Celebrate 50 years of Nolan’s cultural legacy with our year-long program of exhibitions, concerts, talks, and a symposium.
50 years ago, Sidney Nolan donated 24 of his most significant paintings to the people of Australia –an extraordinary gift that became what we now know as the Nolan Collection. Today, this remarkable collection totals 218 works and resides at the Canberra Museum + Gallery, where it continues to captivate visitors from across the nation and beyond.
Events
CMAG Open Day
10 May | Canberra Museum + Gallery
Join us at CMAG’s Open Day, featuring a rare conservation demonstration of Sidney Nolan’s artwork and family-friendly activities. Celebrate 50 years of Nolan’s iconic Ned Kelly paintings with curator-led tours, creative experiences, and more!
SYMPOSIUM: Cultural Alliance | Visual Art + Design for the Stage
19 September | The Playhouse Theatre | Canberra Theatre Centre - On Sale Soon
Join some of Australia’s leading artists, designers, directors producers and performers in a symposium focused on the stories of how cross-disciplinary collaboration generated some of the most exciting work for the stage and how a new generation of artists are working together.
Exhibitions
A Total Work of Art: Sidney Nolan and the Stage
13 March 2025 – 8 March 2026 | Canberra Museum + Gallery
Sidney Nolan’s dynamic stage designs for opera, ballet, and theatre come alive. Discover costumes, set designs, and the iconic “Lyrebird” costume from The Display, 1964.
Public Impressions : Sidney Nolan in Popular Media
21 March 2026 – 23 August 2027 | Canberra Museum + Gallery
Before television rose to become the dominant form of popular media by the early 1970s, colourful popular magazines were an ever-present fixture on the coffee tables, and in canteens and waiting rooms across Australia. With a focus on the coverage of Sidney Nolan, this exhibition explores an era of a rapidly evolving media landscape, to show how art and culture came into the homes and everyday lives, drawing out some of the common and eclectic strategies that were used to present contemporary art to a wide audience. Curated by Dr Kate Warren, Australian National University.
Dean Cross: Looking for the Lyre
Multi-Media Work | 20 – 25 June 2025 | Civic Square Screen
Artist Dean Cross (Worimi) responds to Sidney Nolan’s collaboration with Robert Helpmann for the ballet The Display (1964) with a newly commissioned moving image work.
Exhibition | 10 October 2026 – 27 June 2027 | Canberra Museum + Gallery
Through both the Rite of Spring and The Display, Sidney Nolan was making a direct appropriation of Aboriginal cultural practice. Dean Cross sees these works as ‘a fertile case study for changing attitudes in contemporary thinking’ and presents a solo exhibition of new work in dialogue.
Supported by Creative Australia
Ongoing throughout 2025
A specialist conservation project that will lengthen the life of these important works through cleaning and refitting new replica frames. While literally revealing new layers about Nolan’s technique, uncovering underpainting, inscriptions, the project will investigate untold stories from the Collection’s extensive international exhibition history before it came back to Australia in 1975. From time to time you’ll also be able to see conservators at work in the gallery space. 0 This vital work will inform upcoming exhibitions including Nolan: The Backstory.
10 July 2027 – 13 February 2028
The backs of a painting can offer a fascinating insight into the life story of an artwork. This exhibition will reveal the inscriptions, alternative titles, exact dates and exhibition labels that illuminate Nolan’s creative process. Follow the detective work undertaken into each painting’s journey, traced through the findings from Conserving Nolan 50|50, for a fresh perspective on the history of the collection.
On Demand: Art Talk at the National Gallery of Australia, Sidney Nolan's Ned Kelly works 1945–1947
Published 28 March 2025.
Listen to Elspeth Pitt, Senior Curator, Australian Art, and Virginia Rigney, Senior Curator Visual Arts, Canberra Museum and Gallery, discuss the enduring legacy of Sidney Nolan’s Ned Kelly works. Ned Kelly was a source of enduring fascination to Sidney Nolan. In this talk, Elspeth and Virginia explore Nolan’s interest in Kelly, the fracturing of the original Ned Kelly group across multiple collections and how the Kelly works continue to shape Nolan’s legacy as an artist.
