Council will soon vote on the Development Application for the much anticipated gallery and cultural centre at 90 Market Street in Mudgee.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
An update on the project was put to Council at their October meeting. The facility will include gallery spaces, the Mudgee Region Tourism Hub, and workshop and meeting space.
Deputy Mayor Sam Paine said plans are for a new building, which will be most of the gallery space, beside the to-be-refurbished Cudgegong Shire building and together they'll house the various uses.
"We've had a committee of people from the local arts community, Council, and MRT, who've been meeting regularly with the architects as the plans have been developed. And started with everything that we wanted in the building and what kind of feel it should have," he said.
"For touring exhibitions and also for basic maintenance of art, temperature and humidity control are big things. Which is much harder to accommodate in an older building.
"The old building will have; offices for MRT; a little gallery space in the middle, because the hallway and staircase there are nice; and upstairs will be workshop/meeting space.
"[The new building] is designed to be on one level, all accessible, and intended not to compete with the heritage building. Instead of trying to continue the heritage look, we're trying to build something that nestles in the grounds around the old building."
Cr Paine said that progress has been "exciting", after ownership of the site was transferred from the state government to council in May last year, to begin the process of building an Arts and Cultural Centre.
"It's been really exciting because it's been so long awaited - it's something the town has been talking about for decades. And we're at the point where we're deciding what our gallery looks like, not just wishing that we could have one," he said.
"We have such a strong cultural community here, we have artists and people engaged with art, but we've never had a public building that fed into that. I think that it's going to be a great fit and takes our strong art community to another level."