Arts and Cultural Volunteering

There are many ways to participate in a variety of artistic and cultural opportunities in NSW. Volunteers are sought after by museums, art galleries, libraries and all kinds of performing arts groups.

In addition to the options below, your  local council may list volunteering opportunities in your local area. The NSW Government’s Local Council Search. This page will be able to identify all the local councils in NSW.

Sydney

The Australian Museum has volunteers that perform a number of roles including front-of-house volunteers who welcome visitors and take guided tours. Other volunteers assist in a variety of roles supporting staff in clerical and other duties such as cataloguing, researching and classification.

Powerhouse Museum - including the Powerhouse Discovery Centre and Sydney Observatory - engages a diverse group of volunteers in a variety of roles across each of its three sites, providing visitor services, delivering public program activities and supporting research and administrative work.

The Art Gallery of NSW and the Museum of Contemporary Art are Sydney-based art galleries which have formal volunteer programs. 

The Australian Museum and the Powerhouse Museum also use the services of a diverse group of volunteers.

The  Historic Houses Trust manages 12 museum sites, mainly in Sydney.  It has an active volunteer program. 

Many theatre companies and most of the major performing arts centres advertise for volunteers. These organisations include Griffin Theatre Company, CarriageWorks, Performance Space, Sydney Theatre Company and Blacktown Arts Centre

State Library of NSW volunteers undertake a range of projects including checking of digitised heritage items, conducting guided tours of the library and exhibitions and helping with administrative tasks such as mail-outs.

Information and Cultural Exchange is a dynamic community, cultural, information technology and arts organisation working across the Greater Western Sydney region.  ICE has expertise and success in developing new media, community cultural development, professional development and arts programs that assist thousands of individuals, artists and communities every year. ICE relies on volunteers to undertake a diverse range of projects  

Note: you may have to telephone or email for information on volunteering.

Rural and Regional NSW

Regional Arts NSW  has a comprehensive listing of all kinds of regional arts and cultural activities. The site lists the location of regional arts development offices, upcoming activities as well as occasional training courses offered in different regions for local volunteers.

Regional Galleries welcome volunteers to help with their operations.  This website provides a list of regional galleries.

The Collections Australia Network is a useful Australia wide search engine to locate regional museums, libraries and galleries and other cultural institutions.

Local libraries, community and neighbourhood centres as well as local newspapers are good sources of information to find local amateur music and theatre groups.

These groups rely on volunteers to keep going and are a great way to develop your creative talents and support your local community. 

The Public Library Websites Directory of NSW lists all public libraries in NSW. Local libraries welcome the assistance of volunteer helpers. 

Open Google for other ideas, click on pages from Australia and search using key words such as amateur dramatics or volunteer theatre plus geographic location e.g. volunteer theatre Sydney.