sculpture Festival 2021 Currumbin Beach

Come face to face with awe-inspiring sculptures by local, national and international artists at the 19th SWELL Sculpture Festival 10 – 19 September 2021.

Celebrating 19 years of connecting people, art, and place, the free outdoor sculpture exhibition is open all hours with a selection of sculptures revealing a new verve as they are lit up under the southern sky.

Over ten days, visitors can experience over sixty sculptures set amongst the natural landscape, spread across the sand and the Oceanway, running from the Alley and the Rock at Currumbin Creek south along Currumbin Beach to the iconic Vikings Surf Club.

Information hubs are open from 8 am until 5 pm daily along the beachfront from 10-19 September. Buy a printed program ($6 at Info hub) to read all the artists statements, what’s on and the awards. The program shares the artists narratives and the stories spoken through the artworks, and most importantly, the program gives you the voting QR code for the people’s choice award!

Visitors can also scan the QR code provided on each sculpture’s plaque to link to the artist’s biography and their statement about their Swell installation. Delightfully Swell makes it easy for you to choose your level of immersion in the experience.

Stay a little longer and discover a range of unique experiences; enjoy guided twilight walks through the artworks, and discover new perspectives from the artists' led workshops and talks given next to their works.

The main exhibition along Currumbin Beach will be accompanied by Swell Kids Elements across the road in Wallace Nicoll Park. Kids Elements is an interactive sculpture park for families to enjoy with performance art, an outdoor cinema and kids’ library, sculpture workshops and masterclasses, and first nations storytelling sessions.

The movie Combat Wombat will screen from 5:30pm on Saturday 18 September. Wood Fired Pizza and Ice Cream trucks will be on-site serving delicious food. Bring your own picnic rug!

Each morning at 9:30am in the Elements Meeting Place, Luther Cora, inspiring advocate for Indigenous Culture, teaches about the mullet season and the story of his totem, the black cockatoo.

Forty minute $15 workshops for young artists run six times a day, book online for your kids to come along and paint their own masterpiece (perhaps a mullet fish or a black cockatoo) and take it home. This is for all ages, so parents and carers are welcome too!

There are also Swell online sculpting workshops for kids to try their hand at creating the alive wire sea turtle and bumblebee, sculpting lil’ Dusty and constructing the origami koala.

As part of the Swell Fringe Festival, you can wander through the Swell Smalls Gallery at eclectic Dust Temple on Currumbin Creek Road, where over forty smaller sculptures will be on display throughout the festival.

The Smalls Gallery will also host a rich and exciting program of live events, including visual arts and literary feasts, live music, spoken word experiences and creative culinary adventures. Hear artists discuss their motivation and experience, learn a new craft yourself or listen to uniquely crafted prose and poetry.