PRIME MINISTER
CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY EMBARGOED UNTIL DELIVERY
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER
OPENING OF OTHE FACE OF AUSTRALIAO
EXHIBITION AND RE-OPENING OF THE BALLARAT
FINE ART GALLERY
BALLARAT 22 JULY 1988
Mr Mayor,
John Mildren,
Councillor Coghian ( Chairman, Gallery Board of Management),
Dr Griffiths ( Chairman, Gallery Building Appeal),
John Utz ( Trustee, Rothmans Foundation),
Peter Sarah ( ABA),
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen.
At the opening of this Gallery in 1890 the future Prime
Minister of Australia, Alfred Deakin, said that Ballarat
" had added another jewel to the diadem that encircled its
brow". This was the first regional gallery established in
Australia. For more than a century it has maintained its
reputation as the most important regional collection in the
nation. And with every passing year, it has vindicated in every
respect Deakin's description of it as a jewel.
The Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, in its building and in its
collection, reflects and enhances the vital creative role
this city has played, and continues to play, in the cultural
life of our nation.
When it was first constructed, the Gallery was one of the
architectural gems of Ballarat's Golden era. And when the
Gallery came into possession of the Eureka flag, it acquired
a central relic of the tumult and the tragedy of that Gold
Rush era.
The Gallery's collection of art by the Lindsay family is
unparalleled. its important Colonial and Heidelberg School
paintings, its extensive collection of prints and its broad
representation of 20th century art, all attest to the
insight and the generosity of the Ballarat community over
many years. 503
Today it is a pleasure to inaugurate a new era in the life
of the Gallery.
After much planning and hard work, the Gallery is now about
to open its doors again double its former size. Its
display areas have been improved, its facilities have been
expanded, air conditioning has been installed all of which
will ensure that without doubt this jewel will continue to
gleam for another hundred years and more.
Because of its historical and cultural significance to the.
people of Ballarat and Victoria as a whole, the renovations
and additions to the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery made it
particularly appropriate for inclusion in the
Commonwealth-State Bicentennial Commemorative Program.
The Commonwealth is proud of the contribution it has been
able to make to these renovations. And I am particularly
pleased at the way in which the Gallery used the
Bicentennial funds as seed money to generate further funds
from within the broader community. I pay tribute to the way
in which the Ballarat community including the City Council
has, again, generously expressed its support for its
Gallery. I also pay tribute to the hard work on behalf of this
Gallery and on behalf of Ballarat generally by your local
Member of Parliament, John ? lildren.
The stature of the Ballarat Gallery as Australia's premier
regional gallery is recognised by the exhibition " The Face
of Australia" which we are also launching this evening.
In " The Face of Australia" we are presented with a unique
vision of our development as a nation through the media of
painting, sculpture, photography, ceramics, prints and the
decorative arts, ranging from artists' impressions of our
land before 1788 to contemporary times.
Any exhibition which can boast the names of Boyd and
Drysdale; Heysen and ? lcCubbin; Nolan, Preston and Rees;
Roberts and Streeton is a significant art event in its own
right. But what people will find remarkable about " The Face
of Australia" people, that is, who believe the only
substantial art is to be found in the national capitals is
that all these works have been drawn from regional
galleries: 54 of then throughout the nation.
So this exhibition bears testimony to the richness and
diversity of the holdings of our regional galleries and
their importance as guardians of some of the finest and most
important collections of Australian art.
" The Face of Australia" will be on show in Ballarat until 21
August. The exhibition will then split into four related
components, each of which will tour through the regional
galleries of Australia until ' next January, from Launceston
to Alice Springs and from Bunbury to Townsville.
504
3.
It will, then, be in every sense a national exhibition, and
all those who have worked on it can be proud of their
achievement. I commend the Australian Bicentennial Authority the
Rothmans Foundation, the curator, David Hansen, and all
those who assisted in mounting the exhibition.
At the same time, I commend all those involved in the
renovations to the Gallery.
The scope of the exhibition and the Gallery's magnificently
refurbished display space, together show as never before the
wealth of Australia's regional galleries.
And together, they reveal once more the depth and the wealth
of Ballarat's cultural achievement. 505