Brisbane Arts

Brisbane Arts and Culture There is more than meets the eye when it comes to Brisbane – the city has a lively professional arts scene, with many training institutes, galleries, museums and theatres enhancing the cultural life of locals and visitors alike. Events, exhibitions, concerts and performances and held regularly throughout the year, including touring international, national and innovative locally-created work.

You will always find something exciting to see or do. The main cultural precinct in Brisbane is the Queensland Cultural Centre, located adjacent to South Bank in the suburb of South Brisbane on the Brisbane River.

The precinct is home to the renowned Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), with four state-of-the-art venues – the Playhouse, Lyric Theatre, Concert Hall and the Cremorne Theatre. Plays, musicals and concerts are regularly held in QPAC, including frequent performances by the Opera Queensland (the second largest opera company in Australia), the Queensland Ballet, the Queensland Orchestra, the Queensland Theatre Company as well as the Australian Ballet and other national and international touring companies.

The Queensland Cultural Centre is also home to the State Library of Queensland, the Queensland Museum and Sciencentre – for interactive exhibits, large collections of natural and manmade artefacts and educational fun for the whole family. For lovers of fine art exhibitions, a visit the Queensland Art Gallery and the recently opened Gallery of Modern Art (Australia’s largest modern art museum) are well worth a visit, both of which housing impressive collections.

The World Expo of 1988 left a lasting imprint on the cultural landscape of Brisbane. Held from April to October in 1988, this famous expo brought some of the world’s most cutting-edge artists and their culturally diverse work to Australia’s shores – sculptures from the expo are still dotted around the city, for example in King George Square. The original site of the expo was converted into the South Bank Parklands.

The Brisbane Powerhouse Centre for the Arts at New Farm on the banks of the Brisbane River is a creative hotpot of new art forms, including theatre, dance, visual arts and music - well worth a visit for it’s edgy contemporary performing arts productions from Australia and abroad.

Brisbane is home to many elite training institutes, producing internationally recognised musicians, performers, visual artists and filmmakers. Visitors can immerse themselves in the new work being made by upcoming artists at exhibitions and performances at many of these institutes – for example, the Queensland University of Technology Art Museum, the University of Queensland Art Museum, the Queensland College of Art and Queensland Conservatorium at Griffith University,