Artspace

Artspace provides a home to the Whitehorse Art Collection, which contains almost 2,000 significant artworks.  

Displaying a diverse program of exhibitions each year, Artspace regularly hosts artist and curator floor talks and educational tours.  

The current collection includes: 

• over 900 works on paper (including limited edition prints) 
• almost 200 paintings  
• over 500 contemporary ceramic works (including a generous donation from Ceramics Victoria) 
• over 100 sculptures, textiles, woodwork, glassware and jewellery 
• over 30 public art pieces 

Works in the collection employ a wide range of media, reflecting the interests and philosophies of significant artists of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. 

This collection is available as a community, cultural and educational resource for residents of Whitehorse and visitors to our city.  

Invited Artists Program 

The Invited Artists Program is open to any artist who is living, working or studying within the City of Whitehorse and provides an opportunity to exhibit work as a part of the annual exhibition program.  

The selected artist will have access to a museum-standard exhibition space for up to one month. They will be expected to participate in the exhibition’s official opening, demonstrations and/or floor talks.  

The exhibition calendar is finalised one year in advance and priority is given to an exhibition proposal that best addresses the selection criteria. Artspace welcomes a range of exhibition proposals across all media including ceramics, drawing, painting, printmaking, jewellery, sculpture, photography and textiles. 

This program will re-open in 2025. 

All Nations Foyer 

Artists can exhibit their work in the All Nations Foyer for up to one month, subject to the approval. Applications are considered a year ahead, for the following year’s program.  

Artists are chosen by a sub-committee of the Whitehorse Visual Arts Advisory Committee and applications are open to all artists living, studying or working in the City of Whitehorse. There may be some costs incurred by the artist, dependent on the exhibition requirements. 

Exhibition proposals are open to all practitioners of all media, including ceramics, drawing, painting, printmaking, jewellery, sculpture, photography and textiles.  

Entries have closed for 2023 and will re-open in 2024. 

Public Art in Whitehorse 

Commissioned through Public Art in Whitehorse, a series of public artworks brings art into everyday life. 

With artworks installed in highly visible locations, such as the shopping precinct known as MegaMile or in the Box Hill Mall, the program supports both emerging and established artists.  

Find out more about Public Art in Whitehorse, internships and exhibition opportunities by contacting the Senior Arts Officer (Curator), via email artspace@whitehorse.vic.gov.au or phone (03) 9262 6250. 

Almost every Saturday for some four years between 1885-1888, a group of Melbourne artists raced to the Lilydale line to catch a steam train, leaving behind the bustling metropolis for an idyllic weekend of camping and painting.  

The artists camped and painted together on a site near Box Hill, using the en plein air (out in the open) painting method to create paintings that strongly evoked the natural landscape and lighting of Australian bush.  

These artists included Frederick McCubbin, Louis Abrahams and Tom Roberts, Charles Conder, Arthur Streeton, Theo Brooke Hansen and Jane Sutherland. Together they pioneered the Australian Impressionist movement.  

The artists’ camp later relocated to the hillier Eaglemont and Heidelberg area where views of the Yarra River inspired further paintings. In 1891, the art critic Sidney Dickinson dubbed the group the Heidelberg School. Today they are recognised as the Australian Impressionists. 

Although much of the bushland has disappeared, there are still areas in Whitehorse that evoke the original landscape that inspired the artists. The Whitehorse Artists’ Trail maps out areas close to where the artists camped and painted.