Newcastle Art Gallery Expansion Information Session
Stewart MacLennan, Newcastle Art Gallery Foundation committee member
On Monday, 24th June, the Foundation held a much-anticipated information session for members and donors at City Hall.
The evening began with a warm welcome from Foundation Chair Susie Galwey followed by a talk from Gallery Director, Lauretta Morton, OAM who painted a picture of what the expanded Gallery will mean for art admirers near and far. It served as a perfect introduction to City of Newcastle Senior Project Manager, Matthew Bennett who went through the necessary stages to get the site ready for building work to commence including decanting the many thousands of paintings and ceramics, the massive and complex task of filling the old mine shafts and tunnels with grout and conducting a heritage exploration of the site, looking for Aboriginal and early colonial artifacts.
Hansen Yuncken Project Manager, Jonathan Russell, presented a step-by-step explanation of what has been undertaken so far and what he and his team of twelve plus ultimately up to two and a half thousand builders will be doing to take the building works through to completion. Foundation guests were treated to a walk-through of the current site with Jonathan providing a step-by-step explanation for each section.
The current site walk through paved the prefect segue into the “premiere” of the official architectural flythrough video which received great applause from all. We thank City of Newcastle for this wonderful video.
The formal events of the evening concluded with the presentation of the $4.5 million dollar cheque to City of Newcastle, marking the largest contribution the Foundation has made towards the Gallery’s construction to date.
Foundation Chair, Suzie Galwey remarked, “It was an incredibly insightful evening for us all. Very exciting to see the full project journey topped off by the fly through which really is of the highest quality. We look forward to further leveraging this wonderful production as we continue to work towards growing support for the Gallery and achieving our ambitious philanthropic target for the project”.
The Foundation wishes to thank Matthew Bennett, Jonathan Russell and Lauretta Morton, OAM for their wonderful contributions to the evening, Art Gallery staff Caitlin, Holly and Miriam and Acting CEO, City of Newcastle, David Clarke for being in attendance and our much-valued members and donors for attending.
Image left to right: Jonathan Russell, Project Manager Hansen Yuncken, Matthew Bennett, Project Manager, City of Newcastle, Cr Declan Clausen, Deputy Lord Mayor, City of Newcastle, David Clarke, Acting CEO, City of Newcastle, Laureta Morton, OAM, Gallery Director and Suzie Galwey, Chair, Newcastle Art Gallery Foundation.
