The NGV: Lie on the Floor and Look Up

180 St Kilda Road. Australia's oldest and largest art gallery. The entrance is a glass wall of water — a continuous sheet flowing down the facade. Walking through the parted water into the Great Hall is one of Melbourne's signature moments, and architect Roy Grounds designed it in 1968 knowing exactly what he was doing.

The collection: European Old Masters, strong Asian art, Indigenous Australian work, and a contemporary collection reflecting acquisition as living practice. The Great Hall has a stained-glass ceiling by Leonard French — 224 panels in jewel tones. Lying on your back on the floor and looking up is a Melbourne rite of passage. The guards step around supine visitors with practiced ease.

The NGV Garden outside has Moore, Calder, and Australian sculptors most people walk past because the water wall is more photographable. A bench beneath a mature elm faces the skyline. Sitting there with sculpture around you and trams rattling past is the most Melbourne thing possible: art, coffee (the cafe is ten steps away), and the conviction that culture is daily practice, not special occasion.