Welcome to Canberra Contemporary. We acknowledge the traditional and original owners of the land, the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people. We pay our sincere respects to the ancestors who have passed before us, and acknowledge the ongoing contribution of Elders and today’s ACT Indigenous communities, who are the custodians of these lands on which we live and work.

Since its establishment in 1981 Canberra Contemporary has become one of Australia’s leading spaces for the creation and presentation of contemporary art. Working with artists both inside and outside of the ACT across a range of disciplines, providing opportunities for artists to create and show new, ambitious and daring work. A space for collaboration, consultation and conversation and an opportunity for emerging and established practitioners to experiment and exhibit.

Canberra Contemporary is one of a national network of Contemporary Arts Organisations Australia (CAOA), that can be seen as centres of innovation, testing new ideas and directions for the contemporary visual arts. The program of exhibitions, performances, artists’ talks, public programs and publications generates an environment in which artists can produce work of the highest quality in the context of current national and international practice. Exhibitions and related public programs run over two spaces at Canberra Contemporary in Parkes and Platform by Canberra Contemporary. Read our Constitution here and some of our history here.

Now in our 40th year Canberra Contemporary stands poised on the brink of a new era, developing exciting projects that will place us in a national and international context, together with a far-reaching strategic plan and vision into the future.