The annual Open House Melbourne (OHM) takes place this weekend (27 & 38 July) with doors opening to some of the city’s most intriguing, iconic and innovative places and spaces. With other 170 events the OHM program is packed with films, talks, guided building tours, exhibitions and self-guided walks.
With a collection of free and pre-booked events available Open House Melbourne will see over 60,000 people explore returning favourites and discover the hidden architectural gems our city has to offer. Weekend Program highlights include:
Art and Heritage Collection Store: Melbourne Town Hall
In 2022, after 22 years on the periphery of the central city grid, the City of Melbourne’s Art and Heritage Collection Store moved back to its original home: Melbourne Town Hall. This once-in-a-generation relocation has had an exciting impact on the way the collection is stored and showcased. By any standard the City of Melbourne’s art and heritage collection is eclectic. The collection comprises over 13,000 items, including public art maquettes, street art, Moomba, Olympics, photography, works by First Nations artists, books, plans, Council and ceremonial and contemporary art including artworks related to the Metro Tunnel Project.
Artbank Collection Store
Located in Collingwood, the heart of Victoria’s creative precinct, Artbank’s Melbourne office and showroom provides a space for client and sector engagement, collaboration and creativity under one very tall roof. Artbank will open up their collection store to the public for a special behind-the-scenes view of this incredible purpose-built collection space, usually only reserved for back of house staff. Pull out racks, peer into the sculpture store and wander through the visible storage space to discover new favourite artworks from this amazing collection of Australian contemporary art. The Artbank team will be on hand to tell you about the artworks and show you around the collection.
Box Hill Community Arts Centre
Box Hill Community Arts Centre was the first centre of its kind built in Australia. More than 30 years on, it is still a thriving hub of community activity and creative exploration. This weekend will give people the opportunity to discover this unique, bright and beautiful arts building, which was designed by award-winning architect Gregory Burgess in conjunction with the artistic and creative local community at the time. The garden was originally designed by landscape architect Kevin Taylor.
Buxton Contemporary: The Same Crowd Never Gathers Twice
Opening its doors in 2018, Buxton Contemporary continues the ethos of Michael and Janet Buxton’s approach to collecting by supporting contemporary artists and engaging with the development of artistic practice. A new group exhibition The Same Crowd Never Gathers Twice tests the limits of the ‘arena’ – the setting where we come together to collectively witness and participate in public life – with works spanning moving image, sound installation, sculptural intervention and performance. Together, these works consider the social and structural architecture that binds spaces of public life, and, by extension, the elastic natures of performance and reality, and the audience and participant. While the exhibition is on, the gallery becomes an active site for critical discussion and performance responses. Participating artists include Cate Consandine, Angela Goh, Riana Head-Toussaint, Laresa Kosloff, Yona Lee and Taryn Simon.
Firestation Print Studio
Serving the community for the better part of a century (1906-1988), the Malvern Fire Station is now home to Melbourne’s only 24-hour community print studio. It comprises an exhibition gallery, a workshop with three etching presses and another workshop with several letterpress and relief printers, along with several artists’ studios upstairs. It is a unique facility supporting the creative life of Stonnington and beyond.
Hawthorn Arts Centre
Town Hall Gallery, established in 2003, originally occupied a space in the basement of Hawthorn Town Hall. In 2013, a significant transformation of the Hawthorn Town Hall into the Hawthorn Arts Centre allowed the gallery to relocate to more modern and expansive exhibition spaces within the same building. Town Hall Gallery boasts a vibrant annual exhibition program that includes a mix of curated, community, and touring exhibitions and Town Hall Gallery Collection shows. During the Open House Melbourne weekend, the gallery opens its doors wider, allowing visitors to explore behind the scenes. Guests can visit the collection storerooms and participate in tours and programs that offer insights from curators and artists.
Heide Modern: A Gallery to Be Lived In
The architecture of Heide Museum of Modern Art reflects the site’s transformation from a rural homestead to the public art museum it is today. In 1963, when Heide founders John and Sunday outgrew the Heide Cottage they purchased in 1934, they commissioned David McGlashan of the architecture firm McGlashan and Everist to plan and construct a new home in the modernist style. Their brief was that the building should be romantic, have a sense of mystery and weather over time to take on the appearance of a ruin in the landscape. They also desired a ‘gallery to be lived in’, intending that this building should one day be transformed into a public art gallery.
Melbourne Arts Precinct Transformation Tour
The Melbourne Arts Precinct Transformation is the largest cultural infrastructure project in Australia’s history and is set to transform the precinct into one of the greatest creative and cultural destinations in the world. The city-shaping project will deliver The Fox: NGV Contemporary – a new gallery dedicated to contemporary art and design – and significant upgrades to Arts Centre Melbourne’s Theatres Building, as well as a new 18,000-square-metre urban garden. This tour provides a special opportunity to go behind-the-scenes of this once-in-a-generation project that will create a legacy for years to come.
The 2024 Open House Melbourne Weekend takes place across Melbourne on Saturday 27 & Sunday 28 July. Bookings required for some venues. For more information and full program, visit: www.openhousemelbourne.org for details.
Image: Town Hall Gallery Collection storeroom – courtesy of City of Boroondara