Welcome to our creative city

Ballarat is working to become the city of the sustainable and resilient practitioner, and we’re supporting all forms of artist, maker, creative and producer. Whether you are seeking to develop a fine arts practice and devote yourself to being a professional practising artist, or wanting to grow your creative business, the City of Ballarat wants to see you succeed. Designated a UNESCO Creative City of Crafts & Folk Art we’re steadily working towards economic resilience through support of the micro and artisanal.

Here you’ll be able to find opportunities for makers, creatives and artists alike. We’re working to create a clearinghouse of opportunities - expressions of interest, open jobs and other briefs - and support networks you can call on. You can also find out what kind of happenings are going on around town, perfect for the local creative. We profile our growing community of artists, makers, performers and producers, building a better city for all.

Ballarat’s heart of creativity

Over two years the City of Ballarat was focused on the development of it’s Creative City Strategy. This strategy is one that embraces the energies of makers, crafters, artists, innovators, entrepreneurs and problem solvers, linking them closer to the engine room of the city’s heart.

We know that a creative city is one that can wear the changes in economic forces, delivers new ideas, drives businesses to grow and delivers greater community cohesion and wellbeing. The creative sector in Ballarat is crucial to our prosperity, helping create better people and better places to live and work. It is creative thinking that helps all sectors to blossom, and underpins a healthier, happier and wealthier city. The City of Ballarat is dedicated to embedding creativity within its very fabric.

arts atlas 2.0

A revamped site for creative connections

Are you looking for exhibition space? A collaborator? Maybe a bass player or rehearsal space? Maybe you want to license your work, or secure representation? Maybe you simply want to sell your work at markets.

Arts Atlas has evolved to respond to what you’ve told us you want - to connect with other creative people who match you. Simply click the things you’re seeking from a creative partnership, and Arts Atlas will let you know who and what’s available.

Arts Atlas will help you find your next opportunity and connection by profiling your creative services and skills, highlighting the opportunities you’re looking for. You can search for people whose work reflects your own, and you can profile your work for others.

SEARCHING FOR YOUR VOICE

Continuous Voices works with artists in Ballarat and our community of survivors, friends, family and supporters to create the inspiration for a memorial to acknowledge survivors of sexual violence in Ballarat. We’ve worked with survivors, their loved ones, advocates and supporters who have provided us with guidance to help design a public space and memorial.

The design is now complete and we are moving into the final stages. An opportunity has opened up for community to once again participate in shaping the design through submitting words which correlate with their experience. Stage II is a chance for the community to submit words which will be considered for the permanent engraving around the base of the scultpure.

All you have to do is complete our secure form. No identification is necessary. Your submission is completely anonymous.

A poetic EYE: A Photographic Journey by Kylie Supski

12 June to 22 July 2025, Unicorn Lane

Now on display in Unicorn Lane is The Poetic Eye is a series of photographs and poems created by Kylie reflecting on the thoughts of American photographer John Szarkowski, as outlined in his influential book, “The Photographer’s Eye.”

Kylie's works embody the essence of Szarkowski’s principles, highlighting how photographs, much like poems, do not narrate stories but rather ignite our imagination. Both mediums should not be subject to strict interpretation or explanation; instead, they should be experienced and felt.

Be sure to take close up look and discover the delightful details and the unexpected in Kylie's work.

Unicorn Lane is located just off Sturt St, Ballarat.

janette wotherspoon: Seasons of women

11 July - 19 August 2025, Art Space Ballarat

On Mother’s Day in 2024, Ballarat artist Janette Wotherspoon, began a project that led nearly 100 women from all over Australia to record a pertinent detail of just one day, on four dates for the year, as the seasons changed.

This resulted in a collection of handwritten, digitally printed, artistic and handcrafted narratives displayed on cloth banners around the walls of the Art Space Ballarat. Janette says the works are elaborate but simple, some happy, some are sad, but all are truly honest and from the heart.

Open 11am to 4pm Wed & Thu
11am to 5pm Fri to Sun
Art Space Ballarat is at 14 Lydiard St Nth, Ballarat.

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