SA’s museums

Historic, contemporary & Aboriginal art – Discover all that South Australia’s museums have to offer.

South Australian Museum

Did you know South Australia’s museum is older than the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Natural History Museum in London? That’s right! The SA Museum is celebrating 165 years of inspiring people young and old. With five floors of collections of cultural and natural heritage for the state and country, it’s the perfect place to bring the family to learn about the wonders of our world from Australian Aboriginal Cultures and archives to biological sciences, humanities, palaeontology and more. Entry is free and you can visit 7 days a week.

Art Gallery of South Australia

The Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA) was established in 1881 and moved to its current North Terrace home over 120 years ago in 1900. In 1939, AGSA became the first state gallery to acquire work by an Aboriginal artist and today holds a significant collection of art from First Nation Peoples. When visiting, you will not only see this collection, but also discover an extensive collection of Asian, Australian, and Islamic art, the finest body of Auguste Rodin sculptures in the Southern Hemisphere, and the largest collection of Morris & Co. decorative art outside of the United Kingdom. Try to tell us that doesn’t sound impressive.

AGSA is also home to the Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art and the Ramsay Art Prize, which we always recommend visiting when on.

MOD.

They say MOD. (Museum of Discovery) is like no other museum in the country, and they aren’t wrong. This futuristic museum at the University of South Australia aims to inspire young people about science, tech, and how research can help form our future. This is not a museum to walk through and simply admire; visitors get to interact and play with unique exhibitions where they might learn about our world as it is, robots, light, sound, or nature dependent on the exhibition on at that moment in time. But no matter the exhibit, we can confidently say you’ll walk out amazed by the world around you.