Colin Joss and wife Lorraine were at a walk-through of the new gallery on Tuesday, where it was announced that they would make a $200,000 donation.

Mr Joss said they were delighted to be a part of a project that would put Albury on the map as a cultural destination.

The family’s dontation follows another generous contribution of $250,000 to the $10.5 million Murray Art Museum Albury by the Paul Ramsay Foundation.

The two cash injections mean the Arts Albury fundraising group has managed to reach its goal of $1.05 million in philanthropic support.

As we all know by now, Albury Council was let down when the NSW government failed to match $3.5 million in federal funding in a move that could have so easily resulted in the project being shelved.

But council voted 5-3 to carry on, upping the contribution by ratepayers to the project in a decision that was never going to be popular in all corners.  

With a likely spend of at least $6 million by council, councillors Darren Cameron, Kevin Mack and Ross Jackson were strongly opposed to the move.

Cr Cameron said he did not believe the majority of ratepayers supported spending that amount of money and questioned whether the fundraising group could really come up with more than $1 million in private capital.

Cr David Thurley said the undertaking to raise that private capital was largely the tipping point in swaying him towards supporting the project. 

At the time, Cr Cameron was not the only one who was questioning the optimism of the fundraising projection – it did seem to be an ambitious and even overly optimistic amount of money.

But with help in the form of the enormous contributions by the Joss family and the Paul Ramsay Foundation, the Arts Albury fundraising group has delivered.

There were 36 benefactors in total, with donations that ranged from $3000 to $250,000.

With MAMA’s grand opening on Friday night, congratulations must go to the the group, with its work now done.