The galleries were alive with chatter and laughs as the Benalla Art Gallery Foundation launched its Annual Giving Campaign.
The Foundation is committed to ensuring the gallery has a building and staffing levels capable of delivering the activities demanded of a modern regional gallery.
Foundation chair Winsome McCaughey said the community needs its gallery to have the ability to evolve and grow its spaces and capacities, so it can deliver increased community programming and blockbuster exhibitions.
“Our commitment is to try to do two things,” she said.
“To upgrade and extend the building, which as you know, is 50 years old.
“And we want to be able to stage blockbuster exhibitions because they're much more economical to put together than doing all the curating and insurance and licences for every single gallery.”
These things, however, cost money, and the purpose of the Foundation is to raise funds to support the Gallery to evolve and grow.
“It's an award-winning building in the most beautiful location,” Ms McCaughy said,
“But it was built much smaller originally because the budget wasn't there.”
Benalla Art Gallery Director Eric Nash said the work of the Foundation is essential.
“The foundation is going to be important in sustaining the gallery over a period of time,” he said,
“We're a council owned and an operated institution and the council remains very committed to supporting the gallery.
“But the fact is, Benalla is a small town with a limited rate base.
“So the foundation will be critical in helping us to raise funds.
“Not only for capital projects, but for programmes and also to build a corpus that can be invested and to help sustain operations over time.”
Mr Nash said there are already some upgrades and improvements to the Gallery in the works.
“Some of the highlights will be a complete renewal of our climate control, some environmental sustainability improvements, load bearing improvements to our internal galleries and a new fit for purpose hospitality space.
“For me as a director, there are challenges within this building that haven't allowed us to deliver some of the exhibitions that we would really like to.
“We know state and national institutions would be agreeable and excited to partner with us and tour some of their masterworks, but until this stage one redevelopment is delivered, it's just not an option.”
There are a number of ways you can support the Benalla Art Gallery Foundation. Find out more via bagf.org.au/
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