This space is just a small section that will be converted for the Archibald Prize this year.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
In 1936, a modest provincial gallery in Shepparton acquired its first two artworks with a 50-pound grant from the Victorian Government.
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That grant was a quiet beginning for what would become one of regional Victoria’s most significant art collections.
Ninety years on, that same gallery, now the Shepparton Art Museum, is marking its anniversary in its biggest year yet, preparing to host the Archibald Prize, in its only Victorian stop of its national tour, alongside the current Facing Modernity exhibition.
A collection that grew slowly from small town beginnings is now finding itself at the centre of the national art conversation.
But that growth was anything but rapid at first.
From 1936 through to the 1970s, acquisitions slowly came in, with mostly one or two works a year and traditional landscape or portrait pieces.
The gallery itself wasn’t purpose-built until the Civic Centre redevelopment in 1965, and it took until the early 1970s to appoint its first professional staff.
However, between 1973 and 1980 under the lead of director at the time Peter Tims, everything changed.
SAM made a defining decision to focus its collection on ceramics, acquiring contemporary work directly from artists’ studios while also building a historical collection of Australian ceramic art.
“We had this decision that ceramics was going to be the collection focus,” SAM head of curatorial programming and collections Danny Lacy said.
“The collection just grew and expanded so by the 1980s there was about 1000 objects in the collection, and a large portion of that is ceramics.”
Today, that original collection has grown to about 4500 pieces, telling the story of the gallery and its evolution.
The collection is displayed on rotation in small clusters of three to four works, rather than as one sweeping exhibition.
Two pieces, however, have remained constant throughout: the two works first acquired in 1936.
“We’ve had these pieces for ever and display them always because they just tell a really lovely story,” Danny said.
“We change this over, but we keep these two up.”
Keeping the collection visible and rotating is a matter of philosophy as much as conversation.
“It needs to be an active collection,” SAM curator Caroline Esbenshade said.
“There’s no point storing it upstairs where no-one can see it.”
The works in this permanent collection typically rotate every three to six months depending on the pieces’ sensitivity to light and room temperature.
Each cluster can send a curious viewer down a path from one object into the artist’s story, its materials and other works exploring similar themes.
But from mid-August that balance of history will shift as SAM begins transforming its level two galleries for the Archibald Prize, running from September 5 to November 1.
The Archibald Prize will overlap with the Facing Modernity exhibition for two weeks – a crossover that is already driving strong advance ticket sales.
“We’ve seen a massive uptake in the amount of pre-booked tickets for those first two weeks when both exhibitions are running,” Danny said.
With less of SAM’s permanent collection on display during that time, both Danny and Caroline are mindful of what’s at stake and still want to show the public a piece of its 90-year history.
“It’s important that people get to see that as well, and understand our history,” they both said.
In a milestone year for SAM, Danny and Caroline say these two blockbuster exhibitions are set to bring a “burst of intensity” to both SAM and the wider community.
SAM’s Danny Lacy and Caroline Esbenshade.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
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