Description of the attraction
The Art Gallery is the main cultural institution in Geelong City. Today, about 5 thousand art objects are kept in the gallery's funds. The gallery building itself is part of the Geelong Cultural District with the Performing Arts Center, Courthouse, City Library and Cultural History Center located nearby.
In 1895, members of the Geelong Progress League petitioned the state government to establish an Art Gallery in the city. Their application was granted in May 1900, when the Art Gallery Association was granted permission to use the three walls of the City Hall to display paintings. This is how the life of the gallery began. Among the first acquisitions to the collection was a painting by Frederick Maccabin from 1890, "The Grave in the Bush," bought for $ 210. The gallery soon moved to the Free Library building on Murabool Street.
The current building of the Art Gallery was officially opened in 1915. It is located next to Johnstone Park between the City Hall and the former fire station (today it is the Regional Library). The building originally housed a covered gallery and lobby overlooking the park and the Hitchcock Gallery. The Henry Douglas Gallery was opened in 1928 and the Richardson Gallery in 1937. With the opening of the McPhillimy Gallery in 1938, the main entrance to the building moved to Little Malop Street.
Today, the Art Gallery collection houses an outstanding collection of 19th and 20th century Australian and European art. In addition to paintings and watercolors, you can see English porcelain of the 18th and 19th centuries, artistic ceramics, silverware of the colonial period, works of contemporary Australian artists, prints, sculptures and ceramics. Of particular interest is the collection of paintings depicting Geelong from the mid-19th century.
