Advanced Search

Events Calendar

Download your copy of the August/September Events Calendar (pdf format)


Guided Tours - General Collection
Daily, 11am & 2pm
Cost: Free.
Take a free tour of our outstanding collections with a Gallery Guide. Tours leave from the North Terrace entrance at 11am and 2pm daily.


Guided Tours - Rupert Bunny: artist in Paris
Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, 12noon (23 Jul - 4 Oct)
Cost: Free with exhibition entry
Meet: Exhibition entrance


Guided Tours - A beautiful line: Italian prints from Mantegna to Piranesi
Wednesdays, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, 1pm
Cost: Free with exhibition entry
Meet: Exhibition entrance


AUSLAN Tours
By Appointment
Auslan guided tours can be arranged free of charge for deaf and hearing-impaired patrons. Discover the joys of our collections and selected exhibitions.
Information & bookings: 08 8207 7005 or agsainformation@artgallery.sa.gov.au          


Collection on Show
Saturdays & Sundays, 1pm
Many of our frequent visitors will jump at the opportunity to explore aspects of our collection in depth. Each month, we’ll present a new
topic area for these tours, providing an ideal opportunity to build knowledge and understanding of our wonderful collection.
August: Asian Art
September: French Art
Meet your Gallery Guide at the North Terrace entrance.


A beautiful line Floor Talk
Tuesday 24 August, 12.45pm
Get a rare insight into the Renaissance prints on display in A Beautiful Line with the exhibition’s curator and Associate Curator of Prints, Drawings & Photographs, Maria Zagala.
Cost: Free with exhibition entry.


Lecture: Rupert Bunny and Belle Époque Paris
Saturday 28 August, 2pm
Rupert Bunny worked through the seemingly endless summer of the belle époque period in Paris. Craig Judd, Sydney-based independent curator, educator, and arts writer invites us into the charmed and idyllic world of belle époque Paris through the glorious romantic portrayals of beautiful women at leisure created by Bunny. Craig Judd has lectured in art history at the Sydney College of the Arts, the National Art School, the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales, and at the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.  Cost: Free.
Location: Radford Auditorium.


Rupert Bunny French Film Program: Coco avant Chanel
Sunday 29 August, 2pm
This enthralling exploration of the early life of Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel, starring Audrey Tautou, charts her rise from humble beginnings to the heights of the fashion world.  Set in provincial France in the 1890s, the film is loosely based on L’irrégulière, the biography by Edmonde Charles-Roux.  2009 (Rated: PG) 105 mins. French with English subtitles.
Cost: Free.
Location: Radford Auditorium.


Romeo and Juliet – An Art and Theatre Experience
Sunday 29 August, 2.45pm
Join theatre expert Dr Rosie Nursey-Bray for a floor talk on Frederic Leighton’s famous painting, The Feigned Death of Juliet, followed by afternoon tea at which the CEO of State Theatre Company, Pamela Foulkes, will be guest speaker. Then enjoy a matinee performance of  State Theatre Company’s Romeo and Juliet at the Dunstan Playhouse. Tickets: $90 Adult, $80 Members, includes Gallery talk, afternoon tea, theatre ticket and interval refreshments. Bookings essential by 16 August. Click here for Member events.


Rupert Bunny Floor Talk
Tuesday 31 August, 12.45pm
Cost: Free with exhibition entry.
Max Carter, esteemed patron and benefactor speaks about Rupert Bunny: artist in Paris, with particular reference to Ancilla Domini, Cactus and A summer morning, three works from the M.J.M. Carter AO Collection in the exhibition.


Members Guide to the Gallery: All Things Bright and Beautiful
Wednesday 1 September, 10am for 10.30am
On the first Wednesday of the month, Gallery Guides presente a special tour for Members. Join us before the tour for morning tea in the Members' Lounge at 10am or meet at the Information Desk at 10.30am to join the tour.
Please register your attendance by telephoning 08 8207 7050. Click here for Members events.
Cost: Free


START at the Gallery: Culture Day - All things French!
Sunday 5 September, 12–3pm
Cost: Free
Put on your beret, and come along for a special day focused on the sights and sounds of France.  Imagine yourself in the heart of Paris, while on tour through our major exhibition, Rupert Bunny: artist in Paris, or for the kids, take in the street antics of our French themed performances .
12noon–3pm - Art & craft: All things French
Make a neat stencil rubbing of the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral or other French landmarks and take home a colourful French icon for your room. Location: Function rooms 1 & 2
12noon, 1pm & 2pm - Children’s tours: Bonjour! Say Hello to French art
Discover painters and sculptors who won the hearts of the world.  Meet the Guides in the Santos Atrium.
1.30pm & 2.30pm - Performance: Saltimbanques – Colourful Antics
Be enchanted by dazzling colours and movement with mythological stories woven around works in the exhibition, Rupert Bunny: artist in Paris. Meet at the entrance to the exhibition in gallery 25. 12–2pm - Music: Roving Piano Accordion
Enjoy the street sounds of France in the outdoor setting of the Gallery Courtyard.
12noon & 1.30pm - Performance: Mime Artist
Laugh or cry, be prepared to be entranced by the chameleon character, Mista Moose.  Location: Radford Auditorium
12noon–12.45pm & 2–2.30pm - Performance: Juggler
Location: Courtyard/Santos Atrium
1–1.30pm & 2.30–3pm - Performance: Juggling Workshop
Try your skill and have fun with the art of juggling, under the expert guidance of a master juggler. Location: Courtyard
2pm Soundscapes: Burgundy Trio
Experience the moods of the belle époque with a program of French music performed by some of Adelaide’s most outstanding young musicians. Location: Courtyard


Rupert Bunny Floor Talk
Tuesday 7 September, 12.45pm
Associate Professor Catherine Speck, coordinator of the Postgraduate Art History Program focuses on Rupert Bunny’s theatrical, musical and modern dance paintings, including his stunning portraits, Madame Melba and Madame Sadayakko as Kesa, and Salome, in the exhibition.


Members' Exclusive Viewing - A beautiful line: Italian prints from Mantegna to Piranesi
Thursday 9 September, 6–7.30pm
Maria Zagala, the Gallery’s Associate Curator, Prints, Drawings & Photographs, will guide you through the richness and diversity of Italian printmaking from a selection of the Gallery’s collection of 140 prints rarely on display. Learn about the virtuosity and diversity of printmaking during this period, including Andrea Mantegna’s The Entombment, woodcuts by Titian and his contemporaries, and imaginary capricci by Tiepolo and Piranesi, then join other Members for refreshments. Click here for Members events.
Cost: all-inclusive ticket $35 Members and Members’ guests


Workshop: Just Like Bunny
Saturday 11 & Sunday 12 September, 10am–4pm
In this pastel workshop we explore the late-career mythological works of Rupert Bunny. These highly coloured and vigorous works demonstrate how the artist freely explored the major developments in modern art that were occurring all around him in Europe. Nona Burden, artist and lecturer will guide participants through figure studies, later composing landscape and figurative elements for a final work of art in pastels. Limited to 20 participants. No previous experience necessary. Just bring your enthusiasm! 
Cost: $180 Adult, $120 Member - includes all materials and an evening refreshment. 
Location: Radford Auditorium.
Bookings: 08 8207 7035


Floor Talk
Tuesday 14 September, 12.45pm
Gain an insight into Pieter Claesz’s A still life with a roemer, a crab and a peeled lemon with Jane Messenger, Curator of European Art, in gallery 13.


Lecture: Rupert Bunny in Full Stride
Saturday 18 September, 2pm
Rupert Bunny spent close to fifty years working and exhibiting as an artist in Paris. In the belle époque years he exhibited regularly at the Société des Artistes Français, and after the war at the more radical, émigré-populated Salon de Automne. Bunny was an internationalist who maintained an active international exhibiting profile, sending work regularly to the Carnegie exhibitions in Pittsburgh, to Brussels and to Liverpool. He also sent work ‘home’ to Melbourne and Sydney.  This lecture will look at Bunny’s strategic patterns of operating, exhibiting and networking.  Presented by Dr Catherine Speck, coordinator of the Art History Program, University of Adelaide and Art Gallery of South Australia.
Cost: Free
Location: Radford Auditorium


Rupert Bunny French Film Program: Casque d’or
Sunday 19 September, 2pm
An atmospheric love story set in the underworld of pimps, prostitutes and petty criminals of late 19th-century Paris. Starring Simone Signoret in one of her best roles, Casque d’or is enhanced by the magnificent black and white photography of Robert Lefevbre and the atmospheric music of Georges Van Parys.  (1952, 96 mins, PG).
Cost: Free
Location: Radford Auditorium


Children’s Tour: Bonjour!
Sunday 19 September, 2pm
Cost: Free
We say hello to French art.  Meet the Guides in the Santos Atrium.


Floor Talk
Tuesday 21 September, 12.45pm
Discover the new acquisition Prophet Muhammad riding the bouraq steed with James Bennett, Curator of Asian Art, in gallery 19.


New Members' Welcome Tour
Wednesday 22 September, 10.30am
Cost: Free
If you have recently become a Member, please join us for a relaxed morning tea and introductory tour of the Gallery with our compliments.
Please register your attendance with the membership office by telephoning 08 8207 7050. Click here for Members events.  


Images and Words
Sunday 26 September, 2pm
Tapping the rhythm of his time, Rupert Bunny was immersed in the creative energy and freedom of belle époque Paris and France. Adelaide’s Friendly Street Poets, Australia’s longest-running community open-poetry reading venue, will present selected readings from the belle époque era, with original verse in response to works of art by Rupert Bunny. 
Cost: Free with exhibition entry.
Location: in the exhibition.


A beautiful line Floor Talk
Tuesday 28 September, 12.45pm
Maria Zagala, curator of A beautiful line, speaks about Venetian prints by Canaletto, G.B. Tiepolo and G.B. Piranesi in the exhibition.
Cost: Free with exhibition entry.


Spring Lecture Program
Lecture 1: Artist in profile: Sally Smart
Saturday 2 October, 2pm
Born in Quorn, South Australia, artist Sally Smart has established herself as a major Australian and international artist. Smart’s colourful and epic mixed-media assemblages using felt and other materials reference historical, family and social connections, and also convey whimsy, wit and poetic nuances. Smart has had more than fifty solo exhibitions and her work continues to defy pictorial conventions.
Lecture 2: Independent Australian Britons?  British perspectives on Australian colonial art
Saturday 9 October, 2pm
This paper will offer an alternative non-nationalistic perspective on the art world of the colonial period by focusing on the extensive cultural interaction that existed between Britain and Australia during the nineteenth century. It will focus on some representative colonial artists, including John Glover, William Strutt and Robert Dowling, and consider their role in shaping a colonial cultural identity that was simultaneously national and imperial. The shifting dynamic between such notions as ‘foreign’ and ‘local’; ‘imperial’ and ‘national’; ‘metropolitan’ and ‘ provincial’; ‘conservative’ and ‘progressive’ will be explored across several decades (1860s–1890s) in order to provide fresh insights into the place of Australian art and artists in the wider context of the British Empire. Presented by Alison Inglis, Associate Professor in Art History at the University of Melbourne.
Lecture 3: Drawing lines in the sand – verbal art and visual art from Central Australia
Saturday 16 October, 2pm
Aboriginal women’s sand stories from Central Australia are a dynamic and spontaneous art form of considerable beauty and cultural significance. These stories typically incorporate a variety of communicative media, including drawing, speech, gesture, sign and song. These ephemeral art forms are part of the substrate from which contemporary Indigenous art forms such as batik and acrylic painting have emerged.  The talk will discuss examples of Arandic women’s sand stories, demonstrating some of the ways that the artists’ use of space and iconography parallels that seen in other graphic media.  Presented by Jenny Green & Veronica Perrurle Dobson.
Lecture 4: The photography of Alfred Stieglitz
Saturday 23 October, 2pm
The American photographer Alfred Stieglitz exerted a lasting influence on twentieth-century photography, changing the way people thought about photography as art. He influenced generations of photographers, painters, and sculptors both directly and indirectly, exciting with a passionate vision fundamental to the evolution of modern photography. Judy Annear is Senior Curator, Photography, Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Cost: Season ticket $30 Member, $45 non-member; Single lectures $10 Member, $15 non-member (ticket includes a refreshment). Book online. Location: Radford Auditorium.


START at the Gallery: Annual Family Fun Day – Italian Culture Day
Sunday 3 October, 12-3pm
Cost: Free
Join us for a big day of Italian festivities centred on our exhibition, A beautiful line, showcasing three centuries of Italian prints from our collection.  Experience the striking colours and sounds of Italian dance and music, soak up the atmosphere of a real Commedia performance, or go on a special tour of the exhibition with one of our expert Gallery Guides.
11am–3pm - Art & craft: Impressions of Italy
Draw your own imaginary Italian buildings or landscape features using a few simple pen and brush techniques, with the help of our skilled tutors.  Location: Function rooms 1 & 2
12noon, 12.30pm, 1pm, 1.30pm & 2pm - Children’s tours: Gods and Goddesses – Tales from the Ancient World
Let’s look closely at the tiny details and fine lines in these precious prints of great buildings, gods and goddesses. Meet the Guides in the Santos Atrium.
12 noon, 1pm, 2pm - Performance
Traditional costumed dance by young members of the Italian Carnevale Community.  Location: BankSA marquee and Courtyard
11 am–2 pm - Roving musician
12.30–1pm, 2.30–3pm - Performance: The Marriage of Flavio & Isabella
Commedia dell’Arte is a form of theatre that began in Italy in the mid-16th century and is characterised by masked ‘types’ and improvised performances based on sketches or scenarios.  Location: Radford Auditorium
1.30–2pm - Commedia dell’Arte workshop: Mixed Bag
A playful introduction to the Commedia tradition, including studies of characters, postures, masks, slapsticks and more.  Location: Radford Auditorium
2pm - Soundscapes: Skyline Quartet
Experience beautiful music of the Italian baroque performed by some of Adelaide’s most outstanding young musicians.  Location: Gallery 25 downstairs.


Floor Talk
Tuesday 5 October, 12.45pm
Director Nick Mitzevich will present a talk on selected works of art from the contemporary Australian collection, in gallery 9.
Cost: Free


International Lecture: The 15th Annual Temenos Lecture presented by Andrew Harvey: Rumi Renaissance
Tuesday 5 October, 6pm
Cost: Free (bookings essential)
Location: Radford Auditorium
In this lecture Andrew Harvey will describe in detail his vision of how Rumi became a supreme instrument of divine consciousness and the greatest mystical poet the world has ever seen. His presentation will interweave three vital themes: the theme of Rumi’s personal crucifixion by and resurrection into love, the theme of Islamic Mystical Tradition and its understanding of awakening and the theme of the sacred initiatory power of the mystical poetry his tremendous journey gave birth to.  Andrew Harvey is an internationally acclaimed poet, novelist, translator, mystical scholar, and spiritual teacher.  Harvey is a Fellow of All Souls College Oxford from (1972–1 986) and has taught at Oxford University, Cornell University, the California Institute of Integral Studies, and the University of Creation Spirituality, as well as, various spiritual centres
throughout the United States.  Harvey has published over twenty books including Son of Man (Tarcher/Putnam) and The Return of the Mother (North Atlantic Books).  He is the Founder of the Institute for Sacred Activism in Oak Park, Illinois, where he lives.  Bookings essential: limited
seating, please register your attendance by calling 08 8207 7005. Presented by the Barbara Blackman Temenos Foundation.


Holiday Art & Craft Program:  Building Blocks – Make a Collograph
Tuesday 5 – Friday 8 October, 10.30am, 12noon or 1.30pm
Cost: $5 per child, payable on arrival. All materials supplied.
Location: Radford Auditorium.
Imagine yourself in the middle of an old city, or next to the entrance of an ancient castle. From where you stand, what can you see?  Design a picture with an illusion of space using cut-out shapes and mixed media, from which rubbings can be made.  Suitable for ages 5–10 years.  One-hour sessions daily at 10.30am, 12 noon and 1.30 pm.  Children must be accompanied by an adult/carer at all times. 
Bookings essential: 08 8207 7578.


A beautiful line: Etching Workshop
Workshop 1: Saturday October 9 and Sunday 10 October, 10am-4pm
Workshop 2: Saturday October 30 and Sunday 31 October, 10am-4pm
Experience the delight of discovering Renaissance printing techniques under the expert tuition of South Australian printmaker, Dianne Longley. Each workshop will focus on traditional etching techniques & the history of printmaking, in a convivial working environment, with an emphasis on producing an etched copper plate incorporating line and tone, and a small edition of prints. Limited to 6 participants for each workshop.  Fee: $400, Members $360, inclusive of all materials, sumptuous Italian inspired food and evening refreshments.  No previous experience necessary. Just bring your enthusiasm!  Book online. 


Members' Walking Tour: Walk the Port
Thursday 21 October, 10am–4pm
Join a one-hour heritage walking tour guided by a member of the Port Adelaide Historical Society followed by lunch at the beautifully restored British Hotel. After lunch discover art at the Port with a Gallery Guide.
Cost: $50 Members only, includes coach from and return to the Gallery, tours and lunch. Limited tickets and bookings essential.
Click here for Members events.


Desert Country: Tjampi Weaving Workshop
Saturday 13 November ,10am-5pm
Tjampi is the Aboriginal term for women's basket weaving. Originating in the Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in 1995, the term now extends to a broad range of woven objects using natural and made fibre products. From small baskets to large-scale sculptural works, tjampi weaving is a captivating and colourful medium. Under the expert tutelage of Anungu women artists, create your own unique piece of tjampi art, perhaps as a special Christmas present. Limited to 20 participants. Presented at Ngura Wiru Winkiku, 150 Commercial Road Port Adelaide (Freemason’s building corner of commercial and Dale streets). Fee: $180, Members $140, inclusive of all materials, tuition, lunch and refreshments. No previous experience necessary. Book online.

^{Programs subject to change without notice.}