Art Gallery of Ballarat

Art Gallery of Ballarat The Art Gallery of Ballarat is the oldest, largest and most engaging regional art gallery in Australia.
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Opening this Saturday: Chelle Destefano 'Aural transferences'.For Creswick artist Chelle Destefano, ‘sound is not just a...
04/09/2026

Opening this Saturday: Chelle Destefano 'Aural transferences'.

For Creswick artist Chelle Destefano, ‘sound is not just a landscape for hearing.’ Through time, space and memory, the Deaf artist visually represents her experience of sound before she lost her hearing completely at age 9.

The set of drawings titled Aural transferences express the artist’s perspective. The black backgrounds are ‘like a veil obscuring the sound, not knowing what the sounds are.’

The multicoloured ‘keys’ were inspired by a photograph taken of a rainbow against a dark, stormy sky, which then became the visual device for transferring her memories onto paper.

See 'Aural transferences' at Backspace Gallery from 5 September - 1 November 2026.

Image: Chelle Destefano, Aural transference. 2025. [video still], digital video with no sound, 6 min 10 sec. Courtesy the artist.

Spring school holidays are almost here, and this season Art Explorers will get retro with ideas that emerged in the 90s!...
01/09/2026

Spring school holidays are almost here, and this season Art Explorers will get retro with ideas that emerged in the 90s!

Creative kids will learn about the themes that artists explored during that decade, including identity, culture and more.

Book a single workshop for kids aged 6-8, 9-12 and 13-15, or attend multiple sessions across the school holidays to build skills and experience new techniques.

Explore dates and session times via the events page on our website!

There's a lot of challenging imagery in the World Press Photo exhibition, but there's plenty of hope too. 🐼 Recent popul...
27/08/2026

There's a lot of challenging imagery in the World Press Photo exhibition, but there's plenty of hope too. 🐼

Recent population estimates suggest that fewer than 2,000 pandas remain in the wild. Only a few dozen live within China's Wanglang National Nature Reserve’s 323-square-kilometre territory.

This rare sighting in November 2025 was made possible through a pilot exchange program between the National Geographic Society and wildlife biologists, which supports wildlife monitoring efforts in conservation.

Image : Mountain Resident of Wanglang
© Rob G. Green, National Geographic Society, Henry Luce Foundation

See World Press Photo at the Ballarat Mining Exchange until 20 September.

25/08/2026

There’s more to these photographs than meets the eye.

In this video, World Press Photo Exhibitions Manager and Curator Mariana Rettore Baptista introduces Chantal Pinzi’s Farīsāt: Gunpowder’s Daughters. This powerful series captures women reclaiming their place in Morocco’s traditionally male Tbourida tradition.

Through colour, movement and determination, these women are making themselves visible within a cultural tradition deeply connected to Moroccan identity.

Discover Farīsāt: Gunpowder’s Daughters in World Press Photo 2026, now showing at the Ballarat Mining Exchange from 8 August - 20 September.

🎟️ Entry is FREE.
10am - 5pm daily.

📸 Chantal Pinzi, Panos Pictures. Courtesy of World Press photo and the artist.

In apartheid South Africa, ballet was the preserve of white culture, inaccessible to people of color. Today the Joburg B...
22/08/2026

In apartheid South Africa, ballet was the preserve of white culture, inaccessible to people of color.

Today the Joburg Ballet School offers subsidised training to children from historically disadvantaged backgrounds, with locations in Soweto, Alexandra, and Braamfontein. Parents describe seeing their children learn ballet as something they never thought possible.

Here, young dancers from the Joburg Ballet School climb the stairs at the Soweto Theatre during their year-end performance in December 2025.

See this and other important storytelling at World Press Photo, on at the Ballarat Mining Exchange 10am - 5pm, until 20 September. Guided tours occur at 11am daily.

Entry is free.

Image: Joburg Ballet School
© Ihsaan Haffejee, for GroundUp

19/08/2026

📸 World Press Photo is on now! We're hosting a range of programs and events throughout the exhibition - visit our website to see what's on.

🎫 Entry is free
📍 Ballarat Mining Exchange
ℹ️ Guided Tours 11am daily
📆 Until 20 September

We're pleased to be hosting a range of accessible guided tours during World Press Photo.🔴 Auslan Tour with Irene Holub 📆...
17/08/2026

We're pleased to be hosting a range of accessible guided tours during World Press Photo.

🔴 Auslan Tour with Irene Holub
📆 29 August, 2pm
Deaf and hard-of-hearing visitors are invited to join artist and educator Irene Holub on an Auslan tour of the World Press Photo exhibition. This tour includes spoken interpretation for hearing companions.

🔴 Audio described tour
📆 12 September, 2pm
Audio describer Nilgun Guven will also deliver a relaxed and engaging auditory narration of the visual aspects of the exhibition. The tour includes curatorial perspectives from the Art Gallery of Ballarat team.

🎟️ Both of these events are free, but bookings are essential, visit our website to secure your place.

What's on at World Press Photo this weekend? 📸 On Saturdays, step out of World Press Photo and into the darkroom where ...
14/08/2026

What's on at World Press Photo this weekend? 📸

On Saturdays, step out of World Press Photo and into the darkroom where you can layer film negatives to create your own story, expose it to UV light and develop a striking cyanotype print to take home.

International live writing project, Scribe, resides alongside the exhibition on Sundays. Led by artist Leisa Shelton, encounters with scribes allow you to anonymously reflect on the images you see. Some responses appear as chalk quotes in public spaces around Ballarat, too. ✏️

Guided tours also occur every day at 11am.

See extraordinary photojournalism from around the world at the Ballarat Mining Exchange until 20 September.

14/08/2026

Ballarat is hosting World Press Photo for the first time ever 📸

Here, Art Gallery of Ballarat Director, Louise Tegart, explains why this exhibition is so significant.

More than 50,000 photos were entered in this year’s contest. See the best of them at Ballarat Mining Exchange until 20 September.

New on the Art Screen: Shaun Gladwell 'Woolloomooloo night' 🎥 Filmed at a petrol station in Sydney’s central suburb of W...
09/08/2026

New on the Art Screen: Shaun Gladwell 'Woolloomooloo night' 🎥

Filmed at a petrol station in Sydney’s central suburb of Woolloomooloo, Gladwell captures barefooted dancer, Emma Magenta, as she demonstrates her capoeira moves.

Gladwell’s signature slow-motion studies of urban street culture have become recognised visual mediations between the streets and fine art. In Australia’s increasingly gentrified cities, those who reclaim public space, through recreational activities such as dance, parkour or skateboarding, are celebrated and elevated to graceful deities in Gladwell’s moving images.

On now in Alfred Deakin Place until 22 October.

Image: Shaun Gladwell 'Woolloomooloo night' 2004, HD video, 16:9, colour and sound, 25 min 40 sec.

Address

40 Lydiard Street North
Ballarat, VIC
3350

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 5pm
Tuesday 10am - 5pm
Wednesday 10am - 5pm
Thursday 10am - 5pm
Friday 10am - 5pm
Saturday 10am - 5pm
Sunday 10am - 5pm

Telephone

+61353205858

Website

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