Art Gallery of South Australia

The Art Gallery of South Australia is Adelaide's premier art museum, standing on the leafy cultural boulevard of North Terrace between the state library and the South Australian Museum. Founded in 1881, it holds one of the country's most important art collections, spread through a grand Victorian building and its later extensions.

The collection is wide-ranging. Holdings span Australian, Aboriginal, European, Asian and contemporary art, with particular strengths in colonial and modern Australian painting and a significant collection of Indigenous works. The gallery is known for its ambitious contemporary program and for hosting the Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, the country's longest-running survey of new work.

The setting is part of the appeal. Its ornate nineteenth-century galleries, with skylit halls and grand staircases, contrast with sleek modern spaces, and the building sits within Adelaide's dense concentration of cultural institutions and university grounds along North Terrace. Free tours and a busy events calendar keep the gallery lively.

Practical notes: the gallery is a short walk from the Adelaide railway station and the Rundle Mall, in the walkable city centre, and is fully step-free with lifts between floors. General entry to the permanent collection is free, with charges only for major ticketed exhibitions, making it easy to combine with the neighbouring museum and library. Allow one to two hours for the collection. The surrounding North Terrace precinct, with its museums, botanic garden and university campuses, makes for an easy cultural half-day in central Adelaide, best rounded off with a stroll into the adjacent Botanic Garden. The gallery's holdings of colonial silver, Australian painting and contemporary Indigenous work are particularly strong, and its free floor talks and the biennial survey of new Australian art keep the program lively.