The Ian Potter Museum of Art

Museum in Melbourne, VIC

Founded in 1972, The Ian Potter Museum of Art is the University of Melbourne’s art museum. Housed in an award-winning building opened in 1998, the Potter is the largest university-based art museum in Australia and a national leader in the field.

The Potter manages the University Art Collection, a rich resource of art and artifacts spanning Neolithic to contemporary.  We are a cultural and educational facility, serving both the campus community and the general public. Embracing research, discovery, and debate, the Potter exhibits art from antiquity to the present. We display art from the University Art Collection, as well as from public and private collections from around Australia and the world. Working with living artists, we participate directly in the development of contemporary art. Public programs, publications, and social media encourage engagement, learning and the exchange of ideas.

The Potter is committed to extensive participation in the University’s interdisciplinary degree structure. Our goal is to make art central to teaching and learning, by enhancing art collection access and contributing to curriculum development across all faculties. The Potter unites art with the activities and environment of the University of Melbourne campus. We display the University Art Collection around the campus and form academic partnerships linking art with the curriculum.

Through our engagement with the arts community, we contribute directly to the cultural life of Victoria. Art provokes pleasure and reflection, inquiry and debate. Engaging with art encourages learning and fosters knowledge. As a laboratory for art and ideas, the Potter contributes directly to the University of Melbourne’s research and teaching activities, to enrich the student experience, and to enhance the cultural life of the campus and the general community.

Our mission is to collect, preserve, display, interpret and engage with contemporary and historical works of art thereby advancing appreciation of Australia’s cultural heritage on a local, national and international level, and supporting the University of Melbourne as a leading teaching and research institution.