A guide to Canberra's must-see galleries and museums

The National Museum of Australia in the Acton precinct has been making waves since it first appeared in 2001. A jigsaw of red, yellow, and silver steel set on a promontory of Lake Burley Griffin, the design taps into a playful current of the Australian character, with messages such as “She’ll be right” and “Love is blind” studded in braille throughout the building. At its launch, then Prime Minister John Howard, who was surprised by its imaginative galleries, deemed the National Museum building “unmuseum-like”.

These days, audiences expect cultural spaces to
break new ground and with its Great Southern Land gallery – the most significant development since the Museum’s launch – the NMA delivers inventive ways to get visitors thinking about big questions. It opens with the Bunya Infinity Forest, in which casts of living  bunya trees are surrounded by mirrors. These trees’ Jurassic ancestors are now coal that is being burned
for power. As you gaze around, time collapses; you see yourself connected to the past and to tomorrow.

“Our connection to the environment, who we are, and the experiences of First Nations peoples are pillars of our lives in this country and so are the themes of the Museum,” says senior curator Dr Martha Sear. “I think a history museum can help people when society is grappling with things: the lens of the past can help show us where we want to be in the future.”

“Shiny, with fluorescent tubes, Reko Rennie’s sculpture tells the story of moths that have migrated to caves near Canberra since the Ice Age and their ancient calling to Aboriginal people,” says Sear. “Its bright contemporariness speaks to the vibrancy of continuous culture.”

A vibrant place in the heart of the city, the Canberra Museum and Gallery celebrates the region's social history and visual arts with dynamic exhibitions and unique programs and events.

Canberra Museum and Gallery is the home of The Foundation Collection of Sir Sidney Nolan's paintings, donated by the artist to the people of Australia in 1974. Upon seeing a news story of a woman living rough, Nolan quickly painted this work and exhibited it within days. “It has that current sense of feeling something and needing to say something –much like a social media post,” says Virginia Rigney, senior curator of visual art.

A conscript who went AWOL during World War II, Nolan saw himself in the outlaw stories he painted in his Ned Kelly series (1946-47). “He said: ‘This collection is as much about myself as it is Ned Kelly,’” notes Rigney.

On a visit to the museum, you get a fresh take on Canberra’s vibrant history. You can also get to know Sir Sidney Nolan before he was famous – back when he was a young man living under an assumed identity, absent without leave from the army and painting social outcasts with the speed of an Instagrammer. Who is it that’s wearing the mask in his Ned Kelly series: the bushranger or the artist himself?

Canberra’s culture trail is full of surprises. Take the National Gallery of Australia, which pushes art out into the wild and artists out of their comfort zones. “The Sculpture Garden features a James Turrell skyspace, Tracey Emin… incredible artists,” notes the Gallery’s senior curator Simeran Maxwell. “The garden we have here is remarkable on an international level.” And it’s free.

Stretching across some 20 metres in the Gallery’s outdoor Sculpture Garden, seven gleaming, pivoting cones by Bert Flugelman reflect each other, the natural world that surrounds them and the viewer. And inside, Jackson Pollock’s iconic artwork Blue Poles hangs near Cool White, a compelling work by his wife, Lee Krasner.

“She was an incredible figure in post-war art and, in many ways, gave up her career to nurture his – a fairly common story,” says senior curator Simeran Maxwell.
“We always present a Krasner alongside Pollock.”

Artist Lindy Lee is gearing up to reveal Ouroboros, her first immersive public sculpture, in 2024. “Daytime or night-time, it’s going to pulse with light and energy,” she says.