Cairns Art Gallery, Mulgrave Building

Cairns Art Gallery’s Mulgrave and Court House Buildings provide a free-entry setting for changing exhibitions, events, classes and research-led displays. Visitors can explore Australian art alongside work connected to Far North Queensland’s history, living cultures and place in the tropics. The gallery also offers artist showcases, collections and legacy archives, with a shop featuring art prints, catalogues and First Nations-style products. Entry is free and no booking is required for a general visit.

The gallery’s exhibition program includes contemporary work across painting, textiles, sculpture and other practices. In 2026, the program includes Woven Together: Undivided We Rise, Spirits in the Ink and Brush: Women Painters, as well as Philomena Yeatman’s Babim, Muudjum, Djanguul. Yeatman is a Gunggandji artist from Yarrabah and a master weaver and cultural custodian. Her exhibition develops traditional weaving techniques into large suspended sculptural forms, using materials including lawyer cane, pandanus, terracotta ochre and clay. The work reflects maternal connection and the passing of cultural knowledge between generations, offering a particularly strong connection to the region’s First Nations stories.

The main Public Curators Building has three floors of gallery spaces and combines heritage details with contemporary gallery infrastructure. Its original features include a terrazzo floor, polished local timber panelling, stained-glass windows and iron balustrades, while the gallery’s lighting, security and climate systems meet museum standards. The building began as a government facility, completed in 1936, before being converted into the gallery in 1994. Cairns Art Gallery officially opened in 1995 after a long community and civic effort to establish a public gallery for Cairns.

There is plenty here for different kinds of visits. Solo visitors can take their time with the exhibitions and archive material, while couples and friends can build a visit around the current program. Families and young people may be interested in the gallery’s classes, including an eight-week comic book and manga course for ages 12 and over. The gallery also lists group tours, open-late events and other classes, so it can suit a planned cultural outing as well as a brief stop. The Mulgrave and Court House Buildings are open Monday to Saturday, with the buildings closed on Sundays; check the gallery’s current program before travelling from elsewhere in Cairns.