Canberra holds more national collections per head than any city on earth, but its real culture lives past the marble: ANU studio galleries, artist-run spaces in Griffith, and a glassblowing furnace in Kingston that has run since 2007.
Australia's national collection: 155,000 works including Pollock's Blue Poles, the Aboriginal Memorial's 200 hollow log coffins from Ramingining, and Sidney Nolan's Ned Kelly series. Galleries open 10:00–17:00 daily.
Johnson Pilton Walker's 2008 timber-and-concrete building holds 3,000 portraits of Australians, from Howard Arkley's fluoro Nick Cave to Rick Amor's Prime Ministers. Open 10:00–17:00; the Gordon Darling Hall is a photography space in itself.
Walter Bunning's 1968 marble-clad temple, modelled on the Parthenon, guards Cook's Endeavour journal, Tasman's 1644 map and the Ned Kelly armour letter. Free rotating exhibitions in the Treasures and Exhibition Galleries, open 10:00–17:00.
Fender Katsalidis's Nishi stacks recycled timber into a jagged apartment-hotel-cinema block, alongside the relocated 1920s Hotel Acton cottage and Ottoline garden sculptures. The precinct's laneways stay open and lit after dark.
Ashton Raggatt McDougall's 2001 building on Acton Peninsula is Australia's boldest public architecture: an anodised aluminium knot, a Boolean-cut Villa Savoye and the Garden of Australian Dreams. Inside: Phar Lap's heart and the Bark Endeavour canoe.
Australia's screen and sound memory sits in the 1931 Art Deco Institute of Anatomy building — look for the plaster kangaroo and shell friezes. Free galleries, plus Arc Cinema screening 35mm and restored silent films with live scores.
The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies holds the world's largest collection of First Nations film, sound and manuscripts. Its free gallery rotates community-curated shows; open weekdays 9:00–17:00.
The ACT's main stage since 1965, running Bell Shakespeare seasons, Canberra Symphony Orchestra concerts and touring dance in the 1,244-seat Canberra Theatre and the intimate 300-seat Playhouse next door. Tickets roughly A$45–99.
Australia's only cultural centre dedicated to glass, inside the 1915 Kingston Powerhouse — the city's oldest public building. Watch artists work the 1,100°C furnace from the Hot Shop mezzanine, Wednesday to Sunday 10:00–16:00.
Canberra's converted-warehouse strip: Hopscotch, Eightysix and Bar Rochford within a few blocks, plus independent design shops in the Ori and Ostani buildings. Lunch here sits well under the Parliamentary Triangle's prices.
Two heritage school buildings in Braddon housing 30-odd resident artists, dance studios, Ralph Wilson Theatre and free foyer exhibitions. Rehearsals for Canberra's independent theatre and circus companies happen behind the open doors.
A bookshop-turned-bar on Alinga Street running live music, poetry slams and experimental jazz seven nights a week, usually A$10–25 at the door. The city's most reliable place to hear Canberra musicians rather than touring acts.