Broadway Sydney, 1 Bay Street, Glebe. Public art curation, production and creative direction by ART AID.
For NAIDOC Week 2026, Broadway Sydney was transformed by Stay Deadly, a precinct-wide activation celebrating 50 Years of Deadly.
ART AID curated, produced and creative directed the activation for Broadway Sydney, transforming the centre around this year's NAIDOC theme, five decades of celebrating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, resilience and achievements.
The Project
The activation was anchored by two hero works: a large-scale inflatable artwork suspended in the five-storey central void, and a ground-based artwork in layered relief flowing down the travelator stairwell. A suite of adapted patterns and icons carried the artwork across glazing, digital screens and signage throughout the precinct.
The works were installed overnight and remained on display for six weeks, reaching the centre's full retail audience across NAIDOC Week and the July school holidays.
The suspended hero work in the central void.
The Commission
ART AID engaged Jessica Johnson, Warumungu and Wombaya artist and founder of Nungala Creative, a 100% Aboriginal owned and operated design agency, as lead artist and art director. The brief called for a single artwork system that could hold a five-storey void, translate into a physical ground-based work, and adapt across every format in the precinct.
Jess responded with Stay Deadly, weaving the iconography of the Rainbow Serpent, a creation narrative shared across Country, into bold contemporary graphics.
"Through a lens of First Nations expression, the work seeks to reclaim space with joy and unapologetic visibility." Jessica Johnson
Detail from Stay Deadly. Photography by Dan Undr.
Production and Delivery
ART AID managed the project end to end: concept development, artist engagement, fee and licensing structure, fabrication, engineering, safety documentation, installation and close-out.
The void artwork was fabricated from flame-retardant certified fabric by 3D Inflate and rigged by Rise Pacific, with independent structural engineering sign-off. The travelator artwork was produced and installed by Look Print as a layered relief work, engineered for public contact in a high-traffic setting. Installation was completed in a single overnight window, midnight to 4am, with the centre trading as normal the following morning.
Detail from Stay Deadly. Photography by Dan Undr.
Community Programming
The artwork anchored a broader NAIDOC Week program at Broadway: Jess led NAIDOC Minis creative workshops for young visitors through the school holidays, and a curated market of First Nations makers ran across the week. The activation gave the program a precinct-scale visual identity and gave the community work a stage.
Stay Deadly through the centre. Photography by Dan Undr.
Outcomes
The activation was delivered on budget and installed without disruption to trade, holding six weeks of display across NAIDOC Week and the July school holidays. The commissioning model placed a First Nations artist at creative lead, with licensing, crediting and intellectual property held with the artist and ART AID. Around the artwork, community programming, workshops and a First Nations makers market, brought the theme to life across the precinct, with commissioned photography and film documenting the project throughout.
Stay Deadly, Broadway Sydney. Photography by Dan Undr.
Credits
Client: Broadway Sydney (Mirvac)
Curator, Producer and Creative Director: ART AID
Artist and Art Director: Jessica Johnson, Nungala Creative
Photography: Dan Undr
With thanks to Jessica Johnson, whose artwork carries this project, to Sarah Nolan and the Broadway Sydney team for the opportunity and their advocacy throughout, and to the fabricators, riggers and installers who delivered two ambitious works in a single overnight window.
ART AID is a public art and cultural consultancy working at the intersection of art, community, and place. To find out more about our work visit art-aid.co or follow @artaidau.
