Artist Leah Torly, whose work is currently on display in Unicorn Lane, said public exhibitions made art more accessible.

"A lot of people aren't exposed to art or they have this idea that art is not for them," she said.

"But if you bring the art to where people are, then they will see it and they will engage with it and I think that's really important."

Torly said spaces for public art exhibitions are also a great way to meet other creatives or get involved with the Ballarat art scene.

"It's good for social cohesion as well having public art spaces because it makes people want to come out and then see their city," she said.

Torly's exhibition Year of the Rabbit: Famous Self Portraits re-imagines famous portraits with rabbits instead of artists.

This is her first solo exhibition and the body of work builds on concepts she was working on while studying at Oxygen College.

"I found it amusing just to think, back then nobles would pay artists to paint these glorious portraits of themselves," she said.

"What would they think hundreds of years later if they knew they were being recreated as [bunnies]."

Previous work would include recreations with other animals including ducks or goats, but with her exhibition at the start of the year Torly thought she would pay homage to the year of the rabbit.

Year of the Rabbit: Famous Self Portraits will be on display until January 20

In the Art Space, next to the Mining Exchange on Lydiard Street, it is all about taking in small moments.

Twelve artists, named the Ballarat Belles, are trying to find a little bit of optimism with their exhibition.

The group are also members of the Ballarat Society of Artists but are using this collection to try out something different.

"We're not just doing landscapes or portraits," artist Trudy Nicholson said.

"After COVID-19 we really needed to appreciate the world around us and look at things more closely," she said.

The exhibition entitled Golden Futures: a macro view takes you into a variety of different moments in nature.

Ms Nicholson, who has been part of the arts society for the last decade and president for two years, has three of her works in the exhibition.

She mostly works with pastels and each of her pieces in this exhibition focuses on a different flower.

"If you look at things closely you see things that you normally take for granted," Nicholson said.

"If you look at agapanthus, it's like something giving birth and each time there's a little thing or something else is showing," she said.

Golden Futures: a macro view will be in the Art Space on 14 Lydiard St until January 14.

The gallery is open Wednesday to Sunday from 10am until 4pm.

A six-metre tall mural has recently been finished on Field Street.

The work brings together colonial and Indigenous history, you can read the story behind the piece here.