Opened: February 2024
Curator: George Savoulis (Curator September 2023 – April 2024; Curatorial Director April 2024 – June 2025)

1978: Hour by Hour is a permanent, inaugural exhibition documenting the events of 1978, a pivotal year in Sydney’s LGBTQIA+ history. The exhibition focuses on the formation of the Gay Solidarity Group and the first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, presenting the events of that year in chronological sequence.

The exhibition examines the protest march of 24 June 1978, subsequent police violence, arrests, and the legal and social consequences that followed in the months after. These events are presented as a defining moment in the development of queer activism and community organisation in Sydney.

Installed within a former police cell, the exhibition includes archival photographs, maps of protest routes, and a recreation of the original International Gay Solidarity Group marching sign by Ken Davis. It also features the documentary Witches and Faggots, Dykes and Poofters, produced by the One in Seven Collective and directed by Digby Duncan. Together, these materials document the events of 1978 and their continuing significance within histories of protest, policing, and LGBTQIA+ rights.