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

Art Gallery of Ballarat

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The Art Gallery of Ballarat is the oldest, largest and most engaging regional art gallery in Australia.
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07/10/2026

Works on loan: AME Bale's 'The yard' 🍃

This Art Gallery of Ballarat Collection work is currently on loan as part of 'Quiet Corners: The art of AME Bale' on at Town Hall Gallery in Hawthorn, Melbourne, until 17 October.

Alice Marian Ellen (AME) Bale (1875–1955) was a skilled Tonalist painter, respected in Melbourne for her precise control of light, tone and composition.

During her career, she studied under Frederick McCubbin and refined her practice alongside Max Meldrum. She applied her discipline to portraits, interiors and landscapes including 'The yard.'

The Art Gallery of Ballarat takes great pride in representing Australian women artists from the 19th century to today, spotlighting names who have been overlooked in mainstream Australian art history.

Image: AME Bale 'The yard' 1909, oil on board. Collection of the Art Gallery of Ballarat. Purchased, 1968.

30/09/2026

Join artist Chelle Destefano in conversation with Art Gallery of Ballarat Curator, Emily Wakeling, as they discuss Destefano’s current exhibition Aural transferences. This discussion will be held as part of the Ballarat Seniors Festival.

The Auslan-interpreted and live-captioned talk will be followed by a free morning tea.

🗓️ Tomorrow, 2 October 10am, Backspace Gallery

🎟️ This event is free but bookings are essential. Book here: https://bit.ly/3VmOm7R

Image: Chelle Destefano by Claire Bridge

23/09/2026

Have you spotted the cranes carefully moving structural steel into place over the Art Gallery of Ballarat recently? These images show more important building works progress taking place at the Gallery. 🏗️

Once the grating has been attached to the top of the framework, the extended deck will support the new heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) mechanical equipment, including the air handling units.

This work will help to keep the Gallery at an ideal temperature to display and protect significant artworks. We've reached an exciting milestone that brings us a step closer to completing these critical upgrades - we'll share more updates soon.

18/09/2026

📸 World Press Photo - final weekend!

World Press Photo has had a big impact in Ballarat and beyond. Thank you to everyone who's brought curiosity to this exhibition and also engaged with our events, special tours and activities.

World Press Photo will close tomorrow, 20 September. See the world's best photojournalism at the Ballarat Mining Exchange.

🎟️ Entry is free, 10am - 5pm

16/09/2026

Are you a VCE student who uses creativity to showcase the things you're questioning, celebrating and imagining?

Next Gen 2027 brings together bold, inventive and thought-provoking work by emerging artists and designers from Government, Catholic and Independent schools across Ballarat and south-western Victoria.

Year 12 students are invited to submit their artwork for inclusion in this exhibition that celebrates the ideas, skills and creative voices of the region’s next generation.

🔗 Learn more and enter here: https://bit.ly/4yDrK10

📆 You can apply until 11:59 pm on Sunday 25 October 2026 - winners will be notified in November

11/09/2026

📸 WORLD PRESS PHOTO - FINAL DAYS

World Press Photo must close next Sunday 20 September.

This weekend, get into the darkroom, participate in an audio described tour or talk to our scribes about your World Press Photo experience.

Visit our website to learn more about what's on.

🎟️ Entry is free
📍 Ballarat Mining Exchange, 10am - 5pm daily

09/09/2026

📸 World Press Photo Curator Talk

Join Curator Emily Wakeling on a tour of the World Press Photo exhibition and gain deeper insights into the themes and issues that the winning images explore.

📆 2pm Saturday 19 September
🎫 Free, but bookings via our website are essential

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.

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!

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.

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

http://linktr.ee/artgalleryofballarat

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