Adelaide packs its cultural institutions into one boulevard: North Terrace holds the state gallery, library and museum within 400 metres. Beyond it sit artist-run studios, a 1913 theatre and Australia's first Aboriginal-owned arts centre.
Founded 1881, 45,000 works across 12 chronological galleries. Strong Australian holdings — Nolan, Preston, Namatjira — plus a serious Islamic and South-East Asian ceramics wing. Open daily 10:00–17:00, entry free.
Edmund Wright's 1866 Renaissance Revival hall on King William Street, with an Albert Tower named for the prince consort. Free guided tours run Monday mornings; the Auditorium seats 1,000 under a coffered ceiling.
Craft and design studio since 1973, with glassblowing, ceramics, metal and furniture workshops visible from a mezzanine walkway. Two galleries show contemporary Australian makers; the shop sells associate work directly.
French Gothic Revival in Tea Tree Gully sandstone, begun 1869, with twin western spires and the heaviest ring of eight bells in the Southern Hemisphere. Evensong is sung by the choir on Sunday afternoons.
Set in the 1850s Destitute Asylum on Kintore Avenue, tracing arrivals from German Lutherans in the Barossa to post-war displaced persons. The Forced Apart and White Australia rooms are unusually blunt for a state museum.
Australia's first multi-purpose arts complex, opened June 1973 — four months before Sydney's Opera House. Hajek's coloured concrete sculpture plaza sits outside; Festival Theatre, Dunstan Playhouse and Space Theatre inside.
An 1884 French Renaissance reading room with three tiers of iron galleries, a glass barrel roof and 20,000 volumes behind grilles. Free, open Monday to Friday 10:00–17:00 and weekends from midday.
Opened 1913 as the Tivoli, reopened 2020 after a rebuild that kept the facade and lifted capacity to 1,467. Home season for State Opera South Australia and touring drama; the upper circle has the sharpest sightlines.
Australia's oldest Aboriginal-owned multi-arts centre, opened 1989 in a former powerhouse on Grenfell Street. Rotating exhibitions of First Nations painting, weaving and photomedia, with a dance performance most weekdays.
Artist-run studios and gallery in a converted 1920s warehouse, housing about 25 painters, dancers and designers. Open studio afternoons let you talk to makers at work; the ground-floor gallery changes every three weeks.
A 1939 English manor house built for Bill and Ursula Hayward, with original interiors, a Jacobean staircase salvaged from Beaudesert and paintings by Augustus John and Jacob Epstein. Set in 40 hectares of gardens.
A 1930s corner pub turned live-music room, with jazz, folk and experimental sets most nights in a back bar that holds maybe 80 people. Twelve South Australian taps and no pokies — rare for an Adelaide suburban hotel.