By Dominique Tassell
Stanthorpe Regional Art Gallery is full steam ahead as they prepare to open their new exhibition, Then | Now | ART : 150 Years of Stanthorpe’s Creativity.
The official opening of the exhibit will be held on Friday 11 March at 6 pm, and the gallery will return to regular hours from Saturday 12 March after closing earlier this week to prepare.
As long as people have lived in the Granite Belt, they have looked for ways to depict the world around them. The region’s Indigenous people used art and songs to tell creation stories, guide their way across their country and record their history. Art is prolific in our place. Long before and in the last 150 years, there have been many forms of art: music, dance, photography, painting and more. This exhibition charts our art history through time.
Gallery Director, Mary Findlay, said she is so passionate about art in the region.
“In a time when we’ve been polarised, art brings us together.”
While Southern Downs Regional Council has debated in chambers about whether or not the gallery should be forced to use their savings to support themselves during upcoming construction on the gallery and library, Mary said they have a really good relationship.
“We’ve worked closely with them for many years,” she said, and doesn’t believe the current discussions will affect their relationship
Mary said the gallery has “always punched above its own weight”, and the “nest egg” that is the centre of the debate is the reserve they’ve established by being frugal in recent years.
She said the gallery has a clear plan for these funds.
The extension to the art gallery and library has been on the cards for over ten years, Mary said, and part of the need for it was because the gallery has always fit the national gallery standard.
Mary said the gallery wants to use its reserve to look after emerging artists and young artists in the community. She’d love to be able to have some artists in residence, which is an expensive endeavour.
The gallery’s art prize money also comes out of this reserve.
“That money is really important,” Mary said.
The gallery has run a 5000 biennial art prize that has run since 1972 and is one of the top ten art prizes nationally.
She said money is secured in different ways by the gallery, but all that money goes back into the community,
The gallery has undertaken “really careful and astute planning for the future,” Mary said.
She said the reserve means the gallery is able to donate their whole space to the Crisps Youth Art Prize every year.
The gallery tries to save money by applying for grants where they can, and Mary said they understand that Council is dealing with public money.
“We’re looking at public money,” she said, and this is why the gallery holds itself to such a high standard.
Mary said the gallery has become a huge drawcard for tourism, and this is why a central location is important.
She said they try to support all the local groups and continually give back.
Mary said the gallery is working very closely with the project manager, and they “don’t want anything except what we really need”.
