Treasures from across Australia’s performing arts history will make a spectacular return to the spotlight once again in ENCORE! 50 Objects. 50 Years. One Collection. The new exhibition will be exclusively on display from 16 September 2026 – 9 May 2027 at the Australian Museum of Performing Arts (AMPA).
Featured pieces include the legendary gold hot pants worn by Kylie Minogue in the “Spinning Around” music video, the original neon-red L’Amour sign Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin created for Opera Australia’s La Bohème, Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst’s beloved drum kit and stage costumes worn by the likes of Olivia Newton-John, Hugh Jackman and more.
Fifty iconic objects and costumes have been meticulously chosen for the exhibition, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Australian Performing Arts Collection, Australia’s largest specialist collection of circus, dance, music, opera and theatre which preserves more than 850,000 objects at Arts Centre Melbourne.
Arts Centre Melbourne’s CEO Karen Quinlan AM said ENCORE! is an invitation for visitors to relive those history-making moments that are keenly remembered, as well as a chance to discover remarkable Australian stories that until now were lost to time.
“Exploring the breadth of performing arts genres and spanning 170 years, ENCORE! is an exclusive backstage pass to 50 incredible moments from Australia’s history. It feels only fitting that our nation’s vibrant stage contributions will be on display at the centre of Australia’s cultural capital, at AMPA in Melbourne,” said Quinlan.
Arts Centre Melbourne’s Dance and Opera Curator Ian Jackson said while ENCORE! features familiar performers and institutions, it is also a chance for visitors to learn something they might not know about Australia’s history.
“Countless performers have contributed to making Australia’s cultural landscape what it is today, this exhibition aims to celebrate them. Some featured objects have never been on display to the public before, so this is the first chance people will have to witness those extraordinary pieces of our history,” said Jackson.
The exhibition features costumes, instruments and props as well as other original material ranging from puppets and scripts to personal keepsakes from many of Australia’s greatest stage performers and productions.
These include: Maracas used by renowned entertainer, singer and songwriter Peter Allen in 1977 to perform, I Go To Rio; the Grammy Award won by Helen Reddy for her Billboard no.1 anthem, I am Woman; and Aussie TV legend, puppet Ossie Ostrich.
The exhibition also includes a personal visual journal compiled by Nick Cave in 1987, signed pointe shoes worn by Ella Havelka, The Australian Ballet’s first dancer of First Nations heritage and a dress worn by Judith Durham of The Seekers at the historic 1967 Sidney Myer Music Bowl concert – the largest in Melbourne’s history.
A custom-made vest worn by legendary Gunditjmara and Bundjalung singer-songwriter Archie Roach in a landmark performance in Melbourne will also be featured.
Rites (1997), the first collaboration between Australia’s leading indigenous-led performing arts company Bangarra Dance Theatre and The Australian Ballet, will be recognised with the inclusion of the costume worn by one of Australia’s most celebrated dancers, the late Russell Page.
Other objects include the original 1874 handwritten script of Struck Oil, the breakthrough production from the entrepreneurial theatre impresario James Cassius Williamson who established Australia’s dominant theatre management company.
A set model of a Carlton terrace house from Melbourne Theatre Company’s 1995 production of Ray Lawler’s Summer of the Seventeenth Doll represents one of Australia’s most ground-breaking plays.
Extravagant costumes worn and designed by many of Australia’s and the world’s most celebrated creatives will also be displayed. They include a silk jewel encrusted cloak created by famed Parisian couturier Jean-Philippe Worth and worn by Dame Nellie Melba in St Petersburg in 1891, and black velvet and tulle gown worn by Dame Joan Sutherland in La Traviata (1965), where she performed alongside the then little-known Italian tenor, Luciano Pavarotti.
Also featured will be designs by Tony Award-winning set designer Brian Thomson, a costume from Sydney Dance Company’s Grand (2005) created by fashion designer Akira Isogawa, and a mask from the 1979 production of the Ancient Greek tragedy Medea, created by prolific and celebrated visual artist Mirka Mora.
Australia’s distinct, cheeky and occasionally larrikin sense of humour will be on display with costumes worn on stage by legends in career defining performances.
These include a top hat worn by Roy Rene – one of Australia’s most successful comedians of the early 20th century – as Mo McCackie, a costume worn by Reg Livermore as Betty Blokk Buster in a 1975 show that revolutionised Australian cabaret, an over-the-top New York-themed dress worn by Dame Edna Everage on Broadway in 2004 and the nude suit worn by beloved comedian Denise Scott.
Australia’s vast circus contributions – a sometimes-overlooked chapter of Australia’s performing arts history – will also be showcased through objects including a clown bike from the Holden Bros Circus and a vintage poster depicting the ‘Wizard of the Wire’ Con Colleano, a First Nations tightwire walker who was the most celebrated and highly paid circus performer of his time. A metal escape trunk from 1935 used by The Great Levante – who was one of the world’s most popular magicians is also included.
The exhibition shares a crown jewel of the Australian Performing Arts Collection, the Wirth’s Circus scrapbook. With over 500 pages, the album is so heavy that it requires two people to lift it. The scrapbook is a remarkable visual archive filled with thousands of photographs from Australia’s leading circus of the first half of the 20th century.
ENCORE! 50 Objects. 50 Years. One Collection will be on display at the Australian Museum of Performing Arts (AMPA), Arts Centre Melbourne from 16 September 2026 – 9 May 2027. For more information, visit: www.artscentremelbourne.com.au for details.
Images: Olivia Newton-John on Olivia, ABC-TV, 1978, Photographer unknown, Purchased, 2020, Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne | Costume worn by Kylie Minogue in Spinning Around video, 2000, Gift of Kylie Minogue, Cultural Gifts Program, 2004, Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne | Hugh Jackman as Peter Allen in The Boy From Oz, 2006, Photograph by Jeff Busby | Ossie Ostrich puppet from television program Hey Hey It’s Saturday, c 1972. Designed by Axel Axelrad. Gift of Ernie Carroll, 1998. Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne