Beleura House and Garden held the official opening of the New John Tallis Research Building and Gallery on Friday 21st of May 2021.

Beleura House and Garden in Mornington, Victoria, safeguards the bequest of composer John Tallis, who died in 1996 gifting Beleura, its contents and a supporting Foundation to the people of Victoria. John Tallis’s father was head of JC Williamson Pty Ltd, the world’s largest entertainment organisation of the 1920.

Today Beleura’s collections furnish a living museum as ‘a theatre of the past’, preserving for future generations Australia’s performing arts history and memorabilia acquired by gift and purchase.

Beleura’s Stage Design Collection is showcased in display areas, and builds upon the JC Williamson legacy from the end of the 1890s but costume and set illustrations are mostly from the 20th century. It includes William Akers AM and Roger Meyers gift of ballet-oriented collection of photographs and historical set and costume designs

In 2008, Beleura purchased 32 costume and set designs/models from a fundraising exhibition at the Arts Centre, held to establish the Kristian Fredrikson Scholarship for Design in the Performing Arts. The scholarship recipients regularly donate designs and set models to Beleura.

In April this year our collection more than doubled when a tremendous gift of 48 designs was very generously donated by the designers themselves, works realised in national and international productions of ballet, opera, drama and experimental performance. The instigator of these donations is patron of the collection, designer Anna French. Beleura is sincerely grateful to Anna for her foresight, imagination and desire to preserve theatrical design.