Art screen lights up Alfred Deakin Place

ART Gallery of Ballarat programming can now be enjoyed twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

A big solar-powered art screen, and art boxes, have been installed in Alfred Deakin Place which are bringing visual art outdoors.

“It’s long been an ambition of the Art Gallery of Ballarat to activate Alfred Deakin Place, so we’re really extremely grateful to the State Government for making that happen,” said gallery director Louise Tegart.

“We’re delighted that we can extend beyond our walls… which aligns with our strategic goal to extend reach and economic impact, to seek to develop new audiences, and attract visitors to discover unique stories and culture.

“Several hundred people a day pass through this space, and they’ll now be exposed to exciting new video and photographic work.”

The project has cost more than $497,000 and was paid for by the State’s Government’s COVID Safe Outdoor Activation Fund.

The budgie-centric portraiture of Sydney photographic and video artist Leila Jeffreys is currently showcased on the art screen, and in the boxes on its forecourt.

“From an artist’s perspective, public art is probably my biggest passion,” she said.

“I have a real drive and desire to connect people to nature and so the opportunity to have work shown here is incredible.

“The exhibition was called High Society. I like to play with scale and take subjects that are seen as very tiny, such as budgies, and make… the scale huge.

“The video artwork, Nature is not a place to visit, it is home, speaks to that theme that nature is part of us, and something we need to protect and care for, and no matter what age you are, you can engage with it, love it, and remember the beauty of birds.

“Every person I ever meet has a story of a budgie. They are so quintessentially Australian, and that’s why I wanted to work with them.”

The art screen has the capabilities to present live broadcasts and was utilised to show some of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup as part of a community event in Alfred Deakin Place.