The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia — Attraction in Melbourne

The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia is an art gallery that houses the Australian part of the art collection of the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV).

The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia is located at Federation Square in Melbourne, Victoria; while the gallery's international works are displayed at the NGV International on St Kilda Road.

There are over 20,000 Australian artworks, including paintings, sculpture, prints, photography, fashion and textiles, and the collection is one of the oldest and most well known in the country.

The Ian Potter Centre is a legacy of the businessman and philanthropist Sir Ian Potter. Well-known works at the Ian Potter Centre include Frederick McCubbin's The pioneer (1904) and Tom Roberts' Shearing the Rams (1890). Also featured are works from Sidney Nolan, Arthur Boyd, Albert Tucker, Arthur Streeton, John Perceval, Margaret Preston, Bill Henson, Howard Arkley and Fred Williams.

Indigenous art includes works by William Barak and Emily Kngwarreye.

The design of the Ian Potter Centre was commissioned to Lab Architecture Studio in association with Bates Smart of Melbourne, headed by Peter Davidson and Donald Bates. Their work has since earned them The RAIA National Award for Interior Architecture as well as the Marion Mahony Interior Architecture Award. According to the Australian Institute of Architects:

"The scope of the commission was comprehensive, involving not only the design of the building itself, but the gallery interiors, the laying out of all secondary (temporary) walls, exhibition design for the first hang including the selection of colours and paintings of walls, the development of the building's identity and a specific graphic typeface, the design of fixtures, fitting, counters, gallery and public furniture and multimedia housings, retail fit outs for the gallery shop and...

The exhibition at the Ian Potter Centre was genuinely interesting, featuring a strong selection of valuable artworks. Although the collection is relatively small and not always organised in clear chronological or geographical order, it is still worth visiting and left a good impression.

Unfortunately, our experience was significantly let down by the behaviour of a staff member, likely a security guard, who stopped us while we were quietly viewing the ground-level display. He insisted I return to the entrance and leave my small designer backpack at the cloakroom. When I asked why, I was told that “all gigantic bags that do not fit the frame must be left.” My bag is very small, serving as a purse, and clearly not “gigantic.”

I politely asked to test the bag in the frame to verify the claim, but was denied without explanation. The staff member simply said, “You must leave your bag or you cannot enter,” and did not allow any discussion. To avoid creating a scene, I complied and left my bag at the cloakroom.

After the visit, I returned and tested the bag in the frame myself while the staff member was elsewhere and only a cloak officer was there. As expected, it fit perfectly, even alongside a pack of disposable bags already inside the frame. I found this extremely disappointing.

While I fully respect policies that protect artworks and support reasonable bag checks, these rules should be applied with fairness and common sense. The manner in which I was treated felt unnecessarily authoritarian, as if the individual was more interested in exercising power than ensuring safety.

Sadly, this brief but unpleasant encounter tainted what could have been a wonderful gallery visit. I hope management reviews staff training and policies to prevent future visitors from having a similarly...

With a day to spare I decided to investigate the Ian Potter Centre of the NGV. Getting in was a small problem as the main entrance is not really clearly indicated. One of the NGV “hosts” indicated where the door is. Upon entry I was informed that my backpack had to be checked in and I have no problem with this. But the other “host” was a bit quick of the mark and almost demanded an immediate surrender of my backpack while I was extracting my camera. His attention was not appreciated and he was informed as such. Next action was to hand in my backpack and was accomplished with pleasantries. Now to wander of to view the paintings and other artistic offerings. Without any signage to clearly indicate where I could wander I went to a doorway and was curtly informed that this was a paid entry. The female “host” made it clear I was most unwelcome without an entry ticket, indicating that she was the “signage”. Where to now? As I said there seems to be no clear signage of gallery displays and blindly wandered around till I found an exhibition. But this was only the ground floor. The other exhibitions are on the second and third floors. There are stairs to climb, but as I have crook knees a lift (elevator) would be perfect or even an escalator. Again no signage. I discovered where the lift and escalators were after my visit to the third floor by accident. The cafe is also on the third floor. The pocket bread sandwich, in my opinion, is over priced at $14. A cost of $10 would have been reasonable. Even the humble pie is priced at $14. I enjoyed the stroll around the exhibits and would go back to see the artistic offerings I didn’t have time for. But, the manners of some of the “hosts” need to be improved along with clear signage of galleries, lifts...