Nillumbik Council reveal plans for $49 million regional art gallery
A proposal for a $49 million regional art gallery in Eltham is being heralded as a major tourist attraction for the area, but Nillumbik Council will need to find more than a million dollars a year to pay for it.
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A plan for a $49 million regional art gallery in Nillumbik is being hailed as the municipality’s next big tourism drawcard.
But the “ambitious” idea has come under fire, with ratepayers questioning where the gallery would be built and a councillor calling the project’s high cost into question.
Nillumbik Council’s draft feasibility study is now on public exhibition and will be open to community consultation for the next three weeks.
The site, nearly 1ha in size, would include a performance space which would seat about 300 people, workshop and retail spaces, art studios, a cafe, and a sculpture garden with a plaza.
The gallery would house the council’s “extensive” art collection, preserve artworks, host exhibitions and other events, and provide “educational experiences” for the public.
Cr Peter Clarke said the “exciting new initiative” would draw more people to Nillumbik, particularly once the North East link was built.
The 26km motorway scheme will connect the city’s northern suburbs to the east and create better access to Melbourne Airport.
The $16.5 billion project will be built between the Eastern Freeway and the M80 Ring Road at Greensborough, through Bulleen and Banyule.
“This will deliver a whole raft of residents and a whole raft of tourists who get off the plane at Tullamarine and are wondering where they’re going to wander off to, and one of the directions they could be headed to is now easy access,” he said.
“It (the gallery) doesn’t need to just be about matters that surround painting — Nillumbik has had a rich history in cinema, film, in poetry, we’ve had a very rich history just in the nature of authors and books.
“How we’re able to tell that story and grow the tourism off the back of that will be an important opportunity for this shire.”
But Cr Clarke said the project was “ambitious”.
“This is not a little amount of money and very significant and will require the support of other levels of government,” he said.
Cr Grant Brooker questioned whether the council had enough money to fund such a project.
“The number of rates notices that we’re issuing a year are approximately the same — there’s not a huge uplift in revenue,” he said.
“We have to find over a million dollars per annum to fund the gallery — now that might be in our capacity but I think we need to acknowledge this and say what areas or savings from our current outlays do we find millions of dollars to run the art gallery.”
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Council documents showed 895 Main Rd in Eltham as the most suitable site for the gallery — the site is council-owned and currently empty.
Ratepayer Nerida Kirov said she had mixed feelings about the project and the preferred location.
“Financially these regional art galleries just don’t survive,” she said.
“I know a lot of the older artists in Nillumbik and unless there is a lot of younger upcoming artists there just isn’t a need for this — we should be developing sites like Montsalvat which is a wonderful community asset.
“Nevertheless I’ll support the project if it goes ahead. It’s terrific to see the council supporting the arts, I just think they could be investing in other things.”
Eltham state Labor MP Vicki Ward did not confirm whether the State Government would fund the gallery, but said she would eagerly await the community’s feedback.
“I am pleased that Nillumbik is looking at improving economic development in our local community and I look forward to learning what the feasibility study finds,” she said.
Officers will prepare a report which will be presented at a future council meeting.
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