Showing 1-22 of 22 results
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Alcaston Gallery
Set in an imposing boom-style terrace, the Alcaston's focus is on living indigenous artists. The gallery works directly with communities and are particularly attentive to cultural sensitivities. There's a space dedicated to works on paper.
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Anna Schwartz Gallery
Redoubtable Anna Schwartz keeps the city's most respected stable of artists, as well as representing mid-career names from around the country. The gallery is your standard white cube, the work often fiercely conceptual.
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Australian Centre for Contemporary Art
The ACCA is housed in a remarkable cathedral-like rust-coloured building, articulating the contemporary aesthetic. The interior is necessarily composed of vast spaces with the capacity to display a variety of works: from enormous installation pieces (a la video, sculpture and hybrids thereof) to traditional framed works (photography, painting and prints). Though dedicated to showing contemporary works that generally challenge traditional artistic frameworks, ACCA isn't an alienating place: you won't be wondering if the exit sign is part of the exhibition here.
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Australian Centre for the Moving Image
This ambitious centre is dedicated to the display, interpretation and analysis of the dominant language of the day: the moving image, in all its forms. The four-storey complex houses a screen gallery and two hi-tech cinemas. It programmes regular workshops and forums to promote education and production, and hosts film screenings and festivals.
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Australian Racing Museum
Not November? Never mind; equine buffs can sample some of the Spring Racing fervour at this museum dedicated to thoroughbred horses, jockeys and trainers. Exhibits cover the history of racing (2003 was the first year a female jockey raced in the Melbourne Cup), and reverently trumpet the social and cultural importance of racing in Australia.
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Centre For Contemporary Photography
Photo-based arts are on show in the CCP's four gallery spaces. Exhibitions change regularly and include works that both challenge and celebrate the medium. Images may have been recorded with or without a camera (direct transfer or by scanner) and the output may be large, small, coloured or not. If you're here out of hours, the projection window (viewable from the street) throws up images from to .
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Eastern Hill Fire Museum
Built on the highest point of the city in 1891, the old fire station building and its lofty tower provided the necessary vantage to spot fires across the metropolis. Its ground floor now houses the Eastern Hill Fire Museum, which is especially great for kids, who get to clamber on a fire truck. For bigger kids there's a collection of historic firefighting equipment, including fire engines, helmets, brass-buttoned uniforms, medals and photographs. Facing Albert St is the five-storey mosaic mural designed by Harold Freedman (1915-99), the only person to have been state artist of Victoria, a position he held for 11 years from 1972.
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Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces
Watch this space. Or rather, three spaces showing quality local and international work. There's a buzz about Gertrude's - its shows invariably provoke critical debate. Along with the exhibition spaces, the gallery's cultural exchange programme and 16 studios promote emerging contemporary artists. This is one of the city's most exciting gallery spaces.
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Ian Potter Centre: National Gallery of Victoria Australia
The mottled, skew-whiff building that houses the National Gallery of Victoria's Australian holdings was a choking bone of contention while under construction, but these days everyone seems to have fallen for its sleek, user-friendly displays. The collection is marvellous, ranging from Streeton to Nolan to Whiteley; there is an entire floor of indigenous art.
Read more about Ian Potter Centre: National Gallery of Victoria Australia
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Immigration Museum
The Immigration Museum offers a 'moving' account of immigration that uses multimedia to convey stories, both historical and modern. Housed in the old Customs House (1858-70), the restored building alone is worth the visit; its most important space, the Long Room, is a magnificent piece of Renaissance revival architecture. The 2nd-floor galleries host a range of excellent temporary exhibitions exploring social and cultural issues, such as various multiethnic rituals surrounding death or preparing food.
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Jewish Museum of Australia
This dynamic and fascinating museum has interactive displays relating to Jewish history and culture since the beginning of European settlement in Australia. Permanent exhibitions celebrate the annual cycle of festivals and holy days that are integral to Jewish life, and explore the origins of Judaism. The museum also hosts regular temporary exhibitions of well-known artists' work - who also happen to be Jewish.
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Koorie Heritage Trust
This cultural centre is uniquely devoted to southeastern Aboriginal culture. It preserves and popularises Koorie artefacts and art through a retail outlet and three gallery spaces. One space houses a permanent collection of significant objects, such as possum-fur cloaks, eel traps and baby carriers. Two gallery spaces temporarily exhibit Aboriginal artists' works.
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Linden Arts Centre & Gallery
While the building itself dates from the 1870s, Linden Arts Centre & Gallery is a contemporary art space exhibiting local and international work. Drop the kids in the children's sculpture garden while you explore inside or sit in the garden.
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Living Museum
This charming museum focuses on the unique history of the area, home to a high proportion of migrants and traditionally working class. The museum promotes local participation in its programme of documenting and interpreting the area's social, industrial and environmental history. It keeps 400 oral histories on various topics, such as migration, the role of women, and the meat industry. Old-school exhibits of photographs, maps, drawings and text thumbtacked to a display board are highly accessible. It's set in the grounds of Pipemakers Park, featuring a Discovery Park, wetlands area and indigenous gardens, which re-create the landscape of the basalt plains and valley as it was before white settlement.
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Melbourne Museum
Museum Victoria's flagship site is truly a world-class museum. The modern exhibition space eschews glass cases of dusty, taxidermic objects in favour of vibrant thematic displays that take visitors on a journey through natural and cultural history. Walk through the 1950s, imagine yourself in 1890's or become immersed in the legend of champion racehorse (and national hero) Phar Lap.
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National Design Centre
The NDC brings the public together with local and international designers through its retail shop and its nifty ShowBox exhibition space, which displays and interprets designer wares. The centre also hosts workshops and events, including the annual Melbourne Design Festival, held in July.
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National Gallery of Victoria: International
There's much to discover behind the wonderful water wall. The NGVI space pays close consideration to its permanently displayed artworks, regarded as Australia's best international collection. Key works, such as Rembrandt's self-portrait, feature in the open spaces, promoting a sense of discovery. You might also bump into Monet and Modigliani, or Bacon and Rubens.
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Scienceworks & Melbourne Planetarium
Why is it so? Scienceworks could have the answers. To find them, you'll have to push a button, lift a flap, pull a lever, jump as high as you can, bend down, race a machine and smell rotting fruit. Built on the site of the Spotswood pumping station, Melbourne's first sewerage works, Scienceworks incorporates these historic buildings. The museum's range of permanent interactive displays includes the science of sport, household items and the human body. Occasional touring shows, such as Licence to Spy, usually coincide with school holidays. Scienceworks is very popular with school groups; the quietest times are weekday afternoons during school terms and Saturday morning. The museum is a 10-minute signposted walk from Spotswood train station.
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Uber Gallery
Nestled among all the restaurants and bars is this little gallery space. It's a nice little reminder to the area's hedonists, rushing from restaurant to bar, to consider more than their stomachs. It exhibits current local and overseas artists, both solo and in groups.
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Victorian Arts Centre
The Arts Centre is made up of two separate buildings: the concert hall and the theatres building, linked by a series of landscaped walkways.
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Westspace
One of Melbourne's oldest artist-run galleries, Westspace has a varied exhibition programme. It features young and emerging artists working in a range of mediums from traditional forms to digital technologies and installation. On the 1st floor of a 1940s light industrial building, this independent space also provides a support community to assist artists in developing their work.
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Williamstown Railway Museum
Train spotters among us will appreciate the collection of old steam locomotives, wagons, carriages and old photos here. Kids will appreciate the mini-steam-train rides. Operated by the Australian Railway Historical Society, it's part of the Newport Rail Workshops in North Williamstown.
Showing 1-22 of 22 results
