Melbourne’s Lyon Housemuseum expansion set for March opening

Several months later than originally planned, the new Housemuseum Galleries at the Lyon Housemuseum in the Melbourne suburb of Kew is on track for a March opening – with more than a dozen Australian artists currently creating new works for the inaugural exhibition.

The $14.5 million expansion will see the opening of a number of new public galleries offering more space for exhibits of contemporary art and architecture, including international and local exhibitions, as well as events.

The new gallery includes a large, central room, with four smaller galleries surrounding it, including a ‘shopfront’ style gallery visible through a window from the street.

Designed by Corbett Lyon, the architect behind the main Housemuseum, the new galleries will include large, flexible exhibition spaces specifically designed for large-scale artworks and installations.

The central gallery will feature a 5.5-metre high ceiling and will sit in the middle of four outer peripheral galleries, as well as a public forecourt and enclosed sculpture court. The new area will also include a small shop and café.

Speaking of the design, Lyon advised “we're extremely excited by plans for the new public galleries and this potential to foster experimentation, ideas and conversations across disciplines between artists, architects, designers and members of the public to enrich and add to our cultural life.”

The stone clad facades of the new buildings will be clad entirely in bluestone and feature 12,000 projecting bluestone elements sourced and cut from an ancient basalt quarry in Port Fairy.

Lyonhousemuseum Galleries Executive Curator Fleur Watson says the gallery will host three major exhibitions each year plus a program of events designed to foster ideas around the works displayed.

Watson recently told the Sydney Morning Herald “(the gallery) has its focus on contemporary Australian art but will (also) have architecture and design as part of the programming.”

The new Housemuseum Galleries are being developed and operated by the Lyon Foundation - a non-profit entity established by the museum's founding patrons, Corbett Lyon and Yueji Lyon, in 2012.

Images courtesy of the Lyon Housemuseum.