City of Melbourne is restoring the 135-year-old Princes Bridge. See historic artworks, photographs and more from the Art and Heritage Collection on display while it undergoes restoration.
The relocation of the collection to the supremely central civic location of the Melbourne Town Hall has facilitated a new era of accessibility for the collection.
Free guided tours of the collection are now available to the public on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.
In May 2023, the Art and Heritage Collection store officially opened in its relocated home of the historic and iconic Melbourne Town Hall. Displayed across 16 heritage rooms, the collection is arranged according to thematically and theatrically organised 'chapters'. This new open display storage method aligns with the more recent museological trend to promote public access to collections material.
Located in the Swanston Street facade of Melbourne town hall, the City Gallery presents free, specialist curated exhibitions on city life, past and present.
Opening hours
Weekdays 8.30am to 5.00pm
Closed weekends and public holidays
Curated by Richard Cornish, The Dirty Dozen delves into the sometimes-dark, often-uplifting stories behind street food, produce markets and the dining habits of the 19th-century elite. The exhibition features newly commissioned ceramic artworks of quintessential street foods made by artist Kenny Pittock, alongside historical menus, imagery and objects from the Art and Heritage Collection.
The city’s permanent outdoor collection is very public – out in the elements, on the streets, in the parks, day and night. From ‘River God Fountain’ (1863) to ‘Vault’ (1980) and ‘Standing by Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner’ (2016), the city’s 180-odd pieces of public art have become part of its cultural DNA.
The collection – it’s a
thing composed of 13000 things.
Occupying a museological halfway point between the idiosyncrasy and eclecticism common to a private collection and the ambition of the state museum, the Art and Heritage Collection is big enough to reflect the city and its narratives and small enough to stay connected to the street and its stories. Some of its items were created for posterity, such as the memorials and the mayoral portraits. Others, such as a series of photographs of potholes, a bottle of Moomba spumante and an Aboriginal scar tree, were not.
It is characterised by dualities: outdoor/indoor, contemporary/historical, prosaic/artistic. It can be laudably democratic and comically stuffy.
It also happens to be the best capital city collection in Australia.
