We can always do with a little more joy in our lives, and for a limited time you can experience a fun, colourful and uplifting exhibition at the Immigration Museum in Melbourne called ‘Joy’. You can’t help but smile from the beginning with a sparkly sequin clad sign advising you that you’ve arrived at the exhibition.

That is followed by a long corridor of oversized colourful Perspex jewels hanging from the ceiling, an artwork called Bring it to the Runway, Runway – by Spencer Harrison.

The aesthetic represents a drag nightclub meets fashion runway, and visitors are invited to have some fun, strut your stuff, pose, dance and just celebrate who you are. What fun! I apologise to anyone having to watch the CCTV the day of our visit.

It’s a great introduction and invitation to venture further into the exhibition to see what will spark some joy next. Another space is dedicated to Bunny Dearest by Beci Orpin, which looks at how joy gets harder to find the older we get, so you can relive the joy of your favourite toy with this giant bunny that takes you back to childhood memories. Bunny Dearest has been made to be interacted with, sat on, touched, squished and hugged.

Walking into another room you are surrounded with laughter and joy in Our Laughter Will Become the Waterfall by Jazz Money. It’s dedicated to first nation’s people who despite oppression still gather, share and laugh, caring for one another and country.

Then you enter Video Land by Callum Preston, a truly nostalgic trip back to the 80s and 90, when the video shop was king.

This one really takes you back to the days of perusing the shelves of the video shop, trawling through titles and covers all trying to catch your attention, then checking out your choice of weekly rentals, hoping that you did actually have your video shop card on you, and that you weren’t wasting your money on duds. As the description says, its part film set, part time machine and historical archive.

You can spend a lot of time taking this room in, with its assault of colour and patterns and you leave with the parting words that we all remember,…Be kind, Rewind.

Another explosion of colour awaits in the room dedicated to Joy Generator by Nixi Killick. This exhibition hopes to ‘fan flames of optimism and elation, to simulate the senses and ignite the imagination’. Using colour and augmented reality that you can interact with, this is another fun dose of whimsy as you watch the bugs and butterflies come to life.

Altogether there are seven installations to see and before you leave, you’re invited to choose a piece of paper in a colour that sparks joy for you, and leave a note of a time in your life when you’ve experienced joy or explain what is it about that colour that brings you joy.

Lastly you can take the joyful elevator down to the ground floor, adding a little more colour to your day as you look out to the world carrying on as usual outside.

Of course the rest of the immigration museum has brilliant exhibitions to see too, full of stories of many who left tragedy behind to experience hope in a new land, with many deeply touching and confronting exhibits and stories to read. It can leave you feeling sad and heavy hearted, which is why I would leave the Joy exhibition until last, so that you can feel completely uplifted again at the end of the day.

Joy, the exhibition, is on at the Immigration Museum of Victoria in Flinders Street, Melbourne, until the 29^th of August 2025. It’s free for children to see and costs $15 per adult.

Enjoy this joyful exhibition.

Glenys