The Ten Best Things to See and Do at Art and About 2012

Holy heck - have you seen the Art & About program? It's out of control. We've curated a list of ten excellent happenings to help you navigate this massive month-long festival of art in unusual places.

Go on, get amongst it, this is your city in spring.

1. Friday Night Live: Art & About Opening Night

Art projects like Renew Newcastle and Alaska Projects have taken charge of disused urban spaces and empty shopfronts. Art & About enlarges this idea to all vacant spaces. Can’t every grey wall, lonely corner and public mall be a site for creative action?

Opening night sees Martin Place morph from shadowy wind tunnel to massive street party. The Bamboos, Van She, Rufus and Jingle Jangle are on the line up, with more to be announced. Martin Place will be scattered with pop up bars and food trucks, and the city's main galleries will be open late for our sauntering pleasure. It’s programmed by Stephen Pavlovic of Sydney-based music label Modular, the crew behind such artists as Cut Copy, Ladyhawke and The Avalanches. And best of all, it’s free. So cheers - to art in unconventional places, and to free art and music events that are accessible to everyone.

2. Moveable Feast: Art & About Closing Night

A car-free George Street. It's a dream many Sydneysiders hold, and one that will come true on October 20, if only for a night.

Closing night party is replacing George Street's usual gridlock of petrol-fuelled monsters with food trucks, dining tables, DJs, outdoor art installations and big screens. It's a celebration to mark the closing of a festival that pulls art out of galleries and into unusual places in the city. And it's a Moveable Feast, not just of tasty international street food, but of art, live music, documentaries, shorts and feature films. Delicious. The next step? Booting cars out of George Street for good.

3. WIND events

Are Tim Knowles' creations in WindGrid the birds that have escaped the empty birdcages in Angel Place?

The UK artist is installing a shifting ceiling of white paper aeroplanes above Taylor Square that has been likened both to weather vanes and bird flocks. The criss-crossed canopy moves with the wind, casts shadows on the pavement and animates an otherwise motionless patch of sidewalk.

Knowles is also hosting a free tour of the city, guided only by the wind. Book here for WindWalk.

4. I Wish You Hadn't Asked

Artist James Dive has inverted the everyday and created a house that rains on the inside. The concept brings to mind the inevitable decay of manmade structures and civilisations, and nature returning to how it's always been. Dive, however, has likened it more to a dying love affair: "There is a moment in a relationship when something is said, or done, that can’t be taken back; then the rot sets in."

It's an installation that will continue to rot and devolve over the course of the show, so make time for multiple stopovers. And don't panic - raincoats are provided.

5. Hyde Park events

Hyde Park is the site of a stream of Art & About happenings. First up, a large-scale photography competition, Sydney Life, will be occupy the main, dappled walkways. Stroll through on your lunch break, or join Sydney Life judge Sandy for a free tour of the show on Friday, September 21, 7-8pm or Saturday, October 13, 2-3pm, starting at Archibald Fountain.

For those up late, Craig Walsh, Steven Thomasson and the Australian Museum are illuminating the giant canopies of Hyde Park south with light projections. Emergence is yet another free cultural event bringing the city to life at night. Our suggestion? Head down with some friends, some long necks, lie down and find a face in the trees.

A show of kid photographers under eleven years of age called Little Sydney Lives is an opportunity to see the city from the perspective of our tiniest citizens.

And finally, there's the four night pig-out otherwise known as the Night Noodle Markets. They're from 5pm to 10.30pm each night from October 15-19. Check out the website for a full list of the stalls and their street food menus.

6. City Space and Laneways

Four teams of creative thinkers, including artist Caroline Rothwell and curators Vi Girgis and Adam Porter, have installed a collection of sculptures in public places. The works include shadowy,  ghostly, bronze sculptures of hooded younguns and a wilderness trail in Barrack St. They're designed to jolt us out of the blahblahblah of daily city life and give us a new perspective on otherwise blank expanses of bricks-and-mortar.

7. Streetware 3

Part of the City of Sydney's public art program, Streetware takes place around Taylor Square and Oxford St. It's first project is by Reko Rennie, an Aboriginal artist, who will be stencilling and spraying 1-5 Flinders St with a geometric, vibrant work informed by the traditional markings of the Kamilaroi people. We can't wait to see Reko's neon text, 'Always was, always will be', emblazoned across Taylor Square.

8. The Great Crate

How's this for a living public art project that engages local residents and non-artists? Thousands of packs of edible plants are currently being distributed to the people of Alexandria, Beaconsfield, Roseberrry and Waterloo. They'll be grown at home then replanted in a giant cube of recycled crates in Green Square. The installation will continue to grow into an urban jungle above the airport-rail network. At the show's conclusion on Saturday October 20, the plants will be dismantled and given away freely to residents.

9. Last Drinks

The old bohemian Hotel Australia is being hijacked by visual and sound artists using photos, films and audio to present an alternative oral history of this part of the city.

There's a free guided tour at 6pm, September 27 with artists Sarah Barns and Michael Killalea. Meet outside the Commercial Traveller’s Association building at Martin Place.

10. Mystery gigs: Play Lunch

Hook up with Art & About on Facebook and Twitter to get the lowdown on weekly secret gigs in unusual places. This set of Friday lunchtime sessions is curated with Modular Music and will be revealed each Wednesday at 5pm.