Visual Arts and Archaeology
Ian Potter Museum of Art
Houses the University of Melbourne Art Collection, comprising Australian art, classics and archaeology, international Indigenous cultural material and decorative arts.
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Print Collection, Baillieu Library
The Baillieu Library Print Collection includes some 8,000 prints – mostly etchings, engravings, mezzotints, lithographs, woodcuts and wood engravings – that date from the fifteenth century to the twentieth. It is based on a gift of 3,700 Old Master prints donated by Dr John Orde Poynton in 1959 and was further enhanced in 1964 with Harold Wright's bequest of half his Lionel Lindsay print collection and prints by his British contemporaries. For further information contact Special Collections staff at the Baillieu Library on (03) 8344 9998.
Classics and Archaeology Collection
Showcases the University's significant collection of Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiquities, all located at the Ian Potter Museum of Art. Items from this collection are also available via the Virtual Museum Project.
Classics and Archaeology Library
The Classics and Archaeology Library in the Centre for Classics and Archaeology (Old Quadrangle) holds about 10,000 volumes. There is an extensive collection of Classical texts, dictionaries and works of reference, as well as a large archaeology collection, which includes a number of rare periodicals and excavation reports on Classical, Near Eastern and Egyptian archaeology. This non-lending, research-only library is staffed by volunteers.
Grainger Museum
Established in the 1930s by the composer, pianist and folklorist Percy Grainger, to show the 'sources from which composers draw their inspirations'. The collection includes music manuscripts and printed editions by many composers, correspondence, musical instruments, ephemera, photography and fine and decorative arts.
Special Collections, Baillieu Library
Comprise some 200,000 rare or historic books, serials and pamphlets and literary archives. There are incunabula, rare and first editions, Australiana, children's books, middle-eastern manuscripts, prints, theses and the Melbourne University Press collection.
Victorian College of the Arts: VCA Art Collection
The VCA Art Collection spans the entire history of the College and its predecessor, the National Gallery School of Art. Comprising painting, sculpture, photography and works on paper, most works are by students, staff or alumni. The Collection continues to grow through gifts and acquisitive awards, ensuring that each year a number of graduating students’ works are added. It includes work by such notable practitioners as John Brack, John Vickery, Jan Nelson, Jon Campbell and Sally Smart. There are also many life paintings and drawings from the National Gallery School of Art by prominent alumni including Hugh Ramsay, Charles Wheeler, Grace Joel and Constance Stokes. The Margaret Lawrence Australian Ceramics Collection was bequeathed to the Collection in 2004 and comprises some 500 pieces of Australian ceramic work from the 1920s through to 2004.