In its four galleries and 500 seat theatre, the Araluen Arts Centre presents an annual program of exhibitions, theatre, and film, hosting iconic events such as the nationally significant Desert Mob.
The Araluen Art Collection is one of the most important collections in the country, in particular its collection of Aboriginal artworks tracing the history of Aboriginal art development in Central Australia and the beginning of the Western Desert art movement, including original artworks by renowned watercolourist Albert Namatjira and Papunya boards from the early 1970s.
A “keeping place of stories”, the Araluen Cultural Precinct offers a rich experience set amongst important Arrernte sites significant to the local Arltyerre (Dreaming) including yaye (big sister hill), yaye akweke (little sister hill) and a sacred 300-year-old corkwood tree.
The centre is also home to significant public works of art such as the impressive Yeperenye sculpture celebrating the creation ancestor for Mparntwe (Alice Springs), Clifford Possum’s celebrated large scale mural, the majestic sculpture ‘The Split’ that was commissioned for Araluen’s opening in 1984, and Wenten Rubuntja’s massive floor-to-ceiling stained-glass foyer window depicting Arrente stories central to Alice Springs.
Cafe on Site
