La Trobe Art Institute

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La Trobe Art Institute La Trobe University's centre for contemporary art in Bendigo’s arts precinct. Admission is always free. La Trobe Art Institute was established in 2013.

We produce exhibitions, lectures, forums, residencies and cultural events and offer social spaces that serve our wider community. Our Peter Elliott-designed premises in the Bendigo CBD include two galleries, a tiered auditorium, apartment, studio, common room, meeting room and outdoor courtyards. Our program includes exhibitions, film series, residencies, lectures and forums, professional development, cultural exchange and social events that support community advocacy and debate. Our work continues the dynamic legacy of the La Trobe University’s commitment to visual arts including through teaching and research, collections (established in 1966) and dedicated art galleries (since 1982).

We're delighted to announce ECOTONE: a long-term artistic exchange bringing mid-career Australian and South Korean artis...
13/10/2026

We're delighted to announce ECOTONE: a long-term artistic exchange bringing mid-career Australian and South Korean artists into reciprocal exchange. Led by artists Eugenia Lim and Jinjoo Kim with Anna Nalpantidis, ECOTONE fosters intercultural dialogue, place-based ecological artistic practice and meaningful connections between Australian and South Korean artistic communities.

Join the ECOTONE artists and collaborators at La Trobe Art Institute on Saturday 7 November for an afternoon of artist-led conversation, screening and drinks.

2 pm – Eugenia Lim and Amelia Wallin in conversation, exploring Actions for Water II and its intersections with ecology, place and artistic practice.

3 pm – ECOTONE: Screening & Artist Sharing
A screening and conversation with Eugenia Lim, Jinjoo Kim (KR), Zoe Scoglio, James Nguyen, Gillian Kayrooz and Anna Nalpantidis, sharing reflections from ECOTONE – a new Australia-Korea exchange bringing artists together through ecological and place-based practice.

4 pm – Informal Drinks
Stay for a drink, snacks and continue the conversation with artists and guests.

All welcome.

________
Lead Artists: Eugenia Lim (AU) and Jinjoo Kim (KR)
Creative Producer: Anna Nalpantidis
Lead Partners: La Trobe Art Institute (AU) – Amelia Wallin (Senior Curator)
Presenting Partners: Line Cultural Foundation (KR) – Wonseok Koh (Director) and Minji Jin (Assistant Curator)
Collaborating Artists: Zoe Scoglio, James Nguyen and Gillian Kayrooz (AU), Ellie Kyungran Heo, HyeJoo Jun and Hyemin Son (KR)

Ecotone has received grant funding from the Australia-Korea Foundation of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body, and is supported by Latrobe Art Institute and the Line Cultural Foundation.

Image credit: Eugenia Lim, film stills from Metabolism (2023) and Letter to Corhanwarrabul (2023), courtesy of the artist. Design by Anna Nalpantidis and Rachel Horgan.

MURRUNAYA DJAYI (LIVING SPIRIT COUNTRY)Biannual Façade launch eventFriday 16 October 11am – 12pm Join us to celebrate th...
12/10/2026

MURRUNAYA DJAYI (LIVING SPIRIT COUNTRY)
Biannual Façade launch event
Friday 16 October 11am – 12pm

Join us to celebrate the launch of our latest façade commission, by Dja Dja Wurrung artists Aunty Marilyne Nicholls and Rebecca Phillips. We will celebrate the launch of this incredible new commission with a Smoking Ceremony, snacks and refreshments in our courtyard.

This is the first La Trobe Art Institute façade commission by Dja Dja Wurrung artists, and we thank Aunty Marilyne and Rebecca for their generosity and trust throughout its development.

Image: Aunty Marilyne Nicholls and Rebecca Phillips, Murrunaya Djayi (Living Spirit Country), 2026. Photo: Leon Schoots

As part of Actions for Water II, join us for a talk and workshop with Dr Bronwyn Bailey-Charteris, author of The Hydroce...
09/10/2026

As part of Actions for Water II, join us for a talk and workshop with Dr Bronwyn Bailey-Charteris, author of The Hydrocene: Eco-Aesthetics in the Age of Water (Routledge, 2024).

Australian and Swedish curator, writer and researcher Dr Bronwyn Bailey-Charteris explores the cultural, ecological and aesthetic dimensions of water. Drawing on ideas from The Hydrocene, this lecture-workshop will introduce hydro-artistic methods for thinking and creating with water, inviting participants to consider water as a force that shapes memory, place, community and environmental futures.

Following a short presentation, participants will take part in a collaborative water stories workshop, exploring the many ways water connects people, landscapes and histories.

Saturday October 31
La Trobe Art Institute
From 1–3pm

Register via Eventbrite
water-stories-lai.eventbrite.com.au

underFOOT documents the resourceful, experimental and environmental approach of the underFOOT collective, a group of art...
30/09/2026

underFOOT documents the resourceful, experimental and environmental approach of the underFOOT collective, a group of artists from Western Australia and Tasmania, including Holly Story, Perdita Phillips, Annette Nykiel, Sharyn Egan, Jane Donlin, Nandi Chinna, and Nien Schwarz. The collective engage in collaborative, field-based practices that honour and respond to the natural world through writing, performance, textiles, sculpture, and sound.
Directed by two of the members of the collective, the film highlights their environmental activism, notably their participation in protests against the Roe 8 extension project in Western Australia, which aimed to preserve significant ecological and cultural assets within the Beeliar Wetlands. The film serves as a testament to collaborative art-making in advocating for environmental stewardship.

Actions for Water II continues until 8 November.

Images: Nien Schwarz & Rory Mahony, 'underFOOT', 2024. Photos: Leon Schoots

Through performance and documentation, Khvay Samnang registers grief and protest in response to the destruction of Phnom...
28/09/2026

Through performance and documentation, Khvay Samnang registers grief and protest in response to the destruction of Phnom Penh’s lakes in Cambodia. Since 2008, Boeung Kak Lake and other urban wetlands have been filled with sand for privatised developments, displacing more than 4,000 low-income families, degrading the environment and diminishing vital public space.

Samnang recalls the lakes of his childhood as places of respite, gathering and food. In Untitled (2011), a series of video and photographs, he wades into lakes at various stages of infilling and repeatedly pours buckets of sand over his head. Using his body as both witness and site of intervention, Samnang makes visible the human and ecological costs of urban development.

Actions for Water II continues until 8 November

Images: Khvay Samnang, 'Untitled', 2011. Photos: Leon Schoots

Glenda Nicholls’s large-scale woven work, The Reflection Net, is suspended high in the gallery, evoking both sky country...
21/09/2026

Glenda Nicholls’s large-scale woven work, The Reflection Net, is suspended high in the gallery, evoking both sky country and the reflective surface of Milloo (the Murray River) with hand-crafted feather flowers floating like birds overhead. The work celebrates the cultural legacy of women and fishing, whilst also embodying the interconnectedness of all living things and the all-encompassing nature of Country. Nicholl’s practice makes a direct link to her Elders and ancestors, using her inherited net making technique. Since making her first net in 2011, she has gone on to revive the traditional practice, sharing it with the next generation, and ensuring the continuity of her family storyline.

Actions for Water II continues until 8 November

Images: Glenda Nicholls, 'The Reflection Net', 2024, The University of Melbourne Art Collection. Photos: Leon Schoots

Dja Dja Wurrung artists Aunty Marilyne Nicholls and Rebecca Phillips bring their collaborative artwork to our latest faç...
19/09/2026

Dja Dja Wurrung artists Aunty Marilyne Nicholls and Rebecca Phillips bring their collaborative artwork to our latest façade commission, combining their distinct practices as master weaver, painter and dancer.

MURRUNAYA DJAYI (LIVING SPIRIT COUNTRY) shares stories of waterways and Country across Djandak, bringing together drawings, paintings and natural materials collected on Country, including kangaroo grass and emu feathers. Digitally collaged across the façade window, these elements reflect the artists’ enduring cultural and creative connections to Country.

At the heart of the work is a chain of ponds, representing healthy waterways sustained by Dja Dja Wurrung people and home to fish, turtles, yabbies, crayfish, mussels and frogs. Across the landscape, we see emus being hunted and baskets and necklaces being woven while grasses are collected in coolamons, alongside Waa in the gum tree and Bunjil in the sky.

Moving from day to night, the artwork brings together people, animals, waterways, culture and memory, reflecting the continuity of Dja Dja Wurrung knowledge and cultural practice across generations.

This is the first La Trobe Art Institute façade commission by Dja Dja Wurrung artists. We thank Aunty Marilyne and Rebecca for their generosity and trust throughout its development.

Images: Mock up of biannual façade commission by Aunty Marilyne Nicholls and Rebecca Phillips, 'Silver Perch' from the sketchbook of Rebecca Phillips

This week we have been joined by work experience student Cooper from Wedderburn College. Cooper has been deep in our ima...
18/09/2026

This week we have been joined by work experience student Cooper from Wedderburn College. Cooper has been deep in our image archives helping us catalogue our past exhibitions over the past few years.

As part of this, Cooper has chosen 10 of his favourite images from our recent exhibitions, and written a short line on why he likes them. We hope you enjoy seeing our exhibition program through Cooper's eyes!

Image 1. "Faceless without feeling"
James Barth, Clumped Composition (Crouching), 2024. Photo: Leon Schoots

Image 2. "Motion as if through water"
Tomoko Hayashi, My Heart Floats in the Water, 2025. Photo Leon Schoots

Image 3. "Purple like berries of blue"
Keg de Souza, Growth in the shadows, 2025. Photo: Leon Schoots

Image 4. "Mathematics. A question and answer"
Tamsen Hopkinson, I am a shadow, so art thou. I mark time, does thou? 2025. Photo: Leon Schoots

Image 5. "re-developed like an infection"
Keg de Souza, Growth in the shadows, 2025. Photo: Leon Schoots

Image 6. "Arachnid. so much like a seat"
Rachelle Koumouris, my tail is a counterweight to my big, soft head, 2023. Photo: Leon Schoots

Image 7. "The moon... But a beacon in the night sky"
Christina May Carey, Moon II, 2023. Photo: Leon Schoots

Image 8. "Random... A Salty sweet"
Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori, My Father’s Country (detail) 2009.

Image 9. "Smoke, a walk through wall"
Yvette James, Enact the law on my frightened body, 2023–24. Photo: Leon Schoots

Image 10. "Broken but with purpose"
Yvette James, Just Before the Pause, 2022. Photo: Leon Schoots

Address

121 View Street
Bendigo, VIC
3550

Opening Hours

Tuesday 10am - 5pm
Wednesday 10am - 5pm
Thursday 10am - 5pm
Friday 10am - 5pm
Saturday 12pm - 5pm
Sunday 12pm - 5pm

Telephone

+61354447272

Website

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