THIS Australia Day, Moulamein Art Gallery has extra reason to celebrate, winning Murray River Council’s Australia Day arts and culture award.
The Moulamein Arts and Craft Council, who run the gallery, received the award for their inaugural bush sculpture competition held in 2018.
The group also received an Australia Day award in 2017.
Moulamein Art Gallery president and Moulamein artist Sandy Peeters said the win was recognition of the people who run the gallery.
“All the volunteers, past and present, who work tirelessly in the gallery to get these things to happen,” she told The Guardian.
“It takes a lot of effort and commitment, its constant taking queries from email and Facebook and telephone calls.
“We’re lucky we have a permanent home.”
Ms Peeters said the gallery had 10 active members, plus 20 volunteers including those who worked in the cafe.
“Active members are on a roster to man the cafe on Thursdays and Fridays,” Ms Peeters said.
“It also gets you a discount on workshops and exhibition and sales of your work.”
Ms Peeters said the Moulamein Art Gallery opened about 12 years, generally hosting exhibition of works by locals from and within 100 kilometres of Moulamein.
“There’s artists from Swan Hill, Balranald, Wakool, Hay, Deniliquin and Barham,” she said.
“So there’s artists (from) all around (Victoria and New South Wales).”
She said the gallery also hosted workshops throughout the year.
“We’ve got people calling from all over the place, so we’re putting some arts and craft workshops on until May,” Ms Peeters said.
Ms Peeters said the gallery’s highlights from the past 12 months included workshops in Moulamein and surroundings areas, and hosting their 12th annual amateur photography competition.
For this year, Ms Peeters said the bush sculpture competition would return for a second round, over Easter in April.
“We’ll have large outside sculptures and small ones for in the gallery,” she said.
“So, we’re mixing it up a little bit now, to get more people in.”
Ms Peeters said the competition was previously only opened for entries of “big” sculptures.
The Moulamein Art Gallery team celebrated their win at the Australia Day celebrations at Moulamein Lake on Sunday.
