A NEW name will be found for the Albury Regional Art Gallery when it reopens next year after a $10.5 million redevelopment.
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And it will be known as an “art museum” rather than just a gallery.
The name change will be to position it “alongside some of the world’s leading modern art museums and galleries”.
The proposals were yesterday revealed by the inaugural chairwoman of the eight-member Albury Gallery Advisory Committee, Guinever Threlkeld.
Albury Council trumpeted Dr Threlkeld’s strong education background when announcing her appointment.
Dr Threlkeld is the La Trobe University Albury-Wodonga campus head and is known for her expertise in the governance of not-for-profit organisations.
“When the building re-opens mid-next year, it will be like nothing this region has ever seen or experienced before,” she said.
“We’re working on a new name as well as assisting in the search for the new director.”
The committee’s job is to provide strategic advice to gallery staff and the council on important decisions relating to the new gallery.
Dr Threlkeld said changing the name would better reflect the council’s vision for the building.
“An art museum owns a collection, commissions new work, is involved in education and the development of the community, and is a much bigger enterprise than a gallery,” she said.
Dr Threlkeld said it was important the community got a better understanding over coming months, as the building started to take shape, of what the new art museum would mean for the city both socially and economically.
“The days of our small reg-ional art gallery are gone,” she said.
“We are building a modern, sophisticated and inviting art space that will offer so much more than it did previously.”
As revealed recently by The Border Mail, a “high-profile” international exhibition had been secured for the new art museum.
Dr Threlkeld said this exhibition would travel to Australia to show exclusively in Albury.