THE Riddoch Art Gallery is leveraging its reputation as South Australia’s premier regional arts facility to bring more unique and popular travelling exhibitions to Mount Gambier.
While Sidney Nolan’s current Ned Kelly exhibition has been pulling in record numbers, it is one of many popular shows lining the gallery in recent years.
Mount Gambier City Council arts and culture director Serena Wong said a combination of good working relationships, extra programming activities and high standards contributed to the influx of nationally-renowned exhibitions.
“We are also uniquely placed within the region which allows travelling exhibitions from both Adelaide and Melbourne easier to come by,” she said.
“We are also the biggest regional gallery in South Australia which works in our favour too.”
The gallery’s Ned Kelly exhibition is expected to spill out into the wider community with collaborative external programming, which include Limestone Coast-based artists.
A screening delving into the back story of Ned Kelly and his gang and a paper collage activity are among the programs on offer.
“A local artist is running a paper collage of Ned Kelly style for children,” gallery programming assistant Emma Telford said.
“They will tear up tissue paper and overlay them onto cardboard to create similar artwork to what is on display.”
“It is important that we have these kinds of different activities for all ages.
“That way the exhibition is not only for art fans but for the community as a whole.”
The Sidney Nolan exhibition is not the only nation-wide travelling show the gallery will host this year with the much anticipated Ancient Rome exhibition coming to the city in the coming months.
Riddoch Art Gallery director and curator Melentie Pandilovski said staff have high expectations for the upcoming exhibition.
“It will be a lost-cost ticket event and will run for three months, both of which is unusual for the gallery,” he said.
“But we are hosting it for so long because we believe it is important to give everybody the chance to see it.”
The large exhibition will see the Main Corner complex, the library and visitor information centre transformed into an ancient roman empire as a part of their external programming.
Ms Wong said the gallery was also dedicated to celebrating local artists as well as national artists through exhibitions such as the current Transformative exhibition.
“It does take a while to organise an exhibition, even a local one,” Ms Wong said.
“The Transformative exhibition took us about a year to put together just because there is so much that goes into them.”
