We all love the city but, let’s be honest, sometimes we need to escape it…just for a while.  And, thanks to Heide Museum of Modern Art (lovingly abbreviated to Heide) that doesn’t mean leaving behind all the art and culture associated with inner-city living. Heide is like any large, sleek art museum you’d find in the CBD. It’s a talk-in-whispers, keep-your-water-bottle-in-your-bag kind of gallery. The difference is it’s smack bang in the middle of bushland, which is what makes it so unique.

While the gallery spaces are filled with extensive art collections, it is the grounds that really charmed me. At Heide you could find yourself running through a field towards some corrugated iron sculptures of cows, butterflies fluttering at your ankles (I’m not kidding), or swirling a glass Pinot Noir at Café Vue- Heide’s onsite French inspired restaurant. This is where culture meets nature and with visitors ranging from nineteen year old art students to pram-wheeling mothers and grey haired battlers, Heide is a world of contrasts.

There are three gallery spaces- Heide I, II and III, all showcasing world famous, historically important Australian artists. Exhibitions run for around 3-6 months but you can always expect to see works from the “Heide artists,” such as Sidney Nolan and Albert Tucker, who have been linked to the museum since its humble beginnings in the 1930s.

Heide Museum of Modern Art might seem a bit far away but the quality of art is indisputable. Pack a picnic and make a day of it, why don’t you? Plus, everywhere in Melbourne is just twenty minutes on the freeway, right?