Ascend the grand staircase into Australia’s oldest regional gallery, and the cultural heart of this Unesco Creative City. With a collection spanning more than 1500 works, the gallery is broken up into themes of Country, Home, Disruption and Place, and addresses current community issues through ever-evolving exhibitions.

The gallery’s strength is in melding the old and the new. Early impressions of European settlement and local history are depicted in stunning oil paintings, such as Eugene von Guerard’s Old Ballarat as it was in the Summer of 1853/54, and David Davies’s Under the burden and heat of the day.

Indigenous works are central to the gallery and play an important role in putting the Wadawurrung people back on their land. Prominent are paintings by Aunty Marlene Gilson and her daughter Leanne Gilson, proud Wadawurrung women, as well as work from Central Desert artists.

Free guided tours run daily at 11am (no booking required). The gallery shop stocks hand-crafted jewellery, ceramics and crafts made by regional artists.