text: 150 outgoing art fans have taken part in National Gallery of Australia's first ever naked art tour, stripping off their clothes for an adult-only after-hours viewing experience. The first hour-long tour through the NGA's current exhibition, 'James Turrell: A Retrospective', took place on Wednesday night, in a no-frills approach to art led by Melbourne-based artist Stuart Ringholt. 'Everyone's all in it together, so it's not weird or anything,' said one man who attended the tour. Scroll down for video . 150 art fans took part in a nude tour of an exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia on Wednesday evening . 'You don't have the clothing distracting you. And because of the light installations, everyone is very neutral,' one woman told The ABC. 'It just gives it a very different perspective.' Ringholt, the tour guide for the retrospective, which highlights the 70-year-old American artist's 50 years of work, said the experience creates an 'educational state' for viewing the art. 'While to some people this might be a joke, it's not to me. I take this very seriously,' Ringholt told Daily Mail Australia. 'It's all about education through experience. Witnessing everyone take their clothes off and leave them in a pile is really quite profound,' he said. 'You realise how complex and socially fabricated we are, connected through clothes'. 'Everyone's all in it together, so it's not weird or anything,' said one man who attended the tour . The tour ran for an hour after the NGA was closed for the evening . Mr Ringholt has already been the guide on nude gallery tours at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney and MONA in Tasmania . Ringholt is no stranger to nude education, having guided similar tours at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney and MONA in Tasmania. The tours, which will run again on Thursday night, is an adventure through Turrell's body of work, and include installations purpose-built for Canberra, as well as drawings, prints and photographs. The custom built light program will project different colours onto the viewers, which Ringholt said will be one of the most interesting elements of the nude tour. He expects people 'from all walks of life' to join in the tours, and was adamant about offering concessions for the exhibition so that a cross section of society might be emboldened to give nudity a go. 'We all share the same humanity, and it's wonderful to see people come along and be so happy. I liken the tours to a 40th birthday party of a reunion of long lost friends,' Ringholt said. Ringholt is no stranger to nude education, having guided similar tours at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney and MONA in Tasmania . You don't have the clothing distracting you. And because of the light installations, everyone is very neutral,' said one woman . Mr Ringholt said that he was interested to see how the light displays interacted with the naked bodies . 'We often get nudists who are really excited to come to events, because for them it's exciting that society is saying "you're ok, you can participate",' he said. 'Art students also tend to come along, but there is always someone who has never done something like this before,' 'I had one woman who was so nervous but came up to me afterwards and thanked me for running the tour because she had had so much shame around her body and was able to overcome her fears.' Ringholt maintains that there is nothing sexual about the tours, and said that the human body is more sexualised with clothes on. 'With clothes on, the imagination is engaged, but with them off, there isn't the same hook. The body is quite de-sexualised,' Ringholt said. 'People don't believe me when I say this, but people all look the same with their clothes off. An 18-year-old looks like a 70-year-old,' he said. 150 outgoing art fans will take part in the National Gallery of Australia's (NGA) first ever naked art tour . The tour guide for the retrospective, which highlights the 70-year-old American artist's 50 years of work, will be Melbourne-based artist Stuart Ringholt (far right) Mr Turrell's retrospective highlights the 70-year-old American artist's 50 years of work . 'It sounds ridiculous but until you've actually seen people in a group, nude, looking at art respectfully, it's hard to understand.' The artist, who has previously run a nude night club experience called Club Purple, began performing nude in his 20's as a way to explore the issues of shame and embarrassment. He said that nude tours in particular are excellent vehicles for promoting acceptance of one's body, and also to engage in an activity normally considered quite risque. 'It's illegal to be nude in public, so to be naked in what is normally a very public space is a form a mild protest,' Ringholt said. 'I think it's an excellent way to accept your body, and generate some self love. It's not negative, no one is looking and judging,' he said. The artist whose work is the impetus for the tours, James Turrell, was reportedly very keen to have viewers of his work wander around and experience it nude. A nude tour for one of his exhibitions was previously held in Japan, and Ringholt said he expressed interest in having the tour replicated at the Australian retrospective. The custom built light program will project different colours onto the viewers . 'We drink light through the skin as Vitamin D... so we are literally light eaters. It's part of our diet,' said Turrell . Turrell sees nothing wrong with nudity and explains: 'We drink light through the skin as Vitamin D... so we are literally light eaters. It's part of our diet.' Ringholt said that Turrell is fascinated by the element of light, and uses the term 'skyclad' instead of nude. 'He produces skyspaces, and his art has a really beautiful relationship with light perception, stars, the heavens, all things celestial,' he said. Paul Matthews, who participated in one of the nude tours run by Ringholt at the Museum of Contemporary Art, said that it was a unique experience to be in a public setting with other people while naked. Matthews, a nudist, said that he felt some of the installations were 'made complete' by the nude spectators, and that he didn't believe the experience would have been the same had the group been clothed. 'I don't think I could ever visit the MCA clothed after this tour,' he said. The tours, which will run outside of regular exhibition hours on April 1 and 2, are an hour-long adventure through Turrell's body of work . The tour include installations purpose-built for Canberra, as well as drawings, prints and photographs . Turrell is fascinated by the element of light, and uses the term 'skyclad' instead of nude .
target: Naked art fans attended an hour-long nude tour at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra on Wednesday night .
  The tour took place outside regular exhibition hours, as it is illegal to be naked in public .
  Fans viewed the exhibition, 'James Turrell: A Retrospective' led by experienced nude tour guide Stuart Ringholt .
  'Everyone's all in it together, so it's not weird or anything,' said one man .
  The 70-year-old artist has put on a nude exhibition before in Japan, and was keen to replicate the experience for his body of work in Australia .