Victorian Arts Centre

Save

Let us know if these details are incorrect

Lonely Planet review

The Arts Centre is made up of two separate buildings: the concert hall and the theatres building, linked by a series of landscaped walkways.

Hamer Hall is the circular building closest to the Yarra. It's a favoured performance venue for symphonic concerts, choirs and chamber music. Most of the hall is below ground, resting in Yarra mud so corrosive that a system of electrified cables is needed to prevent its deterioration. The Theatres Building wears the distinctive spire and houses the State Theatre, the Playhouse and the George Fairfax Studio. Both buildings feature works of prominent Australian artists, and in the Theatres Building the George Adams Gallery and St Kilda Road Foyer Gallery are free gallery spaces with changing exhibitions: you might find the Archibald portrait awards or an exhibition of Kylie costumes. The Famous Spiegeltent occupies the Theatres Building forecourt each summer. The last of the great travelling Belgian mirror tents, the Spiegel comes to town for the International Arts Festival, staging cabaret and music. Catch it if you can.

There are one-hour tours of the complex (adult/concession/family around 11 /around 8 /28) at noon and from Monday to Saturday. On Sunday you can visit backstage at (around 14 , 1½ hours). Children under 12 years are not allowed in the backstage area.

The Arts Centre undercroft shelters an arts and crafts market every Sunday from to . Around 150 stalls peddle everything from kaleidoscopes to soaps.

The small section of park across St Kilda Rd from the Victorian Arts Centre is the Queen Victoria Gardens, containing a memorial statue of the good queen herself, a statue of Edward VII astride his horse, and a huge floral clock, as well as several sculptures.