Heide Museum of Modern Art

The Heide Museum of Modern Art is a torchbearer for Australian modernism and contemporary Australian art. Set on 6.5 hectares of parkland with five gallery spaces, award-winning architecture and a collection of more than 3,6000 works of art, Heide has long served as a meeting point and creative hub.

Once a significant Wurundjeri gathering place, the site later attracted the artists of the Australian Impressionist School before becoming the home of art patrons John and Sunday Reed.

In 1934, the Reeds bought and settled on the site, naming it the Heide after the town of Heidelberg just across the river. Over the next decade, they turned Heide into a sanctuary for artists, writers and thinkers who shared their progressive social and cultural ideals. The Angry Penguins (including painters Sidney Nolan, Albert Tucker, Joy Hester, Arthur Boyd and John Perceval) alternately lived, worked and played here in the 1940s.

The Museum comprises of three core buildings – Heide I, II and III – as well as extensive gardens and a sculpture park. 

Heide I is the Reeds' original farmstead, while Heide II is a slice of modernist architecture designed by David McGlashan in 1964 when the family outgrew their original digs.

After the Reeds passed away in 1981, the public art museum and sculpture park were established, and a larger building was built, with its zinc facade now the distinctive, recognisable face of Heide MOMA.

In addition to the three museum spaces, there is a gift shop and the recently opened Heide Kitchen by the award-winning Melbourne-based hospitality group. 

Following a refurbishment of the previously named Heide Cafe, Heide Kitchen will feature a diverse and rotating menu of simple yet elevated plates for breakfast and lunch inspired by the seasonal produce of Heide's garden.

As well as dining in, guests will also have the option of enjoying a takeaway coffee or sandwich from the coffee cart or to go al fresco in Heide's sprawling gardens and sculpture gardens by purchasing a picnic basket.

Check out our hit list of the best galleries in Melbourne.