Sunday afternoon in Melbourne city

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There is nothing quite as glorious as a sunny winter’s day in Melbourne. When the sky is blue, and the sun reflects off the glass buildings and sparkles muddily on the upside-down Yarra River, it warms the heart of seasonally-affected Melburnians.

With a couple of hours to fill in on a Sunday afternoon while we waited to pick up Queenie in the city, we took the opportunity to have a wander around and enjoy some of the current happenings in the CBD.

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Every Sunday from 10am to 4pm, the Art Centre forecourt and lawn is filled with stalls offering a range of handmade goods made by local artists and producers. There’s everything from clothing and jewellery to cupcakes.

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Gallery 1 in the foyer of the Arts Centre, currently has a fabulous free exhibition called The Beatles in Australia. This exhibition contains newsreel footage, TV and radio clips, magazines, photos and press clippings that show how Australians experienced the tour of the Fab Four.

The exhibition is nearing the end of its run, though (it is on until July 1, 2014) and is open from 9am until late each day.

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NGV International is one of our regular go-to destinations whenever we’re roaming around the city. The current ‘blockbuster’ ticketed exhibition is Italian Masterpieces from Spain’s Museo Del Prado, which is part of the NGV’s Melbourne Winter Masterpieces program. We didn’t, however, go see it. Maybe we will on another visit – it’s on until 31 August.

Instead, we perused the free galleries, as we often do. Not only is entry to those galleries completely free, they are generally very quiet (especially the ones on the third floor) and you can find some very interesting and quirky pieces.

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In the Federation Court of NGV International there is currently an installation by Italian artist Paola Pivi (also on until 31 August) which is part of a recent series of commissions by leading international artists created especially for that space (regular visitors to NGV may recall the floating, clinking white bowls…or the dome created out of IKEA rubbish bins?) The latest work (called You started it…I finish it) consists of eight life-size sculptures of bears, with pelts of neon-coloured feathers.

Oh my goodness, it was fun watching patrons mimicking the bears for photos.

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Across St Kilda Road, inside the Federation Square complex, is The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia. That’s where you’ll find the Australian art (both Indigenous and non-Indigenous).

We visited the Start Up: Top Arts 2014 exhibition which contains outstanding work by students who did the Art or Studio Arts subjects in the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) last year. It astounds me just how talented these kids (they’re mostly 17 or 18) are. 

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I never fail to be in awe of the architecture of the Federation Square complex itself. I know there was controversy when it was built…but as far as I’m concerned the end result is pure genius.

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Across Flinders Street from Federation Square is Hosier Lane, which is considered to be one of Melbourne’s best street art locations. It is a bluestone-cobbled laneway running between Flinders Street and Flinders Lane (in the block between Swanston Walk and Russell Street).

The artwork is ever-changing and often of a political nature. On weekends, the laneway is a magnet for Melburnians out a-rambling, for interstate and international tourists, and for groups doing photography courses.

A recent addition is the 23m high portrait of an Indigenous boy which was painted by Adnate. It was commissioned by Hosier Inc, a collective of residents, artists and members of the street art community.

This artwork was only possible due to the installation of scaffolding to repair that wall of the McDonald House building, and therefore, should (hopefully) not be painted over by other artists over time. 

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Along Flinders Street, we spied an eye-catching new-ish store on the 1st floor of 276 Flinders Street. It is a branch of the Japanese discount store chain, Daiso. Over 200,000 products, all for the one price of $2.80. Worth a visit, just for the jaw-dropping bizarreness of it all.

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And just wandering the streets of Melbourne itself is a treat.

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