General News
14 September, 2023
Goldfields gallery project shortlisted for state award
In the spotlight once again, the Central Goldfields Art Gallery (CGAG) has been shortlisted for a major state-level award — going up against some of the biggest names in the industry. As part of the 2023 Victorian Museums and Galleries Award, the...
In the spotlight once again, the Central Goldfields Art Gallery (CGAG) has been shortlisted for a major state-level award — going up against some of the biggest names in the industry.
As part of the 2023 Victorian Museums and Galleries Award, the Maryborough-based gallery is currently in the running for the Large Project of the Year title, selected for its $2 million redevelopment.
While the results are set to be announced at a ceremony in Melbourne on October 10, a potential win will add to the recognition the gallery has already achieved this year, including from two big avenues — with the award Searle Bros Building Contractors secured last month at the Master Builders Victoria event for their work on the gallery as well as through CGAG’s architects, Nervegna Reed Architecture’s designs of the gallery that were featured internationally at the 2023 Venice Biennale.
“I’m very excited, I can’t get over our gallery because it keeps on giving,” mayor Grace La Vella said.
“[Even being shortlisted] is yet another feather in our cap and it’s going to help us get the tourism dollar for the town.
“We’ve got something to be so proud of as a community. Now we’re known on multiple levels, regional, state and international, that’s wonderful.”
This time around, CGAG is competing with well-known organisations for the top-spot, with the likes of Arts Centre Melbourne, City of Melbourne and Museums Victoria also shortlisted for their projects.
“There’s a great sense of pride for all of us,” CGAG coordinator Helen Kaptein said.
“To see the Central Goldfields Shire being recognised with its public art gallery, among these really significant cultural institutions shows how much we can achieve.
“It goes to show what we aspire to and that great work can come from the regions, to be a smaller organisation on the same stage as our city peers is very encouraging.”
Pushing the art centre’s success even further, alongside being a finalist for the award, the gallery also recently became a beneficiary of a State Government grant worth $9970 — receiving the funding under the Local History Grants Program, the funds will help the gallery showcase its note-worthy past.
“Our gallery has so many stories and capturing these stories is really critical to this place,” Ms Kaptein said.
“The grant is extremely meaningful, in that it gives us the opportunity to explore and bring to life some of those historical narratives.
“We know that when our visitors come to the gallery they are really interested in the building itself and now we’ll be able to create an experience to show them the history of this space.”
According to CGAG’s operations officer Edwina Coller, the grants program which is being administered by the Public Record Office Victoria, will allow the organisation to retain the story of how the space transformed into what it is today from when it was first built as a fire station in 1861.
“It’s important that we’re able to preserve that history relating to the evolution of the gallery from a fire station,” she said.
“We felt that we needed to make sure that information wasn’t lost — there’s people who have a lot of knowledge about the building and they’re getting older so we thought it’d be nice to interview them and keep that as a record.
“We’re thinking of producing a film with all that content so that people can come and sit in the gallery and watch a video showing some of those historical elements and stories. It will have many different point of views.”
Ms Coller said that a film of this kind would add to the gallery’s experience and make the space feel culturally richer.
“I am really looking forward to the final product,” she said.
“It’s obvious to a lot of visitors that this building used to be a fire station but I think when they watch our little movie, it’ll add an extra dimension to the gallery.
“This building is so unique and has a special history, we want to share that with everyone.”
Another local organisation will get the opportunity to preserve its history through the same program — benefiting from about $4475, the Talbot Arts and Historical Museum has big plans to protect its records.
“The funding is the best thing that’s ever happened to us and it will be used to buy an overhead scanner for all the old books and documents we have,” the museum’s president Leanne Boyle said.
“Before the grant, we had no way of digitising our records and this scanner will let us do that. After everything is digital, if anyone wants to search something they will be able to just type the word and the software will pull up the relevant document.
“It means that we can now safely store away everything once they are digitised so it’ll keep them intact long term because they are very fragile.”