A Cultural Capital
1. Melbourne is the art and culture capital of Australia. Melbourne is home to world-class arts and cultural heritage institutions, cutting-edge design and internationally recognised visual artists and performing arts companies. (Source: www3.visitvictoria.com)
2. The Melbourne City Council generously supports the city’s art and cultural institutions and festivals. The Council has creative partnerships with Multicultural Arts Victoria; Midsumma Festival; the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Society; and Melbourne Youth Music. The Council also supports a range of innovative arts programs including: La Mama Theatre, Arena Theatre Co., Melbourne Workers Theatre, Kage Physical Theatre and the Malthouse Theatre; the Melbourne Chorale and Chamber Made Opera; Craft Victoria, Platform Artists Group and Experimenta Media Arts. In addition to this significant contribution to arts and culture, the Council financially supports festivals and programs including: Melbourne International Arts Festival; Melbourne Symphony Orchestra; Melbourne International Comedy Festival; Melbourne Fringe; Circus Oz; Melbourne International Film Festival; Melbourne International Jazz Festival; Next Wave Festival; Melbourne Queer Film Festival; Melbourne Writers’ Festival; Chamber Music Australia and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art.
3 The Victorian College of the e Arts is Australia's premier visual and performing arts training institution. Located on a nine acre site in the heart of Melbourne’s vibrant arts precinct, the College is unique in Australia as it offers training across all artistic disciplines. The VCA comprises the Schools of Dance, Film and Television, Music, Drama, Art and Production. The VCA has a dedicated Indigenous Centre and a common curriculum is offered to all undergraduate students through the Centre for Ideas. (Source: www.vca.unimelb.edu.au)
4. Melburnians are passionately devoted to the arts and culture. Victoria has a greater percentage of its population employed in culture and leisure activities than any other state. (Source: Art-Look Magazine by Arts Victoria)
5. Lovers of art will also enjoy the city’s more than 130 art galleries, and museums. (Source: The Australian Financial Review)
6. The regular transformation of Melbourne's laneways into evocative arts spaces is just one of the City of Melbourne's public art initiatives. The City of Melbourne seeks concepts from artists for innovative and inspiring artworks which will engage the public using the distinct urban setting of Melbourne's laneways. (Source: www.melbourne.vic.gov.au)
7. The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia at Federation Square has more Australian art on permanent display than any other gallery in the world. Spanning from the colonial period to the present day, the collection totals more than 20,000 works. Approximately 800 works are displayed at one time, with exhibitions changed frequently to show the full breadth and diversity of the collection. (Source: www3.visitvictoria.com)
8. Melbourne has a number of universities which showcase art in its many forms. One of these is The Ian Potter Museum of Art at the University of Melbourne. Reflecting the strong ideas-driven focus of the Potter, the exhibitions create a platform that explores and examines key issues through the work of Australian and international artists. Another is the Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA) which offers a unique perspective on the recent history of contemporary art and culture, and is adventurous and forward looking in the production, research and support of new art and ideas. (Sources: www.unimelb.edu.au and www.monash.edu.au/muma)
9. Melbourne is home of blockbuster international art exhibitions. The Impressionists, the inaugural Winter Masterpieces exhibition at the NGV, was Australia's most successful ever art exhibition, and attracted 380,000 visitors. Dutch Masters from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam will offer audiences the richest survey of 17th century Dutch art ever staged in Australia. Melbourne will host a major exhibition of paintings by renowned Spanish painter Pablo Picasso in 2006. The exhibition will open at the National Gallery of Victoria in June for three months as part of its third Winter Masterpieces series. (Source: www.ngv.vic.gov.au)
10. Melbourne’s modernist Museum is the largest museum complex in the southern hemisphere. Adjoining the museum is IMAX Theatre, which boasts the world’s largest movie screen. (Source: http://www2.visitvictoria.com.au)
11. Just wandering the streets of the city will bring you in contact with Melbourne’s rich veins of free-to-view public sculpture, murals and other art works. There are large murals at Eastern Hill Fire Station and Spencer Street Station. The sculptures which seem to best characterise Melbourne have a sense of whimsy and include the Three Businessmen Who Brought Their Own Lunch, Larry Latrobe, weather vanes, The Public Purse, Brunswick Street’s street signs and Docklands. (Source: www.whitehat.com.au)
12. Melburnians are fortunate to be able to enjoy the work of the city’s talented craftspeople through the publicly-funded Craft Victoria. Craft Victoria represents ceramicists, jewellers, gold & silversmiths, woodworkers, glass artists, textile artists, leather artists, bookbinders, shoemakers, mosaicists and musical instrument makers. (Source: www.craftvic.asn.au)
13. Day Trip Galleries: During your day off, make your way to Museums such as the Heide Museum of Modern Art or the Monash Gallery of Art . (Source: www.via-n.org.au)  |
