The culture of Melbourne, the capital of the Australian state of Victoria, encompasses the city's artistic, culinary, literary, musical, political and social elements. Since its founding as a British settlement in 1835, Melbourne has been culturally influenced by European culture, particularly that of the British Isles. During the 1850s Victorian gold rush and in the decades the immediately followed, immigrants from many other parts of the world, notably China and the Americas, helped shape Melbourne's culture. Over time, Melbourne has become the birthplace of a number of unique cultural traits and institutions, and today it is one of the world's most multicultural cities.
Traditionally acclaimed as Australia's "cultural capital", Melbourne topped the Economist Intelligence Unit's annual ranking of the world's most liveable cities throughout much of the 2010s, based in part on its cultural attributes.
Overview
Melbourne hosts and supports many cultural institutions, such as museums, galleries, events, festivals, public/street art, popular music, live music, film, independent music and literary talks, independent film and fashion. The city celebrates a wide variety of major annual cultural events, including local, national and international events. A number of cultural hubs also exist in the city, including the Victorian Arts Precinct, with its distinctive spire, and Federation Square, one of the city's main cultural hubs and tourist centres that celebrated its ten-year anniversary in 2012. Federation Square's distinctive architecture, large digital screen and public space attracts congregations, rallies and public audiences for sporting events.
Arts
Architecture
Melbourne's buildings and structures feature a wide variety of architectural designs, and the city is home to the Royal Exhibition Building, the first Australian building to be listed on the World Heritage Register.
Australia's second oldest architectural firm, and one of the world's oldest, Bates Smart, is based in Melbourne.
Some of Australia's most prolific architects have originated from Melbourne, including Joseph Reed, William Wardell, John James Clark, Charles D'Ebro, Charles Webb, William Pitt, Nahum Barnet, Harry Norris, Sir Roy Grounds and Robin Boyd. In recent years, Melbourne has produced internationally recognised architectural firms, including Denton Corker Marshall, Fender Katsalidis, Daryl Jackson and Peddle Thorp, as well as local award-winning trendsetters, Edmund & Corrigan, Ashton Raggatt McDougall and Wood Marsh.
Literature
Melbourne's literary history is rich and diverse. The State Library of Victoria was the first major cultural institution to be established in Melbourne since its founding in 1854, and is one of Australia's oldest cultural institutions. The library holds more than two million books and 16,000 serials, and is a part of an extensive network of public and university libraries across the city. A wide range of independent bookstores also exist in the city, as well as a variety of larger bookstore chains, and in 1960, the first children's bookstore in Australia, The Little Bookroom, was opened. The Foreign Language Bookshop is the oldest and largest language bookshop in Australasia, established in 1938 in Bourke Street as a free lending library. The primary aim of the business was to reduce migrant isolation, particularly for European migrants disembarking from ships into Australia.
In the decades following the gold rush, Melbourne was Australia's undisputed literary capital, famously referred to by Henry Kendall as "that wild bleak Bohemia south of the Murray". During this time, Melbourne-based writers and poets Adam Lindsay Gordon, Marcus Clarke, and Rolf Boldrewood produced classic visions of colonial life and created a nascent national literature.