About

(l-r) Melinda Harper, Untitled 2002 and Untitled 2003
installation view, Making Her Mark: Selected Works from the Collection, TarraWarra Museum of Art, 2020
Courtesy of the artist
Photo: Andrew Curtis

Established in 2003, TarraWarra Museum of Art is a public gallery situated in the Yarra Valley, Victoria. Through a program of adventurous and inventive Australian and international art exhibitions, the Museum actively engages with art, place and ideas, presenting unexpected links between contemporary art and modernism within global, national and Indigenous contexts.

TarraWarra Museum of Art captures the vision of the Museum’s founders, philanthropists Eva Besen AO and Marc Besen AC, passionate collectors of Australian art from the 1950s to the present day. Not only did they gift the building that houses the Museum, they also donated a significant proportion of their collection for the enjoyment of all visitors from Australia and abroad.

TarraWarra Museum of Art recognises and values First Nations peoples as the first artists and custodians of the lands and waters upon which the Museum stands, and proudly commissions works which explore the significant Indigenous culture of the Yarra Valley.

With a national and international reputation for curating significant exhibitions, TarraWarra Museum of Art presents a dynamic annual program guided by its vision and values:

Art, place and ideas
As the name TarraWarra (a Woiwurrung word that translates approximately as ‘slow moving water’, and the name given to the area in which the Museum is located) suggests, our non-urban environment creates an immersive atmosphere and provides for a different pace and rhythm: a retreat for the imagination. The Museum explores the exchange of art, place and ideas, with a strong focus on the Indigenous context of the Yarra Valley. 

Modernism through the filter of the contemporary
Shining different lights on the collection, our search for inventive links and provocative juxtapositions between the art of the present and the past is represented in our exhibitions, live programs and connections with artists.

Art as a world-making activity
The worlds that artists create are a feature of our programs, providing challenging experiences that encourage visitor engagement. The Museum provides artists, thinkers and visitors with the opportunity to actively participate in the world around them. 

Our values
Excellent, unexpected, experiential, connected, collaborative, sustainable.

Associations

People

Marc Besen AC
Chairman
Daniel Besen
Lucy Feagins
Christine Fleer
Sandra Jacobs
Merran Kelsall
Callum Morton
Peter Pagonis
Secretary
Sophie Travers
Victoria Lynn
Director
Tony Dutton
General Manager
Elisabeth Alexander
Marketing & Events Manager
Mim Armour
Registrar
Anthony Fitzpatrick
Curator
Shannon Lyons
Education Coordinator
Kali Michailidis
Manager of External Relations
Michelle Mountain
Exhibitions Manager
Rachael Paintin
Office Administrator
Stacie Piper
Yalingwa First Nations Curator
Heather Saleeba
Front of House
Steph Tesoriero
Front of House
Mary Balharrie
Andrew Brown
Wendy Catling
Terry Edwards
Denise Farran
Kate Foster
Barbara Franklin
Susie Gibson
Sue Gill
Helen Hardham
Glennys Hocking
Ann Imrie
Emma Johnson
Lizz Kline
Fredy Kocher
Mim Kocher
Anny Lawrence
Elena Leong
Bridie Mackay
Helen McCormack
Margaret McLoughlin
Sue Morgan
Carol Owen
John Pascoe
Hannah Perkins
Kathryn Ruddick
Peter Sank
Turid Shanmugam
Brian Sherlock
Roy Smith
Jenny Sutherland
Diana Viggers
Kevin Whitton

Careers

There are no current vacancies at TarraWarra Museum of Art.

Media

TarraWarra Museum of Art can assist with site visits for media, information about our exhibitions and programs, interviews and picture opportunities with artists and Museum staff and copyright-cleared images and video.

See our latest media releases below, or contact us to be added to our media list.

MEDIA RELEASES

Policies & Reports

TarraWarra Museum of Art’s governance policies and reports.

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