How to combine a major-company night with the city’s daytime arts
One of the under-used patterns in Australian cultural tourism is pairing a Saturday-evening performance with a substantial daytime visit to the city’s major art gallery, museum or other arts institution. The major performing arts venues sit, by deliberate design or by accident of urban geography, within walking distance of the country’s flagship visual art collections. Here are the pairings we’d build into a one-day cultural visit.
Sydney — Walsh Bay and Circular Quay
The walking circuit that pairs an evening Sydney Theatre Company production at the Roslyn Packer Theatre with the Art Gallery of New South Wales for the day is one of the country’s strongest cultural-tourism pairings. The walk from the Roslyn Packer to the Art Gallery is a forty-minute harbour-side route through Walsh Bay, Circular Quay and the Royal Botanic Garden. Pair the AGNSW visit with the Yiribana Gallery (the AGNSW’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art collection) and the new AGNSW north building.
The other Sydney pairing is the Sydney Opera House evening with the Museum of Contemporary Art at Circular Quay (five minutes’ walk) or the Royal Botanic Garden’s Calyx exhibition spaces. For larger-scale exhibitions, the Powerhouse Museum redevelopment at Pyrmont and the new Powerhouse Parramatta are both within a short transport hop.
Melbourne — Southbank and the NGV
The Melbourne pairing is the strongest of any Australian city. The walking radius from Arts Centre Melbourne on Sturt Street covers the National Gallery of Victoria International (two minutes’ walk south on St Kilda Road), the National Gallery of Victoria Australia at Federation Square (five minutes’ walk north across Princes Bridge), the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) on Sturt Street (ten minutes’ walk south), the Australian Centre for the Moving Image at Federation Square, and the National Sound and Film Archive’s Melbourne presence. A typical Saturday in Melbourne pairs the NGV International for the major touring exhibition, the ACCA for the contemporary work, the Recital Centre or Hamer Hall in the evening, and the Yarra-side dining radius for the meals.
The other Melbourne pairing is the Heide Museum of Modern Art day-trip (45 minutes from the CBD) for a longer-form gallery visit, paired with an evening concert at the Recital Centre or the Arts Centre.
Brisbane — South Bank cultural precinct
The Brisbane QPAC pairing is unusually concentrated. The South Bank cultural precinct contains, within a five-minute walking radius, the Queensland Art Gallery, the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), the Queensland Museum, the State Library of Queensland and QPAC itself. A typical Saturday in Brisbane pairs the QAG and GOMA for the morning exhibition programme, the South Bank Parklands for lunch, and a QPAC evening for the performance.
The Brisbane visit also rewards a half-day pairing with the Brisbane Powerhouse at New Farm — the contemporary visual arts and live performance venue across the river — and the New Farm Park heritage gardens.
Adelaide — North Terrace cultural boulevard
The Adelaide pairing is the most concentrated cultural-precinct walk in any Australian capital. North Terrace runs east-west across the Adelaide CBD with — within a fifteen-minute walking radius — the Art Gallery of South Australia, the South Australian Museum, the State Library of South Australia, the Migration Museum, the Botanic Gardens, the Mortlock Wing, and the Adelaide Festival Centre at the western end. A typical Adelaide Festival Saturday pairs the Art Gallery in the morning, the Festival Centre Festival Theatre matinee, lunch in the East End, and the Festival’s evening mainstage. During the Festival fortnight, the Writers’ Week programme on the Pioneer Women’s Memorial Garden adds a free literary morning option.
Perth — the Cultural Centre and the Western Australian Museum
The Perth pairing centres on the Cultural Centre at Northbridge, ten minutes’ walk from the Perth CBD. The Cultural Centre contains the Art Gallery of Western Australia, the Western Australian Museum (Boola Bardip), the Perth Cultural Centre Library and the State Theatre Centre of Western Australia. A typical Perth Saturday pairs the WA Museum for the morning, the State Theatre Centre evening Black Swan production, and walking-distance dining at the Northbridge restaurants.
The Perth pairing also rewards a half-day at Fremantle (30 minutes by train) — the Fremantle Arts Centre, the Maritime Museum, the heritage precinct and the Bathers Beach.
Hobart — MONA and the Theatre Royal
The Hobart pairing is the most distinctive in the country. The MONA day-trip (a 25-minute ferry ride from the Hobart waterfront, with a substantial three-to-four-hour gallery visit) pairs unusually well with an evening at the Theatre Royal, Federation Concert Hall or Salamanca Arts Centre. During Dark Mofo in June, the MONA-Festival programming combination produces a single integrated cultural experience that has no parallel elsewhere in Australia.
The booking strategy
For a one-night-stay cultural visit, the trick is to book the evening performance first (subscriptions for the major companies run in October-November for the following year) then pick the gallery exhibition that pairs with the date. Most major Australian galleries run their international touring exhibitions through October–February of each year — overlapping with the Sydney Festival, Adelaide Festival and the start of the major-company seasons. Pair accordingly.
Our running cultural-tourism coverage is at Seasons.
