[6] Under Rubbo's leadership, the gallery hosted and supported an array of leading experimental, activist and community-based exhibitions and events.
Highlights include: In 1972, the inaugural Bubbles event at the gallery hosted three-thousand children for school holiday creative workshops.
Frances Lindsay describes the initiative as "a pioneer program in Australian galleries and museums for the active and educative engagement of young people".
The following year, Rubbo commissioned Burke to curate the national touring exhibition Australian Women Artists 1840–1940.
[8][9] The gallery hosted international feminist art critic, Lucy Lippard, who delivered a talk to a women-only audience.
Meredith Rogers, Suzanne Davies, Janine Burke and Judy Annear penned contributions.
Her text describes Rubbo's uniquely collaborative and anti-hierarchical working manner, which was conversational, personal, emotional and feminist.