The Museum and Art Gallery is New Norcia's star attraction and is visited by tens of thousands of people annually. Established on its present site by Abbot Bernard Rooney in 1978, the Museum and Art Gallery was formerly St Joseph's Aboriginal Girls' Orphanage.
The 2014 Bicentenary exhibition- In Search of Salvado features a range of outstanding photographs, artworks, maps, vestments and books, many conserved especially for the exhibition which commemorates the bicentenary of the birth of New Norcia's founder, Rosendo Salvado On display until 1st March 2015.
The Museum contains a fascinating array of artefacts that trace New Norcia's time as an Aboriginal mission, a centre of extensive farming and as a place of education and culture.It tells the story of monks and lay people who have made a home in New Norcia throughout its history. These stories include those of the artist monk Fr Lesmes Lopez and the lay woodworker Juan Casellasboth of whose works now form an integral part of the fabric of the town, as well as the many Indigenous and European students who spent a portion of their youth here.
