You wonder whether the public art gallery in Swan Hill could do better. And then you wonder whether it matters anyway. But it does matter: there must always be room for “improvement” in man, beast, machine, building or institution. However, such improvement needs must occur in the real-world context where there are diverse issues – where, for instance, aspiration collides with lack of resources, or where aspiration collides with the agendas of others.
The Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery did “do better” when it moved into its present building in 1987. Its origins had been unique, but modest. The paddle steamer Gem, which had plied the Murray River since 1876, was wet docked in a coffer dam within the precincts of the Swan Hill Pioneer Settlement, a splendid tourist village on the banks of the Murray. The Pioneer Settlement was established in 1963, and is Australia’s first open air museum. In 1966, after a variety of landlocked uses, Gem became the foundational home of the Gallery.
Gem these days serves as the entry point to the Pioneer Settlement.
Across the way, is the present single storey 1987 Gallery building, designed by architect Ian Douglas. As conceived with locally-sourced mud bricks and red gum beams, it has an affable farm building feel about it. This has been enhanced by the 1990 extension.
So, back to my point. Twenty-one years was a long time to wait for the new post-Gem premises, and although today’s building is perfectly functional (to the eyes of this unpractised observer, at least), it was and is simply too small. It could do better – if it were larger. This point was made manifestly obvious on the day of our visit: the whole gallery was devoted to an exhibition of works by Aboriginal artists of the nearby river country, and the entire permanent collection was in storage for the duration! Although the Swan Hill permanent collection is modest in size, surely generous examples should always be on show.
The attendant on duty on the day of our visit was most engaging, and she advised that they are always happy to retrieve works from storage for private viewings - but would appreciate a couple of days’ notice! She was the only staff member present, one other being on leave, and another being “away”. [Apart from the difficulties of being the sole front of house, there are the obvious safety issues consequent upon being alone in a venue open to the public.] We were the only visitors for the half hour of our time at the gallery, and the attendant was happy to be monopolised, and to augment for us the information publicly available on the internet and available from the “short guide” leaflet.
The Gallery’s web page indicates that it has 400 artworks and, helpfully, has a full alphabetical listing of the collection, although with no images. However, that listing is seriously out of date, and we were told that it should contain 503 works. Blame lack of resources for the out-of-date public information – but ask, and receive, friendly help and an updating. Part of this help, in our case, was a peek at the screen at the front desk, where they have photo images of the collection, sadly not yet on line. Clearly, the spirit of the Gallery team is willing, but the funding is weak. [While the Gallery’s own website has fallen behind, the Swan Hill Gallery’s page on the victoriancollections.net.au website lists and describes 503 “featured items”.].
In the meantime, those artworks that are listed on the Gallery’s website are described with full provenance, so much so that the listing runs to 135 pages. And from a slow trawl through that listing I see that the permanent collection holds two Ray Crooke screen prints; one Russell Drysdale pen and ink wash; two Pro Hart oils on hardboard; two Robert Ingpen works, one a pen and ink wash on paper, the other a watercolour on paper; five Kenneth Jacks – two lithographs, two oils on hardboard and one ink on paper; two Louis Kahan works on paper, one pencil and one lithograph; a Henry Moore lithograph on paper; one John Olsen lithograph and two Sydney Nolans – a lithograph and a silk screen print [these three on loan from the National Gallery of Victoria]; one Clifton Pugh etching and one oil on composition board; two Andrew Sibly pencil on paper; four Fred Williams works, two pencil on paper, one ink on paper, and one pen and ink wash on paper.
Enough! These may not all be important works, but they are works by important artists. And obviously they are rendered more important by the relative modesty of the Swan Hill collection, and – it follows – that they or works of equivalence should by on permanent view regardless of the space requirements of visiting and occasional exhibitions.
Gallery management and trustees do not need to be told that the Swan Hill venue is inadequate for today’s needs. Indeed, our helpful guide indicated that there has been an initiative to expand the gallery space - specifically, to relocate and rebuild within the grounds of the Pioneer Settlement. That proposal has been rebuffed. I sense that capital funding might not be the sticking point; and – returning to my theme - the message to present day planners is “do better”: negotiate harder, or look elsewhere, or re-think your present site.
The aforementioned exhibition of works by local Aboriginal artists is titled Connections – Contemporary Aboriginal Art from the Swan Hill Region, and is scheduled to run until 17 July. This is a “survey of contemporary Aboriginal art…..(it) celebrates this rich and unique country and waterways, the plants, the fauna, the foods, and the history.”
I am not equipped to comment on Aboriginal art, but I happily accept that the display of artefacts and artworks was consistent with the foregoing description.
The tightly-framed display of quandong seeds, Suzanne Connelly-Klidomitis’s Quandong Tracks, gave out the contradictory message of fecundity in the midst of desert.
Young visitors have not been overlooked, and with Nathalie “Lucy” Williams Connelly’s Looking Through My Eyes children are asked to search the thirty 59cm x 50cm panels for “How many koalas can you see?”
As I conclude this reflection on the Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery I wonder whether my comments about the smallness of the Gallery and the sequestering of its permanent collection have been too unsympathetic. The Gallery’s website informs that it has hosted some twenty exhibitions in the past twelve months (meaning, perhaps, the year before Covid), and has managed five outreach exhibitions to neighbouring communities. This is a lively exercise of the Gallery’s desire to inform and to educate – and perhaps a source of precious revenue that a static permanent display might not be. The Gallery even embraces concerts “featuring our magnificent 1923 Steinway & Sons grand piano”.
And, sensibly, the focus of the Gallery’s collection has been kept narrow (Australian naïve art; Australian prints and drawings from the 1970s onwards), and kept local (Works of art that relate to the Swan Hill region).
So, with penitent demeanour, I recognise – all considered – that the Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery does indeed do better.
Gary Andrews
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