The placement of each piece of public art throughout our city, whether it’s a memorial or a contemporary statement, has been closely discussed, evaluated and considered. Every single piece has been placed at a specific moment in time, highlighting a particular moment, event or person.

Public art is about more than just the works themselves.

Each piece signifies a message that people wish to convey and to express what kind of world they are experiencing at a specific point in time.

Public art is important because it’s exactly that – it’s public. It’s free. It’s open to everyone. There are over 100 pieces of public art placed throughout our city and surrounds.

From the central Sturt Street Gardens, to pieces in Bridge Mall, the Botanic Gardens and around Lake Wendouree. We have a city-wide collection of art that we treat just like an open-air gallery, through curation, maintenance, repair and cleaning.

As our city grows, it is important that we continually grow and evolve our public art collection. With the implementation of the Creative City Strategy we are encouraging growth in temporary and ephemeral artistic expressions, as well as growing our permanent public art pieces.

OUR CURRENT PROJECTS in progress INCLUDE:  

• Continuous Voices - a community-led initiative to acknowledge survivors of sexual abuse and assault. The project acknowledges the courage of those who have stood for change and provides hope for these continuous voices to be heard. The project will work towards creating a space in Ballarat to reflect.

• Campsite Mural - the reinstatement of the Campsite Mural by local Koori artists Marley Smith and Billy Blackall in Alfred Deakin Place Ballarat

• Prime Minister’s Busts - artist Linda Klarfeld is commissioned to create the bust of the 29th Prime Minister of Australia Malcolm Turnbull

• North Gardens Indigenous Sculpture Park Landscape Design - Professor David Jones from Deakin University has led a team to develop this space to acknowledge Indigenous culture at the North Gardens Wetlands

• North Gardens Commissions - the landscape design for the North Gardens Indigenous Sculpture Park includes twelve sites for permanent and temporary artwork commissions. The first major commission, Murrup Laarr by Deanne Gilson, was launched in February 2019 (scroll down for more information about this work).

• Gallery Annex Wall Commissions - The Gallery Annex Wall, on the approach to Alfred Deakin Place, Police Lane in Ballarat Central has been identified as an important site to host temporary pieces, a new artwork will be commissioned each year and launched in November.  Josh Muir’s work, Roots, is the first temporary artwork to be installed, launched in November 2019 (scroll down for more information about this work).

Take a walk through some of our city’s permanent public art collection ▸

Latest Public Art Commissions

ROOTS - Joshua Muir, 2019

Roots is a powerful piece. The viewer’s experience with the work is a feeling that it is not negotiable. Containing the strong features of a traditional elder, Roots is the face of an ‘uncle’ looking out over humanity, community and Western society.  

With Gunditjamara and Yorta Yorta heritage, Josh grew up in Ballarat where he is well known for his fresh and contemporary take on indigenous art. Josh represents a growing group of First Nations peoples who are permanently settling in the city and bringing with them a vibrancy and a voice. Josh’s uses high contrast and strongly delineated characters to express his stories, all of which is fed by his experience as a street artist and his pleasure in providing art in public spaces.  

Josh was selected as the inaugural artist for the temporary public art space on the Gallery Annex Wall for 2020, a commission that was developed to coincide with the city-wide Fringe Benefits music and performance festival. Josh’s work will remain in place until November 2020 when a new artist will be selected.  

GEORGE TRELOAR MEMORIAL - Lis Johnson, 2019

Following an extensive tender process involving more than 20 applicants, Melbourne artist Lis Johnson was selected to design and create a life-size public artwork of local humanitarian George Devine Treloar.

This is the first new major artwork installed in the gardens in a decade and the first artwork created by a female artist. The sculpture was revealed at a ceremony in Ballarat on the 8th September 2019. Treloar is a Ballarat-born humanitarian who became renowned for his work during the 1920s to resettle Greek refugees from Asia Minor following a significant humanitarian effort, and his contribution to helping improve the lives of people in the Greek community of Australia and abroad. Treloar is the son of the owners of the first pharmacy in Ballarat, with his family name still recognised at the site of the original Bridge Mall building.

For his significant work in resettling refugees Treloar was appointed to the Order of the Redeemer, the oldest and highest decoration awarded by the modern Greek state. The Australian Greek community, and specifically the Pontic community, also acknowledge George Devine Treloar as a heroic figure in their story of migration to Australia. Greek migration to Australia has been one of the most important migratory flows in Australian history, making the George Devine Treloar story significant not only to Ballarat, but also to Australians more broadly.

This public art project is supported by Project Merimna Pontion Kyrion of Oceania, the Central Pontian Association of Melbourne and Victoria Pontiaki Estia and the City of Ballarat.

MURRUP LAARR - Deanne Gilson, 2019

The North Garden Indigenous Sculpture Park is located on the edge of Lake Wendouree and an important space for the traditional owners of the land, the Wadawarrung people. Deanne Gilson, a Wadawarrung community member and established artist, installed the first piece of the Sculpture Park in early 2019.

Her exhibition piece – Murrup Laarr – consists of a traditionally built stone Bungaree hut in the middle of a circle of basalt stones, marked with ceramic plates reflecting the stories and symbols of the local people.

Deanne’s deep connection to the land is revealed through the stark sentinels of stone, and her work is both nurturing as well as melancholic.

The juxtaposition of the small house, whose walls carry handprints from the community, within the circle of watching basalt reveal the heartbreaking relationship Deanne has with the loss of her land, and yet she remains living on the territory stolen from her forebears.