On your daily commute to or from the city for work, uni or just for pleasure, it’s hard not to be overwhelmed by the plethora of new sights, attractions and wonderful creative ideas and concepts on show.
 
If you’re like me and have noticed the ‘What If?’ banners on George St and around the city, or instalments in Martin Place, but have had no time to properly venture into the heart of Art & About and see firsthand what all the fuss is about, then take heed in my last-minute what-to-see-on-a-time-budget help manual. And yes, such a thing exists.
 
So I perused the website, and flicked through the brochures and highlighted what intrigued and interested me and made a beeline for the city’s streets, laneways and alleys. So here’s a taste of what you’re glimpsing during the day and missing at night. Enjoy this wonderful annual celebration of creative talent and make sure you’re a part of it before time runs out. It’s on a time-budget too, you know.
 
 
 Acts of Kindness
 We’ve all experienced them. That kind stranger who helps pick up your dropped grocery items, or the rare individual who stands back and politely gestures that you board the bus before them. Well now all of these heart-warming deeds are on show and are of course free to experience. For the 24th Kaldor Public Art Project in partnership with Art & About, Michael Landy has created a major new work Acts of Kindness, for Sydney.
 
Acts of Kindness investigates the meaning of kindness in today’s fast-paced world, focusing on the simple everyday gestures of compassion and generosity that occur throughout the city streets and often go unnoticed. A multiplicity of stories of kindness has been collected from people across Sydney to form the basis for Landy’s ambitious new artwork. Visit lower Martin Placeto see Landy’s 13-metre installation, mapping the Sydney CBD and indicating where the 200 stories of kindness have been placed throughout the city streets. It’s a tender idea with a true message being told; we’re not all that bad. And now with a plotted map you can go to the highlighted destination and hope something nice will happen to you. Fingers crossed.
 
Where: Martin Place and Sydney's streets.
When: Until  23 October
 

Unguarded Moments
Back in 2008, Sarah Barns assisted the ABC in the production of a tour of Sydney that was called Sidetracks. And in this year’s Art & About, Barns has returned to offer us another taste of the past. This year her work leaves an ethereal taste in our mouths, with  another glimpse into the city's earlier lives. And the earlier lives have faces that are visible again, watching us in our streets and laneways. Sourced from archival documentary footage, intimate portraits of past residents and workers, images are projected onto the walls and buildings of Millers Point, capturing the fleeting nature of life and the dramatic changes that have occurred to this historic precinct. To see the projections, begin at Abraham Mott Hall, walk down Kent Street towards Walsh Bay and Windmill Steps, then along Hickson Road towards Sydney Harbour Bridge, where you’ll finish up at the roundabout near Pottinger Street. Definitely worth a visit and a peep-show sensation of a time been. 
 
Where: Around Miller's Point and Walsh Bay
When: Until 23 October
 
 

Laneway Art
 
Embracing our city’s nooks and crannies, Laneway Art returns this year for its fifth instalment. With works from Australian International artists and curators, it’s a fresh mix of new sights, experiences and textures. This pick’n’mix concoction of talent includes a whole staircase covered in the guerrilla knitting from the 'mother' of yarn-bombing, Magda Sayeg, urban periscopes with mirrors that look far, far across the city and a series of mobile film screenings descending on a series of Sydney streetsThursday nights, using the side of a rickshaw as its screen. These instalments and wonderfully bright and interactive creative projects were a lot of fun, and were the most exciting finding and enjoying.
 
Where: Skittle Lane, Bridge Lane, Mullins Street & Market Row, Tank Stream Way, Bulletin Placeand on of course, on a rickshaw.
 
 

Be flexible with your time-budget and don't let another year fly by without seeing this wondrous festival of talent, ideas and wonders. So get Arty. And get About.