Mayor’s Message - Friday 5 July 2024

At the June Council meeting, Councillors noted the Art Gallery of Ballarat’s year in review (2022-23).  

Our city’s Art Gallery is the oldest and largest regional gallery in Australia and plays an active role the life of our community and draws many visitors and contributes to our city’s economy.  

Over the past year, the gallery received an increase of 33 per cent in visitors, with more than 110,000 people attending. First time visitors to the Gallery also increased to 48 per cent!  

A total of 29 temporary exhibits which featured more than 300 artists also took place within our Gallery over the past year.  

The Ballarat Art Gallery acquired 208 new works for the collection, and now holds 11,284 pieces of art for the community to enjoy.  

The Art Gallery of Ballarat is the heart and soul of culture in Ballarat, and I am incredibly proud of the leading regional gallery we have in our city.  

I do encourage you to visit the Gallery, it is free to enter and enjoy the main exhibits – there is always something different and new on.

It is very exciting that later this year the Medieval to Metal exhibition will be held exclusively at the Gallery. The exhibition highlights the art and evolution of the guitar and features 40 iconic guitars on loan from the National Guitar Museum of USA, alongside photographs, paintings, drawings and objects.

It’s sure to be an exciting collection, on display from 12 October 2024 until 2 February 2025. Tickets can be purchased from artgalleryofballarat.com.au.

- Mayor Cr Des Hudson