Maritime Museum Tasmania will open free of charge across two Antarctic festival weekends this August, giving locals and visitors the opportunity to experience David Neilson’s photographic exhibition, Antarctica is Melting.

Free entry will be available on:

• Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 August, during Beaker Street's Hobartica
• Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 August, during the Australian Antarctic Festival

The free weekends have been made possible through funding from Arts Tasmania, supporting wider access to the exhibition.

Antarctica is Melting

Drawn from six journeys David Neilson made to Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic between 1990 and 2009, Antarctica is Melting presents a powerful black and white record of one of the world’s most remote and fragile regions.

The exhibition captures the scale and beauty of the Antarctic landscape while confronting the effects of climate change in a place often imagined as untouched, distant and beyond human influence.

For many Tasmanians, Antarctica is not simply a distant continent. It forms part of the state’s maritime identity, connected to Hobart through vessels, institutions, researchers and the working waterfront.

Neilson’s photographs reveal a vast and fragile landscape being reshaped by climate change. The free weekends offer visitors the chance to spend time with the exhibition and reflect on the Antarctic region at a moment when its beauty and vulnerability are in sharp focus.

Visitors can also explore the Museum’s wider displays, which share Tasmania’s maritime history through stories of sailing, shipbuilding, trade, exploration and life on the River Derwent.

Free entry applies during normal Museum opening hours on 8, 9, 22 and 23 August 2026.