Two exhibitions opened at Parliament House on Monday, Design in the Decade, which showcases art and craft from the 1980s, and Competition to Completion: Building Australian Parliament House, which traces the construction of the building from start to finish, each giving an insight into the Parliament House Art Collection.

The collection boasts more than 6500 pieces, and collection director Justine van Mourik said this coming year of celebration was a fantastic opportunity to bring pieces into the public areas of the house.

"The collection is largely hidden in that it's either subtly, or less subtly woven, into the building," she says.

"There's the Arthur Boyd-designed tapestry in the Great Hall and the parquetry panels in the foyer but much of the collection is used to furnish the offices of 226 parliamentarians.

"You might get glimpses of it on the news, it provides lovely backdrops sometimes when they're doing an interview in their office, but you never get a sense of the whole of it because it is so spread out over this vast site."

One highlight of Design in the Decade is a striking Jenny Kee rug which is usually on the floor of an advisers' area off the chambers in the House of Representatives.

"Jenny Kee was an artist, who, along with Ken Done, was a name that was synonymous with Australian art in the 1980s," says van Mourik.

"This rug is a bright, amazing design which incorporates Australian emblems, and yes, you can walk on it in the exhibition."

Another item which the public has never seen is a chair from the President of the Senate's private dining room. When Parliament House was being built all the furniture was commissioned, from chairs to tables to cabinets. With a budget of $6 million it was a art program on the grandest of scales.

"It was a really fun exercise to trawl through the collection and pick out some of the art works to celebrate the 1980s," says van Mourik.

"It was such a fertile period in Australian art and a lot of that is due to the Parliament House Art and Craft program due to the number of artworks we bought for this building and the number of works that were commissioned for this building."

Competition to Completion traces the origins of the building, from the design competition which drew 329 entries from 29 countries.

The competition winner was the New York-based architectural firm of Mitchell/Giurgola & Thorp, with the on-site work directed by the Italian-born architect Romaldo Giurgola.

The winning design was announced on June 26 1980 and the assessors report on the winning scheme noted its unpretentiousness and accessibility where children "will not only be able to climb on the building but draw it easily too". One wonders what they'd think now of not being able to roll down the hill!

Mitchell/Giurgola & Thorp were not only responsible for the design of the building but for the interior design, furniture design, landscape and coordination of the art and craft program.

The exhibitions run until May 13, 2018 and a program of birthday celebrations can be found here.