Location
The City Gallery is set in the Swanston Street facade of Melbourne Town Hall, where it shares an entrance with City of Melbourne Customer Service. Two large windows form the gallery’s face to the street, with window signage displaying the current show to passers-by.
Opening hours
Monday
to Friday: 9am to 5pm.
Closed weekends and public holidays.
Exhibitions
The gallery provides a venue for dialogue between cultural material, guest curators and the public. The subject is always the city itself.
Some of the most interesting exhibitions have involved branches of the City of Melbourne not associated directly with the city’s cultural life, such as parking and engineering.
Indigenous curators and artists have been prominent in programming and the City Gallery proudly subscribes to the
Code of practice for galleries and retailers of Indigenous Art.
Collection and exhibition material
The City of Melbourne City Collection consists of 8000 artworks and heritage artefacts. It includes the outdoor collection of memorials, fountains and sculptures, as well as the indoor collection located within City of Melbourne's buildings.
The collection’s strengths include regalia, lord mayoral portraits, Moomba, 1956 Melbourne Olympics, architectural drawings, city gifts and a wide range of historic photographs, especially of streetscapes.
The collection also includes a growing contemporary art collection, focused on both Melbourne-themed works and those by south-east Australian Indigenous artists.
Sponsorship and funding
While sponsors are always welcome, the gallery is essentially funded by the City of Melbourne.