Ayers House offers a wide range of events and activities throughout the year. Our varied Public Programme includes After Dark tours by candlelight, seminars, exhibitions and concerts to suit every taste and interest. To find out more about current and forthcoming events please check our What's On notice board for information.
Winter Concert Series
The Adelaide Male Voice Choir Sings for You
The prestigious Adelaide Male Voice Choir is performing a series of three concerts at Ayers House this winter season. Each performance will feature an entirely different programme and guest soloist.
With Soprano Soloist: Joanne McWaters.
The programme will include selected pieces from musicals such as South Pacific, My Fair Lady, The Student Prince and Les Miserables.
With Soprano Soloist: Prue Hompas.
Including choruses and solos from The Merry Widow, Die Fledermaus and The Daughter of the Regiment.
With Soprano Soloist: Kevin Fisher.
The programme will feature the Choir singing well loved songs from many countries.
Concert tickets include wine & supper:
| INDIVIDUAL TICKETS: | Full | $29.50 |
|---|---|---|
| Concession | $28.00 | |
| National Trust Members | $26.50 | |
| Children under 16 years | $16.00 |
| SEASON TICKETS: | Full | $80.00 |
|---|---|---|
| Concession | $78.00 | |
| National Trust Members | $75.00 |
Introductory Guide Training Course
Do you enjoy learning? Are you insterested in antiques, architecture and history? Would like to share your interest with other people? Then you should attend the Ayers House Introductory Guide Training Course.
SESSION 1: The Work of the National Trust & The Architecture of Ayers House
Sunday 17th August, 10.00-12.00Ian Stephenson: CEO, The National Trust of South Australia
CEO, Ian Stephenson will provide an insight into the work of the National Trust and the extensive range of historic buildings in its portfolio or properties. The second part of the lecture will focus on the architecture of Ayers House and its Colonial architect, George Strickland Kingston. It will also delve into the 19th century streetscape of North Terrace, how it has evolved, & the thriving and diverse East End of Adelaide in which Ayers House is situated.
SESSION 2: The Ayers House Collections
Sunday 24th August, 10.00-12.00Hannah Phillip: Manager & Curator, Ayers House Museum
From silver to art, furniture to furnishings, objets d’art to costume, the Ayers House collection comprises an extensive range of exquisite and historically significant artefacts. This session will look at the items that make up the Ayers House collection and will feature a behind the scene tour of Ayers House & its collections.
SESSION 3: The People of Ayers House
Sunday 31st August, 10.00-12.00Hannah Phillip: Manager & Curator, Ayers House Museum
Looking at the man behind Ayers House, this lecture will introduce Sir Henry Ayers, Premier, politician and influential businessman in the history of Adelaide. The lecture will also look at the other inhabitants of Ayers House: Sir Henry’s family, its “below stairs” occupants (the servants) and the ongoing uses and users of the property into the 20th century.
SALA Festival: South Australia Living Artists
Friday 1st-Sunday 17th AugustFace to Face: An Exhibition of Portraiture
The works of South Australia’s top contemporary artists come face to face with iconic portraits of the 19th century in this celebration of portraiture.
Ayers House will be exhibiting the works of the State’s most talented portraiture artists as part of the 2008 South Australian Living Artists Festival. Works by renowned artists, such as Robert Hannaford, Avril Thomas and Penny Dowie, will be set against the stunning backdrop of the State Dining Room and brought Face to Face with the 19th century portraits of three influential men in South Australian history, Sir Roland Hill, inventor of the Penny Post, Sir Edwin Smith, Lord Mayor of Adelaide and last but by no means least Sir Matthew Flinders.
This exhibition will showcase a range of styles, media and techniques in the field of portraiture and will feature the works of ten of South Australia’s top artists, who lay claim to having been entrants and winners on numerous occasions of the prestigious Archibald and Doug Moran Art Prizes, to name just two. (Some of the works to be exhibited will include those actually submitted for these two prizes). The Artist’s line-up will include Coralie Armstrong, Penny Dowie, Cynthia Dowler, Colin Dudley, Louise Feneley, Robert Hannaford, John McCartin, Peter Murphy, Gerhard Ritter and Avril Thomas.
Admission is Free
Summer Sitting Room Conservation Project
The long-forgotten, underground rooms of Ayers House have remained an undisturbed secret to the outside world. However after two years of planning and conservation work and over $160,000 in funding, the Summer Sitting Room was finally reopened to the public in 2005.
The underground Summer Sitting Room, forms part of a suite of rooms built underneath the main structure of Ayers House, also including a Summer Library, light well, and personal vault of Sir Henry Ayers. Designed as a retreat from the heat of summer, this room is one of few examples in Australia documenting the ways in which colonial settlers adapted to the rigors of an Australian summer. With a low ceiling, highly decorated with garlands of flowers, intricately woven vines and leafy borders, this room would have provided its occupants with a delightfully cool yet summery atmosphere.
Major flooding however brought this room perilously near to disaster and put the beautiful hand-painted ceiling at risk of being lost forever. Irreparable damage forced the room's closure indefinitely and left the ceiling in a highly unstable, flaking condition. In 2004 funding from the Commonwealth and State governments finally allowed the process of restoring the room to its original state to begin. It also allowed investigative work to be undertaken to uncover and reinstate the original wall decoration hidden beneath layers of paint, painstakingly revealed with paint scrapings.
