The 11 best museums and galleries in Adelaide

Behind the neoclassical sandstone facade of the Art Gallery of South Australia lives more than 45,000 works. They include permanent installations such as Donald Judd's minimalist, brutalist topographical sculpture on the north lawn; an immersive, visceral crimson string installation from Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota; and Lindy Lee's six-metre metal ovoid sculpture, 'The Life of Stars'. The gallery, which was established in 1881, exhibits new works, international shows, the Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art every two years, the Ramsay Art Prize for artists under 40, and Tarnanthi: a festival of contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art.

This futuristic museum at the University of South Australia sits at the intersection of art and science. MOD’s exhibitions are designed with 15 to 25-year-olds in mind, with a mission to interest young people in science and technology, showcasing how research shapes both our understanding of the world and our futures. There are seven gallery spaces that host a new exhibition every six months. Past exhibitions include Hedonism (May-Nov 2019), which explored pleasure and wellbeing, where Ani Liu’s immersive installation ‘Biophilic Fantasies’ contrasted real and fake nature to test the human desire to connect with our ‘roots’. 

Don’t expect to rock up to the National Railway Museum for some boring old abandoned trains. Oh no. This museum has carefully thought out everything from the train driving simulator to interactive audio and visual displays. Tickets include unlimited rides on the train that circles the venue, but if you’re a real train enthusiast (or not – everyone enjoys this one), you can grab additional tickets to the Semaphore steam train that will chug on right by the beach.

While the walls of this prison could do more than enough talking on their own, the transformation of Adelaide Gaol to museum cross escape room cross archaeological dig site will help you along with understanding the site’s rich history. Whether it’s seeing if you can escape a prison cell, trying on handcuffs and leg irons or marvelling at never-before-seen mugshots of hanged inmates, Adelaide Gaol will be your crime and adventure fix.

This natural history museum is one of the state's leading cultural institutions, with more than four million specimens of flora, fauna, geology and indigenous culture. The Aboriginal Cultures Gallery is a highlight, boasting the world's largest collection of Australian Aboriginal cultural material. Explore some 3,000 artifacts spread over two levels, including some of the last remaining bark canoes in existence, and the culturally-significant Yuendumu school doors on which indigenous artists painted ancient Dreaming designs in 1980.

Housed in the Lion Arts Centre precinct, you best believe that ACE’s neighbour, Jam Factory, is sure to have some stunning finds at the gift shop. There are regular glass blowers on sight who are melting some spectacular creations that you can purchase and carefully bubble wrap for your luggage as a memento of your visit. The space isn’t just reserved for glass art though, with the shop and gallery showcasing ceramics, Aboriginal art and rotating exhibitions.

What do you get when you put the old Contemporary Art Centre of Australia and the Australian Experimental Art Foundation together? A pretty ACE art gallery. This love child born in 2017 is constantly exploring experimental art practices, showcasing works from local and international artists, students and creatives of all kinds. It’s so committed to its craft that the gallery even hosts residencies for South Australian artists. Expect a whole host of workshops, public programs and boundary-pushing exhibitions in its annual lineup.

The Royal South Australian Society of Arts is all about encouraging artists to showcase their work through the RSASA membership program. If anyone would know a thing or two about building up artists, it’s these guys considering they were established way back in 1856 making them Australia’s oldest art society. The actual gallery space to showcase the society’s work was built in 1906, and today has a whole heap of contemporary exhibitions on throughout the year.

It’s quality over quantity at the Samstag Museum of Art, where the modest modern space holds a range of well thought out exhibitions of artists from all walks of life. This subsidiary of the University of South Australia is the state’s largest contemporary arts museum. If you’re not a local and can’t quite make it to Adelaide yet, Samstag has a podcast series where they host talks with a range of creatives from filmmakers to academics to curators that you can listen to here.

It’s always NASA this and NASA that, but Australia’s got it going on in the whole space race too, you know? The Australian Space Discovery Centre not only educates visitors of all ages on all things celestial, but goes into detail about Australia’s specific role in space innovations and technologies. General entry to explore the centre is free, and you can also book in tickets for their upcoming events like space workshops, robotics competitions, Q and A’s with astronomy experts and more.

The city of Adelaide is pretty much built as one massive garden so it would be a crime not to hit up the heart of the Adelaide Botanic Garden and its adjoining museum. The historical building surrounded by the garden greenery might just make you feel like you stepped on the scene of a Jane Austen movie adaptation. Head inside and find hundreds of specimens and flora models. If you’re not a budding botanist, the displays might sound a bit drab but the museum has so many super interesting explanations of how plants have been used for different unique tasks for hundreds of years.