Lyon Housemuseum facts for kids

The Lyon Housemuseum is a special place in Kew, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. It's a mix of a home and a modern art museum. Here, you can see the Lyon Collection, which is a group of amazing Australian contemporary artworks. The building was made just for this purpose.

You can visit the Housemuseum on certain days. You need to book a guided tour ahead of time. Schools can also visit, and there are other special events.

The Housemuseum also has talks and lectures. These are about contemporary art, how buildings are designed (architecture), art history, and how museums work. They even publish a yearly book from one of these talks.

The Lyon Art Collection

The Lyon Collection is a group of artworks gathered by Corbett Lyon and Yueji Lyon. They started collecting art in 1990. This collection shows important Australian contemporary art from the early 1990s until now.

What's in the Collection?

There are over 350 artworks in the collection. These include paintings, sculptures, and art installations. You can also see photography and video art. More than 50 different artists have their work shown here. Some famous Australian artists in the collection are Howard Arkley, Patricia Piccinini, Brook Andrew, Shaun Gladwell, and Matthew Sleeth.

Designing the Housemuseum

The Housemuseum building was designed by architect Corbett Lyon and his company, Lyons. They worked on it between 2003 and 2005. The building was finished in November 2008. It first opened to the public with an exhibition in 2009.

Inspiration for the Design

Corbett Lyon was inspired by places he visited as a student. These included the Sir John Soane's Museum in London and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. He wanted to explore how art and daily life connect. He also wanted to challenge common ideas about public and private spaces.

Unique Features of the Building

The design mixes museum areas with home spaces. This makes it hard to tell where the house ends and the museum begins. It creates a special setting to show the artworks.

Inside, the building has wooden panels on the walls. These panels are printed with words and texts created by the Lyon family. The outside of the building is covered in black zinc, which gives it a modern look.

The front fence of the Housemuseum is also unique. It shows the two street names of the building's corner address. These names are made with 2-meter-high letters using decorative brickwork.

Awards and Recognition

In 2010, the Housemuseum won a big award. It received the Australian Institute of Architects' Harold Desbrowe-Annear Award. This is Victoria's top design award for homes. Also in 2010, a group called Larry's List said the Housemuseum was one of the "10 most exciting buildings of private museums" in the world.

New Housemuseum Galleries

An extension to the Housemuseum was finished in 2019. It is on the land next to the original building.

What's in the New Galleries?

The new building is called the Housemuseum Galleries. It has large, flexible spaces for exhibitions. These spaces show works from the Lyon Collection. They also host international and local exhibitions of contemporary art, architecture, and design.

The Lyon Foundation manages these new Galleries. This foundation is a not-for-profit public art museum group. It was started in 2012 by Corbett Lyon and Yueji Lyon, who founded the museum.