Perth's isolation bred an art scene that answers to no one: the state gallery holds one of Australia's deepest Aboriginal collections, a 1916 power station now hosts installation art, and WA's own architects made brutalism a beach-town language.
WA's state collection sits in a 1979 brutalist block by Charles Sierakowski, holding roughly 18,000 works with an outstanding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander holding. Free general entry, open Wed–Mon 10am–5pm, closed Tuesdays; ticketed touring shows extra.
Housed in an 1896 Federation Free Gothic former boys' school in the Perth Cultural Centre, PICA runs experimental visual art, dance and performance across a soaring central gallery. Free entry, Tue–Sun 10am–5pm; the PICA Bar spills into the courtyard.
Council House (1963, Howlett & Bailey) is Perth's modernist landmark — a glass curtain-wall tower on a raised plaza, saved from 1990s demolition and now LED-lit at night. Walk on to the 1859 Perth Town Hall and the Cloisters facade of 1858 on St Georges Terrace.
Wolf Lane off Murray Street is the anchor of Perth's laneway mural movement, with rotating large-format work by WA artists Stormie Mills, Anya Brock and Amok Island. Nearby Grand Lane and Shafto Lane extend the trail; all free and open at any hour.
Reopened November 2020 after a AU$400m rebuild, Boola Bardip ('many stories' in Whadjuk Noongar) fuses five heritage buildings with new architecture across eight galleries. Free general entry, open daily 9.30am–5pm; the 24m blue whale skeleton hangs in Wild Life.
The State Library's Storylines project digitises historical photographs of Aboriginal people from WA and returns them to descendant families. The building also holds the 1698 De Vlamingh plate records and rotating free exhibitions in the ground-floor gallery.
'The Maj' opened in 1904 and is the only working Edwardian theatre left in Australia, home to WA Opera and West Australian Ballet. Backstage heritage tours run most weeks; the upstairs Museum of Performing Arts is free during box-office hours.
A 1973 brutalist hall by Howlett & Bailey with acoustics regularly rated Australia's finest, seating 1,729 and home to the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. WASO plays Friday and Saturday nights; the foyer's Swan River view is worth arriving early for.
An 1860s Gothic Revival limestone asylum built by convict labour, now WA's leading regional arts centre with free galleries, artist studios and a courtyard of Moreton Bay figs. Open daily 10am–5pm, free entry; the Sunday Music summer series is also free.
Inside an 1850s convict-built commissariat store on Cliff Street, this holds the reconstructed stern timbers of the Batavia, wrecked in 1629, plus the sandstone portico she carried as cargo. Free entry, open daily 9.30am–5pm.
Moore & Moore's 1890s warehouses on Henry Street house contemporary exhibitions in raw limestone rooms, sitting inside the Bathers Beach Art Precinct where the J Shed studios host glass, sculpture and Aboriginal artist Jenny Dawson's workspace.
Open since the late 1970s on Queen Victoria Street, Mojos is the room where Tame Impala, Pond and San Cisco all played early sets. Live music seven nights, small-room capacity around 200, and Monday's open-mic night is a Fremantle institution.