The Art Deco and Modernism Society of Australia Inc.

Walking tour of Modernist Melbourne – City East
2025-09-21 10:30 - 12:00 (Australia/Melbourne) | Parliament Gardens, corner Albert and Nicholson Streets, East Melbourne, Victoria, 3002, Australia
Join us for a captivating exploration of Modernist Melbourne in the east of the CBD, where we’ll uncover architectural treasures that illustrate the transformation of Melbourne’s built environment in the post-WWII period.
Our tour begins with the iconic 1958 ICI building on Nicholson Street, a striking example of International Style architecture featuring clean lines, curtain walls of glass, and an innovative use of reinforced concrete.
From there, you’ll marvel at a range of Brutalist buildings including a fire station, with its raw concrete facades and imposing geometric form, discover cinemas that embraced modernist aesthetics in their streamlined designs, and car parks with sculptural ramps that are as much art as utility.
We’ll also explore brick apartment towers, built between the 1950s and 1980s when the first wave of City Living was all the rage and so much more.
Bring your water bottle and dress for the weather.

Date: Sunday, 21 September 2025
Time: 10.30am 12.00 pm
Cost: Members $45, Non-members $50

Meet at 10.15 am Parliament Gardens: Corner Albert and Nicholson Streets East Melbourne

Tickets capped at 20. Book early to avoid disappointment via TryBooking (+ $0.50 booking fee) or download and complete the Booking Forn to pay by card, cheque or EFT.

Book via TryBooking Download Booking Form

Presentation - Highlights of the Paris 2025 Art Deco Congress
2025-12-11 20:00 - 22:00 | Caulfield RSL, 4 St Georges Road, Elsternwick, VIC, Australia
Join us for an Art Deco immersion of the beginnings of Art Deco in 1925 and its spread across Paris and the world.
The Paris Art Deco Congress in October 2025 celebrated 100 years of all things Art Deco across 6 days. Four of our members will share their Congress highlights with you.
You’ll hear the story of the 1925 Paris International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts told through the Congress lectures, see Paris’s best Deco buildings, interiors, furniture, jewelry, and clothing visited on the tours and in museums, and get a taste of glamorous cafes, restaurants, dancing and parties.

Date: Thursday, 11 December 2025
Time: 7.45pm for an 8.00 pm start
Cost: Members $30, Non-members $35

Venue: Caulfield RSL, 4 St GeorgesRoad, Elsternwick 3185

Book by Monday 8 December 2025 via TryBooking or download and complete the Booking Form to pay by card, cheque or EFT.

Book via TryBooking Download Booking Form

Presentation - Highlights of the 2025 Art Deco Congress tours of Reims, St Quentin and Brussels
2026-01-15 20:00 - 22:00 | Caulfield RSL, 4 St Georges Road, Elsternwick, VIC, Australia
Following our December presentation of highlights of the Paris Congress, join us for highlights of the Pre-Congress tour of Reims and St Quentin and the Post-Congress tour of Brussels.
Hear from our members about Reims, ‘The martyred city’ of WWI, that was rebuilt in the modern style that became known as Art Deco, and St Quentin’s Art Deco delights.
Then we’ll visit Brussels, to learn how it threw off its Art Nouveau heritage and embraced the modern Deco style.
Date: Thursday, 15 January 2026
Time: 7.45 pm for 8.00 pm start
Cost: Members $30, Non-members $35
Venue: Caulfield RSL, 4 St Georges Rd, Elsternwick, 3185

Book by Monday 12 January 2026 via TryBooking or download and complete the Booking Form to pay by card, cheque or EFT.

Book via TryBooking Download Booking Form

Online Presentation: Mumbai, Art Deco Jewel of India
2026-03-12 19:30 - 20:30
Date: Thursday 12 March 2026
Time: 7:25 pm for 7:30 pm
Join us online to hear Atul Kumar, Founder Trustee of Art Deco Mumbai Trust, present Mumbai: Art Deco Jewel of India, a 45-minute visual presentation to be followed by a 15-minute Q&A.
Atul will take us on a virtual tour of select Art Deco buildings to help us identify and appreciate their role in making Mumbai’s Art Deco jewels so unique – which would only otherwise be possible by visiting this Indian city.
Mumbai, India’s financial and film capital, boasts the world’s second-largest collection of Art Deco buildings. The style arrived in Mumbai, then known as Bombay, in the early 1930s and continued to develop until the mid-1950s.
Book via TryBooking Download Booking Form

Waking Tour: Travancore
2026-03-22 10:30 - 12:30
Sunday 22 March 2026, 10:30 am to 12:30 pm
Join us for a walking tour of the small inner-Melbourne suburb of Travancore which was established by the subdivisions of a large pastoral estate in 1918 and the early 1920s. It remains a remarkably intact area of distinctive Art Deco housing styles and streetscapes and was known as the Toorak of the north!
Book via TryBooking Download Booking Form

Online Presentation: Art Deco & the Making of Modern India
2026-04-07 19:30 - 20:30
While India is often discussed in relation to its ancient and medieval architectural heritage, its contribution to 20th-century modernism remains less widely understood.
Art Deco in India offers a compelling point of entry into this story. Far from being a purely imported style, it took root most vividly in Mumbai, where it was rapidly adopted across housing, cinema, commercial and institutional architecture. From here, it spread across the country, becoming a visible marker of modernity.
Art Deco in India is significant not only for its scale and stylistic coherence, but for the role it played as a transitional phase. It introduced new materials, construction techniques and spatial ideas that helped lay the groundwork for the distinctly Indian modernism that emerged in the mid-20th century.
This presentation traces that broader arc of modernism in India, examining how architectural ideas travelled, adapted and evolved across different political, cultural and climatic contexts.
It moves from the imperial planning of New Delhi to the Art Deco urbanism of Bombay (present-day Mumbai) and considers in parallel the iconic modernist vision of Chandigarh under Le Corbusier. Together, these trajectories reveal how India did not simply absorb modernism, but actively reshaped it, producing architectural responses that were at once global in outlook and deeply rooted in local conditions.
Presented by Jon Wright and Professor Sangeeta Bagga, this session also serves as an introduction to a forthcoming expert-led Art Deco & Modernism luxury tour of India organised by Shall We Travel, offering participants the opportunity to experience these sites first-hand.
ADMSA are pleased to be working with Shall We Travel this year to curate a series of educational content about 20th century design in India. Shall We Travel is a boutique experiential travel company based in India, that designs personalised, high-touch tours of India. Co-founder Imran Khan, along with our presenter Jon Wright, led a similar tour of key 20th century architectural locations in 2019 for the UK-based Twentieth Century Society that works on conservation of C20 buildings.
Speakers:
Jon Wright
A heritage consultant and specialist guide based in London, Jon Wright focuses on the history and conservation of 20th-century architecture. He works with Purcell Architecture Ltd, one of the world’s leading firms in the conservation of historic buildings.
Sangeeta Bagga
Professor Bagga is the first woman Principal of the Chandigarh College of Architecture, established as part of the Chandigarh project in 1961. An urban designer by training, she was awarded a PhD for her research on Chandigarh as a heritage city of modernity and serves as an expert member of ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on 20th Century Heritage.This 45-minute presentation will be followed by a 15-minute Q&A session.
Cost: Members $15, Non-members $20.
Note: Please purchase a ticket for your household rather than 2 tickets if 2 or more people are watching from the same home.
Book via TryBooking
The online presentation will be by Zoom and you will be sent the Zoom link the evening before, Monday 6th April. Join online at 7:25 for a 7:30 pm AEST start.

Presentation: Continental Living – Art Deco and Moderne flats in the City of Port Phillip
2026-04-16 19:30 - 22:00 | The Glasshouse Caulfield (in Caulfield Racecourse), 31 Station Street, Caulfield East, VIC, 3145, Australia
Presentation: Continental Living – Art Deco and Moderne flats in the City of Port Phillip
Thursday 16 April 2026, 7:30 pm for 8:00 pm start.
Join David Helms, City of Port Phillip’s Principal Heritage Advisor, to take us on a journey of continental living in the Art Deco and Moderne flats in Port Phillip.
After World War I Melbourne faced a housing shortage and flats were seen as a solution to the problem. By the mid-1930s almost as many flats as houses were being built across the city and many of these were in St Kilda. By 1947 St Kilda contained 5,500 flats, a quarter of all flats in Melbourne – many built by European migrants and described as ‘The Continental Flat’.
Book via TryBooking

Walking Tour: Spanish Mission, Ripponlea, Balaclava & Elwood
2026-04-19 10:30 - 12:30
Sunday 19 April 2026, 10:30 am to 12:30 pm
Ripponlea, Balaclava and Elwood are home to the highest concentrations of Spanish Mission and Mediterranean buildings in Melbourne. Join us to experience the notable and diverse examples of these styles.
Book via TryBooking Download Booking Form

Celebrate World Art Deco Day wherever you are - Drinks and dress ups in Melbourne
2026-04-28 | Nick and Nora’s Melbourne, Entrance 11 Benson Walk, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia
The 28th April is World Art Deco Day. Join us to celebrate 101 years of Art Deco at Nick and Nora’s in the Melbourne CBD. If you haven’t been to Nick and Nora’s before, you will feel like you have stepped back to the 1920s in Paris, New York or Shanghai!
You can show off your Art Deco couture and catch up with old and new Art Deco friends.
This is an informal social event where we have secured space for 20 people (without a function minimum spend). You will self cater for your drinks and any food.
If this goes well and people love the venue then we would love to organise a cocktail function at a later date which would be ticketed for the drinks and canapés on a function package.
If you’d like to stay on with dinner, please book directly with Nick and Nora’s – or take a chance and decide on the night.
– Attire – entirely at your discretion: Dress up to celebrate Art Deco with a piece of jewellery or something smart you feel comfortable in
– Entry tickets: $5
– Drinks and food not provided and at your expense
Location:
Nick and Nora’s
Entrance 11 Benson Walk
80 Collins Street
Melbourne, VIC 3000
Book via TryBooking

Tasmania: Tour - Colonial Mutual Life Building
2026-05-07 15:00 | Colonial Mutual Life Building, 18 Elizabeth Street, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Join the Tasmanian Chapter for a tour of the Colonial Mutual Life Building in Hobart.
Date: Thursday 7 May
Time: 3:00 pm
Location: 18 Elizabeth Street, Hobart
Note: Places are limited to a maximum of 16 people.
Email Jessica Lawrence Design for bookings

Victoria: Walking Tour - Mount Eagle
2026-05-17 10:30
In an exclusive residential enclave, the walk takes us past Interwar properties, several of which could be described as ‘Art Deco’ or ‘Modernist’.
This part of Eaglemont was laid out between 1914 and 1916 by Walter Burley Griffin, the American-born architect who is renowned for designing Canberra as well as Melbourne’s Capitol Theatre and Newman College.
We will walk through one of Burley Griffin’s 7 private park reserves built behind the houses for the community to share, a key principle of Griffin’s utopian principles. We will see one of his larger houses which is startlingly modern for 1927.
The walk is also in the footsteps of the so-called ‘Heidelberg School’ painters who camped in a derelict house that once stood in rural isolation and where they drew inspiration from the landscape and from each other during the 2 ‘Golden Summers’ of 1888 to 1890, developing an Australian version of Impressionism.
An absolute highlight of the walk will be a tour inside one of the 3 pioneering Australian Arts and Crafts houses designed by Harold Desbrowe Annear in 1903. The beautiful and faithfully restored architect’s ‘Own House’ demonstrates the shift from prevailing Italianate and Queen Anne suburban taste as it embraced innovative modern design in the twentieth century.
Walking notes: There are some sloping streets and a short descent along a rough track with steps, so the walk is not suitable for those with mobility problems.
Cost: Members $45, Non-members $50
Book via TryBooking
Meet: Corner of The Eyrie and Summit Drive between 10:15 and 10:25 am for a 10:30 am start. The walk will finish at the same point.
Driving: Approach The Eyrie from the west (note it is not accessible from the east).
Parking: The Eyrie should have kerbside parking available.
Train: Eaglemont Station on the Hurstbridge line with a 900 metre uphill walk to the starting point.
Bring your water bottle and dress for the weather.

Victoria: Social Function - Post-screening Lempicka Documentary
2026-05-17 18:15 - 19:15 | Sun Theatre, 8 Ballarat Street, yarraville, Victoria, 3013, Australia
We are holding a social function after the Sun Theatre’s one-off screening of the documentary, The True Story of Tamara de Lempicka and The Art of Survival.
Join us in the sumptuous Art Deco Le Salon (6:15 pm to 7:15 pm) to chat with fellow Art Deco lovers to discuss the film while enjoying a post-film snack and grab a drink at bar prices. Don’t forget to dress up for the event to show off a favourite Art Deco outfit! – fun but definitely not compulsory.
Tickets via TryBooking, at $15 each, are ONLY for the after-screening social function.
Book via TryBooking
BOOK FILM TICKETS with allocated seats (4:30 to 6:10 pm) directly with Sun Theatre, Yarraville (https://www.movietkts.com.au/selectsession.php?siteCode=SUNCIN&movieCode=S256TAMARADELEMP).
The film: A visually stunning and sweeping feature documentary that traces the life and survival of the renowned painter through her powerful paintings – from her rise to international stardom in 1920s Paris, to her move to the United States in 1940, fleeing the rise of fascism, and her revival in the current art market. Tamara de Lempicka was the preeminent Art Deco painter, known for her high-gloss sensual nudes and portraits of high society during the Jazz Age. She was marginalised and gained notoriety for her romantic liaisons with her models and her indulgent, decadent lifestyle, but she was so much more.

Tasmania: Social Function - World Modernism Day
2026-06-10
Dinner and drinks to mark World Modernism Day, 10 June.
Save the date. Venue and time to be confirmed soon.

Online Presentation: Hydrabad - Beyond the Minarets (and the Biryanis)
2026-06-11 07:30 - 21:00
When you think Art Deco in India, Mumbai leaps to mind. The visuals of Marine Drive and Oval Maidan dominate discussions. However, we invite you to journey deeper into the country, to its Deccan region where cultures have crisscrossed to create a unique Art Deco language.
One such location is Hyderabad – a city often cited for its biryanis, and rarely for Art Deco. Yet, it contains a fascinating story of 20th-Century modernity, complete with complexity, contradiction, and elegance. Our speaker has spent years documenting Hyderabad’s buildings and championing its lesser acknowledged design styles, including Art Deco. He gives us a rare peek into a side of Hyderabad, and India, few have delved deep into.
Hyderabad was at one point at the crossroads of princely ambition, Islamic urbanism, global modernism, and postcolonial nation-building. Here, Art Deco did not merely arrive as a stylistic import from Europe or Bombay (present-day Mumbai). It fused with local Deccani sensibilities and the aspirations of an outward-looking princely state under the Asaf Jahi rulers (popularly known as the Nizams). However, emerging in parallel was a modernism style shaped by local architects, engineers, industrialists, and institutions envisioning their own future for the city.
This talk will trace Hyderabad’s transition from late-Nizam cosmopolitanism to post-Independence modernity through a trail of housing colonies, public markets, private residences, religious institutions and civic structures. Some are trademark Deco; others hover in the territory between Streamline Moderne, Indo-European classicism, tropical modernism, and early postcolonial experimentation. Many remain undocumented outside specialist circles.
Through Hyderabad, we also hear why 20th-Century architecture in other Indian cities remains overlooked, and what this omission says of the narratives defining India’s modern legacy.
About Shall We Travel
Our Presenting Partner and Sponsor for this event is Shall We Travel, a boutique experiential travel company based in India, that designs personalised, high-touch tours of India.
Presented online by Mr Srinivas Murthy, the founding president of Architecture and Design Foundation [India].
Cost: Members $15, Non-members $20.
Note: Please purchase a ticket for your household/location if watching with others, that is only one ticket is required for each viewing location.
Book via TryBooking
The online presentation will be by Zoom and you will be sent the Zoom link after 7 pm the evening of Wednesday 10th June after ticket sales close.
Join online at 7:25 for a 7:30 pm AEST start.

Tasmania: Tour - State Library and Archives
2026-06-13 10:00 - 12:00 | State Library and Archives of Tasmania, Level 2/91 Murray Street, Hobart, Tasmania, 7000, Australia
Library tour and training to use the State Archives.
State Library and Archives of Tasmania
Level 2/91 Murray Street, Hobart, TAS 7000
10:00 am – 12:00 midday
Save the date! Booking information available soon.

Victoria: Walking Tour - North Balwyn
2026-06-28 10:30 - 12:30 | 3 Walbundry Avenue North Balwyn 3104, 3 Walbundry Avenue, North Balwyn, VIC, 3104, Australia
Join us as we take in properties in North Balwyn, learning about the history of the area and its development with architectural features pointed out. The tour includes an exclusive tour inside of one of the properties.
The walk takes in a number of streets on the Riverside Estate including Burke Road, Cascade Street, Riverside Avenue, Inverness Way, Walbundry Avenue, the Boulevard and Doncaster Road, as well as a number of interwar commercial premises.
Prior to World War I, the newly created City of Camberwell was full of hope for settlement of the area north of Doncaster Road, stimulated by the prospect of electric tramways. ‘Riverside’ was a product of this time and one of the first estates in Melbourne to make a feature of some other the basic tenets of town planning.
The Estate was advertised in 1914 proclaiming it as ‘The Beauty Spot of the Eastern Suburbs’ and making much of the views from the heights along the oak-lined ‘driveways’ of 2 former properties, ‘Inverness’ and ‘Kyora’.
Development of the estate was linked to the electric tram reaching Burke Road in 1925 and then really took off when the tram line was extended to Doncaster Road in 1937.
The streets closest to Doncaster Road contain most of the houses built between 1937 and 1941, constructed in a variety of architectural styles such as bungalows, Spanish Mission and Moderne. The area is also notable for mid-century modernist homes.
Cost: Members $45, Non-members $50
Book via TryBooking
Meet at starting point: 3 Walbundry Avenue North Balwyn 3104
– End point: We return to the start
– Parking: On street parking, check signs
– Tram: Route 48 tram, alight Wattle Avenue and Doncaster Road
Bring your water bottle and dress for the weather.

Tasmania: Tour - State Library and Archives of Tasmania
2026-07-22 16:00 - 17:00 | State Library and Archives of Tasmania, Level 2/91 Murray Street, Hobart, Tasmania, 7000, Australia
Library tour and training to use the State Archives.
State Library and Archives of Tasmania
Level 2/91 Murray Street, Hobart, TAS 7000
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Save the date! Booking information available soon.

Victoria: Presentation - Art Deco Animalia with Peter Sheridan
2026-07-23 19:30 - 22:00 | The Glasshouse Caulfield (in Caulfield Racecourse), 31 Station Street, Caulfield East, VIC, 3145, Australia
Humans have always had a strong cultural bond with animals, which over millennia have featured in representations from cave paintings to fine art, the expression ranging from realistic to symbolic.
Romanticism and realism dominated from 1850 until, at the end of the century, the advent of photography and the influence of impressionism, cubism and surrealism all contributed to the changing way animals were depicted. By the 1920s Art Nouveau’s organic naturalism was replaced by Art Deco’s sleek, stylised geometric forms reflecting modernity, glamour, strength, luxury and sophistication. Influenced by technology, speed and consumerism, Art Deco was a total style movement spreading all round the world and impacting on all facets of public and individual life.
Beginning with Francois Pompom’s polar bear of 1922 almost all animals were depicted with Art Deco styling including sleek panthers, graceful borzoi dogs, majestic elephants and bears, as well as small animals, birds, sea creatures, reptiles and insects. There is something timeless and universal about the smooth stylised lines of Art Deco animalia, which accounts for its ubiquity in architecture, art, sculpture, jewellery, textiles and all variety of domestic products. Output ranged from expensive singular commissioned pieces of fine art through limited-editions to cheaper mass-produced consumer items.
Famous designers such as Rene Lalique (glassware) and Edgar Brandt (ironwork) created many pieces which featured Art Deco styled animals.
Australia is a special case for Art Deco animalia as, after Federation in 1900, there was pressure for local national identity formation, culminating in a significant increase in adapting the unique and relatively newly discovered Australian native flora and fauna into designs during the period when Art Deco styling also reflected a modern and progressive outlook.
Join us at 7:30 pm for nibbles and chats before we are seated by 8:00 pm for the presentation by author Peter Sheridan.
Cost: Members $30, Non-members $35.
Book via TryBooking

Victoria: Exclusive Home Tour - East St Kilda
2026-08-16
Thanks to the generosity of two of our members, ADMSA offers an exclusive tour of an original Art Deco home decorated throughout with Art Deco furniture, light fittings, crockery and more.
The Streamline Moderne block of apartments were constructed on the site of an existing Edwardian house and using some of the original foundations. While retaining what appears as a single dwelling, originally owned by one family, the intent was always to construct 3 dwellings. The ground floor apartment was built in 1941 and the 2 upstairs apartments intended for grown daughters and their spouses were added in 1946, and included a balcony to the street. The interruption to construction was possibly due to building material shortages during the latter part of WWII.
We will visit the ground floor apartment which has 3 bedrooms, what was then a maid’s bedroom and now a study, 2 bathrooms and large living areas clearly designed for entertaining.
You will be guided through the rooms and see the original features of inbuilt cabinetry, imported
French light fittings (some signed ‘Degue’ ), sandblasted mirrors and doors, light switches, and many other features of the period.
3 tour groups of 12 people for 45 minute tours commencing at 1 pm, 2 pm and 3 pm.
Cost: Members $30, Non-members $35.
Book via TryBooking
Dandenong Road, East St Kilda: The address will be confirmed to ticket holders.
Getting there:
Tram: Route 5 plus a 2 minute walk
Parking: on Dandenong Road

Annual General Meeting
2026-10-22 19:30
Annual General Meeting
Thursday 22 October 2026, 7:30 pm
Save the date.

Victoria: Tour & Lunch - Castlemaine Art Deco
2026-11-08
Sunday 8 November 2026
Save the date. Program and ticket details to be available soon.
