Art playgrounds promise new opportunities for artists

Lightscape has returned to Brisbane Festival this year, after becoming a regular fixture at metropolitan centres nationwide. The large-scale lighting installation currently occupies Brisbane’s City Botanical Gardens, but is just the latest in what has become a commercial trend: immersive, family-friendly experiences opening new opportunities for multiple art forms and technicians. While the vernacular is still emerging for these events, the most common term has become “art playgrounds”. 

It is possible to trace the explosion of art playgrounds (and lighting events in particular) to the enormous success of Vivid Sydney, which first launched in 2009. A year later, Australia’s first escape room opened in Melbourne, with hundreds of others opening in the decade following. Other popular installations have a history of establishing their brand overseas and then touring globally. This is true for the all-ages, immersive art playgrounds such as Dopamine Land and Imaginaria, which have both toured Australia in the last 12 months.