For the Melbourne-based artist and collector, himself a survivor of abuse at a Sydney children's home, Ballarat is the apt place to open an exhibition he hopes will travel around the country.

"It is one of the heartlands... where the abuse was unbridled basically," he said. "To bring this to Ballarat is where it should start from.

"There were a lot of people in Ballarat who really stood up - and still stand up today. I was really excited the gallery responded so positively."

He wants the art at the exhibition to serve as a testament to how people managed to get the truth heard, in particular after the Royal Commission.

"The idea was that in future people will be able to look back on this in centuries to come and look at how we've been able to overcome adversity and make what was impossible possible against very powerful people."

The exhibition was not aimed as part of the healing process for survivors, he said.

"The idea of healing is that you are kind of sick and what I like to do is flip on its reverse and say that the institutions that caused the abuse on innocent children are the ones that really need to heal from the damage."

"These things wouldn't have changed without survivors standing up for their rights across the board. That's not just church institutions, it's in judicial institutions, in all walks of government.

"In the end it was really us holding up our values and demanding change from them."

"It brought about the Royal Commission and the truth was finally found out from then."

Gallery director Louise Tegart said the exhibition was part of a wider trend to use art to address physical and mental health issues.

"We felt we could have a role in that," she said.

"A key remit for the gallery is about reflecting or addressing issues in Ballarat as a city, [which] has been particularly affected by issues of child sexual abuse. These are still very raw and very real issues so the gallery is kind of a safe place to present some of those ideas."

Mr House described the exhibition as "edgy and it speaks the truth."

"I want [visitors] to reflect on the great loss of people's lives.

"I want the other message to be 'stand strong; if you believe in something and you're determined, the truth should be told and reverberate through time'.

"I want them to be proud that Australia is one of the key heartlands of that change."

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