Eight million visitors and $700 million later, Melbourne's flagship winter exhibition series, Melbourne Winter Masterpieces, remains absolutely unmatched.
Melbourne Winter Masterpieces just hit the eight million visitor mark since launching in 2004, cementing its status as the cultural drawcard that transforms Melbourne’s chilly months into the hottest ticket in Australian arts.
The state government-backed series has generated more than $700 million in economic impact, proving Melbourne really is Australia’s undisputed cultural capital.
Numbers tell the story of just how much Melburnians and visitors love their world-class exhibitions served up during the depths of winter. A record-breaking 796,277 people flocked to see Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs at Melbourne Museum in 2011, while more than 462,000 visited Van Gogh and the Seasons in 2017 and 404,000 enjoyed MoMA at NGV: 130 Years of Modern and Contemporary Art in 2018.
Melbourne Winter Masterpieces
- What: 21-year exhibition series reaching 8 million visitors
- When: 2004 to present, winter seasons annually
- Where: National Gallery of Victoria, ACMI, Melbourne Museum
- Economic impact: More than $700 million generated for Victoria
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Other Melbourne Winter Masterpieces crowd-pleasers that had people queuing around the block included Terracotta Warriors & Cai Guo-Qiang at NGV in 2019, Tim Burton – The Exhibition at ACMI in 2010 and last year’s Pharaoh that had ancient Egypt enthusiasts losing their minds over mummies and golden treasures.
This year’s French Impressionism from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston brings one of the largest and most iconic Impressionist collections to ever hit Australian shores, showcasing legendary works by Monet, Renoir and Degas that normally require a trip to Boston to experience.
What started as a way to boost winter tourism has evolved into something much bigger, a cultural institution that gives Victorians the chance to see globally renowned exhibitions without leaving the state. Melbourne Winter Masterpieces has become the benchmark for bringing world-class culture to Australian audiences, while proving that winter in Melbourne is actually the perfect time to be indoors appreciating some of humanity’s greatest artistic achievements.
Twenty-one years later, the Melbourne Winter Masterpieces series continues setting the standard for what blockbuster exhibitions should look like, turning Melbourne’s cultural venues into must-visit destinations that truly rival anything you’d find in Paris, New York or London.
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