An Art Deco maritime services building on the quay, full of contemporary art, free, with a rooftop café.
The MCA occupies the former Maritime Services Board building on Circular Quay West — an Art Deco block of 1952, in sandstone, which was originally to have been considerably taller.
The museum opened in 1991, founded on a bequest from the expatriate artist John Power, who left his estate to the University of Sydney in 1943 to bring contemporary international art to Australia. It took nearly fifty years to produce a building.
A 2012 extension by Sam Marshall added galleries, a learning centre and the rooftop.
Entry to the collection and most exhibitions is free.
The collection
Around 4,000 works, Australian and international, with a strong holding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander contemporary art — the MCA collects it as contemporary art rather than as ethnography, which was not always standard practice.
The programme runs to large monographic shows and thematic exhibitions. The MCA co-presents the Biennale of Sydney every two years, with work spread across this building, Cockatoo Island, the Art Gallery and elsewhere.
The building and the view
The rooftop café and terrace on Level 4 has the best free harbour view in central Sydney: the Opera House directly opposite, the ferries below, the Bridge to the left.
There is no charge to go up.
Practicalities
Open daily. Free general entry; some ticketed exhibitions.
Ninety minutes is enough unless a major show is on.
It is on the doorstep of The Rocks, the ferry wharves and the walk to the Opera House, which makes it easy to fit into any Circular Quay morning.
If contemporary art is the interest
White Rabbit Gallery in Chippendale — a private collection of twenty-first-century Chinese art in a converted Rolls-Royce service depot, free, and better than most public institutions. Closed between exhibition changeovers, so check.
Carriageworks in Eveleigh for large installation work in nineteenth-century railway workshops.
More Museums
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Free, doubled in size in 2022, and holding the best collection of Aboriginal art in any state gallery.
Australian Museum
The oldest museum in Australia, with a First Nations gallery that has been substantially rethought.
Australian National Maritime Museum
A submarine, a destroyer, a replica of the Endeavour, and a serious attempt at telling the story from both sides of the shore.