Grafton Regional Gallery

THE CULTURAL HEART OF GRAFTON

Grafton Regional Gallery holds the largest collection of artworks on the North Coast of NSW with more than 3380 inspiring works. Each year over 35,000 visitors enjoy the newly renovated exhibition spaces, shady courtyard and heritage gardens and buildings.

The Gallery was established in 1988 when two artwork collections were donated by the community - the Jacaranda Art Society Collection and the O’Grady Collection. These two founding collections defined the early identity of the gallery which evolved as the Regional Collection and the Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Collection developed and other collections were donated. The Grafton Regional Gallery is now a major cultural service of the Clarence and a place for everyone. Artworks that make up the Gallery Collection include some important parts of local and Australian history and can be divided into ten Clarence Valley collections. The collection is showcased in exhibitions curated by the Gallery team and guest curators throughout the year. Recent acquisitions of artworks include sculptures by Braddon Snape, GW Bott, Ulan Murray and Rachel Burns. The jewel in the Gallery collection are the works acquired through the Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award (JADA) since 1988 - an outstanding collection of contemporary Australian drawings. Over two years the Friends of Grafton Gallery raise the $35,000 that is used to acquire drawings from the award which is Judged by an eminent Australian art professional. These works track the progression of drawing in Australia over the past 50 years. The much-anticipated award and exhibition finalists are presented in a tour of regional galleries for the two years after the exhibition is launched. The 2022 JADA exhibition opens 17 September and will be on view until to 10 December 2022.

DID YOU KNOW?

• Over 26,950 people visited the gallery or an outreach program last year • 155 Local Artists exhibited or presented programs last year • The Gallery presented 80 creative program and 33 exhibitions last year. • The gallery has 10 collections, please visit www.graftongallery.nsw.gov.au for more info.

Image top left: Public art installation by Cass Samms Furcula, 2011 Image top right: Artist Gary Parker with his public art installation at the Grafton Library. Image above: Regional Gallery Director Dr Niomi Sands receiving Minister’s Award at the IPWEA NSW Engineering Excellence Awards for the redevelopment of the gallery.