Designed by Wood Marsh Architects, the building was completed in 2002, and includes facilities for Chunky Move dance company and the Malthouse Theatre.

[4] Openings in the distinctive rusty steel façade are kept to a minimum to support a broad array of installations, temporary and digitally projected work, which contrasts with the inter-pressed metal and glass surfaces in the interior.

The design references the European model of the Kunsthalle, acting as a flexible shell for the display of art.

It is popularly known as The Yellow Peril, due to its colour, modernist shape, cost, and controversy in the newspapers at the time of its placement.

[citation needed] From 15 December 2017 to 25 March 2018, ACCA held Unfinished Business: Perspectives on Art and Feminism, curated in collaboration with Paola Balla, Julie Ewington, Vikki McInnes, and Elvis Richardson, Unfinished Business sought to engage critical but underrepresented practices from Australia, with a focus on contemporary practices and intersectional feminist perspectives.

[8] The exhibition featured 40 newly commissioned and existing works by women artists including Ali Gumillya Baker, Atong Atem, Maria Kozic, Mikayla Dwyer, and Vivienne Binns.