Powderfinger, Paul Kelly, Adam Liaw and more: the best live streams for Australia and beyond

Talks and literature

15 May: Join us for the first Guardian Australia book club event on Friday! Launching at 1pm, the Zoom stream will feature Phosphorescence author Julia Baird in conversation with Michael Williams. To register click here, or stay tuned for the video highlights.

18 May: The Wheeler Centre continues with a wide range of livestreamed events, including Adam Briggs – better known simply as Briggs, half of hip-hop duo AB Original and comedy writer – in conversations with Tiddas 4 Tiddas co-founder Marlee Silva.

• Ongoing: This week for the Sydney Opera House, catch conversations with illustrator Shaun Tan and Grand Design’s Kevin McCloud, plus Sydney Symphony Orchestra performing Mahler’s Das Klagende Lied. The From Our House To Yours program is rounded out with a live talk between Annabel Crabb and Adam Liaw on Sunday 17 May.

• Ongoing: Tune into Together Remotely to join Caro Llewellyn online as she interviews writers from all over the world in an ongoing global virtual book club. Guests include Pulitzer-prize winner Andrew Sean Greer, The Dresden Dolls’ frontwoman Amanda Palmer, and Bosnian-American writer Aleksandar Hemon.

Music: pop and rock

• 15 & 16 May: Joel Creasey and Myf Warhurst are co-hosting two virtual events this weekend as part of their Live, Loud & Local series. On Friday, chef Shannon Bennett drops in for Trivia and Cooking, and on Saturday Jon Stevens will perform via livestream.

• 16 May: The third episode of State of Music is shaping up to be a special one, with Australian musical royalty Paul Kelly joining hosts Jane Gazzo and Tim Minchin, along with Courtney Barnett, Meg Mac, Vika and Linda Bull and more. The performances and interviews will stream via the Victoria Together website, YouTube and Facebook from 7pm.

• 16 & 17 May: The team who have been bringing us Isol-Aid are keeping the party going on Saturday night for their first edition of Iso-Late, featuring Allday, KLP and Dameeeela – with party sets streaming via their website.

• 23 May: Queensland rockers Powderfinger are reuniting for a one-off virtual gig. Band members will join the livestream from their home studios for One Night Lonely, an initiative to raise money for Beyond Blue. Tune in from 7pm.

• 26 May: The 2020 Apra Music awards have moved from Sydney’s ICC to a worldwide live stream. Hosted by Briggs, the event – as always – will feature covers of each Song of the Year nominee, this year performed by acts including John Butler, Mama Kin, Kira Puru and Mo’Ju – curated by music director Kate Miller-Heidke.

• Ongoing: St Kilda’s Memo Music Hall has two concerts coming up, with the Black Sorrows on 26 April and Renee Geyer on 2 May. The stage is big enough to accommodate social distancing for all the musicians, so expect a full-blown sound experience. Tickets are $12 each, with more shows to be announced soon.

• Ongoing: The team behind Woodford Folk Festival are producing Woodfordia Artists Live Stream series: a daily 30-minute performance from artists around Australia. The series has showcased Katie Noonan, Franky Walnut, Yirrmal, Lior and others so far. Tune in from 6pm Tuesday–Sundays to view.

• Ongoing: The bars of Chapel Street have pledged to keep the party alive. Both OneSixOne and Reveller’s Bar are livestreaming DJ sets on Friday and Saturday nights, while Poof Doof unleashes Poof Doof Direct via Facebook Live from 9pm on Fridays.

Music: classical, experimental and more

• Ongoing: Melbourne Digital Concert Hall, a new social enterprise run by musicians, debuted this week, so you can finally tune in for a range of performances from singer Fiona Campbell, operatic tenor Paul O’Neill, soprano Naomi Johns and accompanist Tommaso Pollio, and jazz from Perth performers Ali Bodycoast and Adrian Galante. The performances are ticketed, with full details available via the website.

• Ongoing: MLIVE at Monash University Clayton has launched the Sound Gallery Sessions: music live-streamed from 7pm each Wednesday. Check out the full lineup, which includes Deborah Conway and Willy Zygier, Lior and Paul Grabowsky, and Hoang Pham.

• Ongoing: Melbourne-based music organisation The Boite has announced a wide range of streamed shows, from Melbourne Amplified Strings to Japanese acoustic guitarist Chuei San and group Samassin. View the full lineup via Facebook.

• Ongoing: Queensland Symphony Orchestra has some delightful content online, including a symphonic mashup of the Jaws theme song and viral hit Baby Shark. Head over to the YouTube channel for more.

Related: Lockdown listening: classical music and opera to stream at home

• Ongoing: Our UK colleagues have a rolling list of “quarantine soirees” being updated daily. It features information about on-demand opera and archival recordings from some of the world’s most high-profile performing arts companies and performers, including New York’s Metropolitan Opera, the London Symphony Orchestra and the beloved cellist/activist Yo-Yo Ma.

Theatre and cabaret

• 3 June – ongoing: The Malthouse Theatre has announced performance dates for three new plays, all commissioned to reflect life in the current pandemic. Directed by director in residence Bridget Balodis, the series of monologues have been written by Jean Tong, Jane Harrison and Tom Holloway, and will star local actors streamed via the Malthouse Theatre website.

• Ongoing: A new livestreamed variety program, Kerrie and Dolly’s House Party, kicks off this week. Hosted by Kerrie Stanley and Dolly Diamond, the LGBTIQA+ show will include a range guests, with songs, performances and segments streamed every Tuesday and Thursday from 7.30pm.

• Ongoing: Australian Dance Theatre has launched Adapt, a virtual platform to showcase the 2020 season via live stream interviews and performances. The season will kick off with Helpmann award-winning The Beginning of Nature on Friday 1 May.

• Ongoing: And again, the stage desk at Guardian UK have compiled an almost hysterically comprehensive list of theatre and dance to stream, including Hamilton (from 3 July), Simon McBurney’s The Encounter, and This Is Not My Hat (yep, that adorable book is now a stage show), and hits from all your favourite companies including Sadler’s Wells, Schaubühne, the National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company and English National Ballet.

Film

• Ongoing: Get meta with Australian Centre for the Moving Image. Acmi is launching weekly Metastreams that allow you to sync up with distant friends and stream films together, such as Jafar Panahi’s The White Balloon and Offsite. New films will be announced each Tuesday.

• Ongoing: The Holt/Smithson Foundation, which celebrates pioneering American land artists Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson, has kicked off Friday at The Movies, with a weekly feature film or series screened via Vimeo.

Visual art

• 14 May – 7 June: Confined is an annual exhibition by gallery The Torch, showcasing artworks by Indigenous artists who are incarcerated or have recently been released. The entire exhibition, including 300 works from 286 artists, has been turned into a virtual gallery (including 3D visuals), with all pieces available for purchase. Sign up for an event reminder to view the gallery.

• 21 May: Henry Jock Walker will join Substation’s Brad Spolding to discuss his collaborative exhibition Kintsugi Supermarket with Nampei Akaki, and upcoming film Little Penguin Cup. Register via Eventbrite.

• Ongoing: Pop inside the studio of your favourite artist with the National Gallery of Victoria’s live in-studio series. Artists opening up their creative spaces to the public include Agatha Gothe-Snape, Jon Campbell, Yhonnie Scarce and Mary Featherston, with more to come. Tune in live, or catch up with the NGV On Demand channel.

• Ongoing: The NGV has also released a whole trove of resources online, with everything from exhibition-themed downloadable kids’ activity books to coding guides for creating Space Invaders-themed controllers at home. The Open House: Tromoramix for Kids exhibition includes an iPad app that lets you create sharable stop-motion animations, and teachers can book virtual excursions for their classes. Top Arts Hub offers plenty of resources for VCE students, and Drop by Drawing, a four-part series of virtual drawing classes, begins via the NGV channel on 5 April.

• Ongoing: The Art Gallery of NSW has launched Together In Art, a social project designed to foster connection via artist talks, commission showcases, workshops and virtual tours of artist studios. Dig into the whole program online.

• Ongoing: Victorian arts and culture hub Bunjil Place has created #ArtsInIsolation, with a bunch of fun resources including 360-degree video walkthrough of photograph exhibitions, crafting workshops, and video performances from the cast of The Gruffalo’s Child.

• Ongoing: Cream Town Collective Shop is showcasing works from more than 150 artists. Browse the collection, and snap up your own fine art print for $100 a pop.

• Ongoing: Digital art platform The Exhibit is currently showcasing exhibitions from both local and international artists. Explore Chromaesthesia by UK artist Dex Hannon, or browse the full range.

• Ongoing: Take a tourist-free walk through some of Victoria’s most popular exhibitions via Melbourne Museum at Home. Google Maps lets you explore rooms including the Wild: Amazing animals in a changing world room, with quite good zooming capabilities. The whole website is packed with excellent resources for kids, including Scienceworks at Home, with explainer videos and theme-based learning.

Related: 10 of the world’s best virtual museum and art gallery tours

• Ongoing: And here is Guardian UK’s very handy guide to the best virtual museums and art gallery tours – including the Natural History Museum and National Gallery in London, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Musée d’Orsay in Paris and South Korea’s National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art.

Fitness, dance and crafts

• Ongoing: Born to Boogie Dance Connections are hosting Boogie @ Home, an hour-long all-in Facebook livestream dance class. Last week they had more than 2,000 join in.

• Ongoing: Retrosweat’s Shannon Dooley has taken her themed, 80s-style aerobics dance class digital – with paid classes via Zoom. Sign up via Scout Pilates and the MindBody app, and you’ll be sent a Zoom link before the start of class.

• Ongoing: Sydney performance artist Betty Grumble is hosting regular Grumble Boogie sessions: a fun lo-fi dance hour at 10am on Facebook Live. It’s free to tune in, but donations are appreciated.

Animals

• Ongoing: Sydney’s Taronga Zoo has launched Taronga TV, with animal live cams, chats with the keepers, and a behind-the-scenes look at the animal hospital. Tune in to watch penguin keeper Liv patiently give the resident crew of fairy penguins exactly one pilchard each.

• Ongoing: Zoos Victoria has launched Animal House, a selection of (so far) four live feeds from its animal enclosures in Melbourne and Werribee zoos. Watch the giraffes munch their way through the afternoon, see the penguins get fed (or a naughty seagull steal a pilchard), coo over the sleepy snow leopard cubs or the lions lolling about in the sun.

• Ongoing: For those in the US – or those simply up late at night everywhere else – the Smithsonian national zoo in Washington DC has set up live feeds of its lion enclosure, giant pandas troop, elephants and … naked mole rats. All creatures great and small, etc.

• Ongoing: The most joyful animal live feed on the internet must be Monterey Bay Aquarium’s sea otter cam. Watch the otters frolic and swim about, blissfully free of concerns about coronavirus or global economic meltdown.

• Are you livestreaming in the arts and culture space? This list is a work in progress compiled from Australia. Please send details of your event to Stephanie Convery (email stephanie.convery@theguardian.com with the subject line: CULTURE LIVESTREAM or tweet @gingerandhoney) if you’d like your event added here.