[4] The Performing Arts Museum was officially launched by Premier Sir Rupert Hamer on 30 October 1978 with a display held at the nearby National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), where George Pusak, managing director of Mobil Oil, gave a cheque of $300,000 towards the museum's establishment.

[9][10] In August 2022, incoming Melbourne Arts Centre CEO Karen Quinlan announced plans to further showcase the Australian Performing Arts Collection and loan the collection to other Australian institutions.

Exhibitions subjects have included AC/DC, Kylie Minogue, Geoffrey Rush, Peter Allen, and Nick Cave and have toured nationally and internationally.

[12] Collections began being acquired before the Melbourne Arts Centre was built, officially beginning in 1979.

[4] In 1975 an advertisement announced the Arts Centre Melbourne was preparing to receive theatrical memorabilia for their museum and were inundated with materials which were looked over by a group of volunteer archivists.