Gallery 1855

Dr HARVEY (Newland) (15:14): In late June, I had the pleasure of attending the launch of the Iriti munu Kuwari. Now and Then. Artworks from the Kaltjiti Arts, SA exhibition held by the City of Tea Tree Gully at the beautiful Gallery 1855. This was a wonderful display, curated by John Ferguson, that showcased contemporary Pitjantjatjara paintings, alongside traditional and adapted crafts that were created by the Kaltjiti artists during the mid 1980s. Many of the pieces in the exhibition were from John's own private collection that had been put together from travelling thousands of kilometres up through the APY Lands in Central Australia.

It was certainly a beautiful exhibition that showcased wonderful works unique to a special part of our state and indeed our nation. The launch itself was a fantastic event, with visual artist Damien Shen as guest speaker and with Jack Buckskin's always thought-provoking, informative and thoroughly entertaining Welcome to Country. It was also great to see the Mayor of the City of Tea Tree Gully, Kevin Knight, there in support of this wonderful exhibition and indeed Gallery 1855 more broadly. I would also like to commend Niki, who works for the Tea Tree Gully council, for all her work in facilitating this important exhibition.

This important exhibition, as I mentioned earlier, was held in the beautiful Gallery 1855, which is at 2 Haines Road in Tea Tree Gully. This building was, in fact, originally built to house the district council of Highercombe council chambers, the first purpose-built council chambers in South Australia. In 2010, the state heritage-listed building was converted into Gallery 1855, an arts and culture centre, including a studio workshop area and also some gallery space.

I want to commend the Tea Tree Gully council for what they have achieved. Gallery 1855 hosts numerous exhibitions and workshops that are often connected with the displays in the gallery. These have included, for example, a ceramics display with a workshop run at the same time for people interested in learning more about ceramics. These low-cost workshops are targeted at people of all ages and recently have included a workshop for children on drawing animal people, run by Adelaide Hills illustrator Zinia King, which was highly successful.

From speaking to many of the artists and volunteers involved with the gallery, it is clear that Gallery 1855 is highly valued by the arts community and the community more broadly. Artists come from across the state to display their work and likewise people come from across the state and beyond to enjoy the gallery, not to mention school groups and other community groups that visit the gallery.

Aside from it being a beautiful building, the gallery is also unique in terms of the size of the exhibition space and the layout, making it ideal for many exhibitions that in some cases, I have been informed, really do not have an equivalent elsewhere in Adelaide. Artists and volunteers involved with Gallery 1855 have also shared with me their stories about the important social benefits of the gallery in providing people with the opportunity to connect with others through shared interests. In a time when social isolation is increasingly problematic, any opportunities within our community to connect people with others should be treasured.

Given the significance and importance of the gallery to the local community, it is somewhat concerning that a number of local councillors seem to want to convert the gallery into a coffee shop. A number of ideas have been circulating about how this might happen, for example, by relocating the entire gallery (workshops and the gallery), which appeared to be an initial thought bubble and now appears to be more of a push to simply put a business into the studio portion of the gallery and relocate the workshops.

There is quite understandably a great deal of concern from the local community about this proposal. There is concern about what this would mean for the workshops by separating them from the exhibitions, the flow-on effect that would have on the community, and the impact that altering the gallery would have on whether artists would continue to show their work in this place.

Gallery 1855 is certainly a very important part of the broader Tea Tree Gully township precinct, which includes facilities like the heritage museum, local restaurants, Pine Park, the hotels, Anstey Hill and a number of other heritage sites. While it is important to support well considered plans to facilitate economic activity within a local community, it is concerning that what might be traded away would be far greater than what may be gained.

I urge Tea Tree Gully councillors to consider carefully what is being proposed and ensure they understand how unique the offering is at the gallery, which the council should actually be very proud of, before making any decision to split up or relocate the current activities at that site.