The Manning Regional Art Gallery
Winner of the 2009 ‘Imagine’ Award for excellence in Regional Galleries and Museums
The Manning Regional Art Gallery provides a range of cultural and artistic experiences to residents of the City of Greater Taree and the surrounding areas of Great Lakes and the Manning Valley. The Gallery is committed to curating more than 12 exhibitions each year and is responsible for providing access to touring exhibitions otherwise unavailable to the residents of the Manning Valley and surrounding areas.
The Gallery was initially established in 1988 within the newly completed Manning Entertainment Centre. The Gallery then moved to its present site ten years later when, through the combined efforts and financial support of Greater Taree City Council, The Friends of the Gallery and other committed community supporters, the existing heritage building located in Macquarie Street was purchased and renovated. This building, constructed in 1909, was the former Principal’s Residence of the Taree Public School and many of its fine heritage features including stone fireplaces and timber joinery remain today.
In 2007, as a result of many years of planning and fundraising by the Friends of the Gallery and assisted by grants from both the NSW and Commonwealth Governments, Greater Taree City Council in 2007 completed the construction of the Gallery extension now known as the Vis Centre, thus almost doubling the size of the Gallery. As well as providing a more appropriate reception area, this space allows the Gallery to display larger two dimensional works, as well as sculptures and installations. It also provides a space suitable for the holding of workshops, as well as venue that can be hired by community and business groups. A further extension, the Professional Services Centre, was completed in 2009, again with financial support from The Friends of the Gallery.
A number of education programs are developed by the Gallery each year to involve community participation, with the aim of increasing public access to and appreciation of the visual arts.
In 2004, the Gallery began the Aboriginal Traditional Art Revival Project which includes the research and identification of appropriate local Indigenous artifacts for collection, as well as oral and photographic historical research of more than twenty local Elders.
Some of the more recent Local Art Projects initiated by the Gallery include:
Public Sculpture commissions such as ‘Acknowledging the Local Indigenous Community’, the gifted and talented school students project ‘Willy The Whale’ and Sculptors in Residence Workshops held at Wingham and Lansdowne.
Documenting Traditional Aboriginal Art – Old and New, a survey of images from the Taree area, New South Wales.
Gabriella Hegyes, Artist in Residence, creating ephemeral sculptures with women from the CWA, Quota Club and the Women\’s Refuge.
The 2005 Black Head Beach Sculpture Prize.
In July 2010 a temporary position, 15 hours per week, was established by Greater Taree City Council and a wide range of public programs targetting children, youths of all ages and adults has been established. These programs operate on weekends and to date 500 children, as well as many adults, have been able to explore and develop their interests in the visual arts under the guidance of local artists and art teachers.
The Gallery also manages the Greater Taree City Art Collection, to which the overall winning work of each biennial Manning Art Prize is donated by the Friends of the Gallery.
Gallery Opening Hours
Wednesday – Saturday 10:00am – 4:00pm
Sunday 1:00pm – 4:00pm