Leading change at the Art Gallery of Ballarat

GALLERIES and museums around Australia exist in a highly competitive and dynamic environment.

They bear the responsibility of caring for their valuable collections, as well as presenting the past and present, and challenging our future.

They promote community wellbeing and lifelong learning while actively competing for tourism revenue, funding and sponsorship.

To keep up, institutions like the Art Gallery of Ballarat, Australia’s oldest and largest regional gallery, need to navigate significant internal and external change.

Industry leaders, like Art Gallery of Ballarat director Louise Tegart, need to understand audience needs and also think long term about wider societal trends that will affect their organisation.

The Art Gallery of Ballarat’s vision of being Australia’s leading regional gallery has meant that nearly every part of its operations have been examined and in many cases adapted for the 21st century environment.

Over the last few decades, there has been a national and international move to redress gender representation within gallery collections and exhibition programming.

There has been a recognition that historically, women artists have had trouble achieving the recognition that has come to their male counterparts.

As with many Australian museum and galleries, the Art Gallery of Ballarat has taken a proactive approach towards gender representation in exhibition programs and collection acquisitions.

A key part of that has been identifying women artists whose work deserves to be included in the collection and take steps to acquire works and incorporate them into exhibitions.

Likewise, the Gallery are ensuring that the collection and exhibitions reflect the cultural diversity of Australia’s population as well as broader societal issues.

Today, Ballarat is experiencing an exciting time or growth, change and renewal, and the Gallery is playing a central role in promoting the future of our city.

The rate of new residents and businesses coming into the community is extraordinary, and the Gallery – along with Ballarat’s other cultural institutions – has an important role in reflecting those changes.

Diversity is one key prism to view exhibition programming through and it is essential in planning exhibitions and events, education programs, signage and even what’s for sale in our Gallery Shop.

Louise and her team seek to understand who visitors are and how to attract new ones, while remaining engaged with our existing audiences.

As the focus for visual arts in our region, the Gallery has an important role to lead and reflect change, and under Louise’s leadership it’s continued to strive to be an integral part of Ballarat for everyone and better reflect our community and the changes we see around us.

It has been a really important move to revive the Gallery’s original motto ‘Not for self but for all’ recognising that from its foundation the Gallery has sought to be an equitable place for everyone.

To find out more visit artgalleryofballarat.com.au.