MCCLELLAND Gallery has received a $250,000 grant to set up a new art program.
The gallery applied for a RISE grant to support its Sculpture 22 initiative. McClelland gallery director Lisa Byrne said that Sculpture 22 is “a one-year multidisciplinary program of newly commissioned art, learning, and digital content projects which will enable McClelland to deliver major new programs, specifically aimed at creating new employment opportunities and supporting, in particular, women artists, and indigenous artists.”
“We will mobilise multidisciplinary connections between creative practitioners in art, digital production, sculpture and performance to develop new and adventurous creative projects in partnership with Queensland University of Technology and THRIVE, a local primary secondary school cluster initiative focused on staff and student wellbeing,” Ms Byrne said. “A key feature will be the Online Viewing Room which will generate rich creative experiences for audiences Australia-wide, increasing the gallery’s profile and drawing new visitors to the site, both physical and virtual. We envisage the project will activate local communities and attract wider visitation to outer south-eastern Melbourne and regional areas, bringing substantial economic benefits both to the gallery and allied industries, especially tourism.
“Now we can focus on providing additional creative opportunities for artists and specifically female and Indigenous artists to develop and present exciting new work for exhibition here. Our unique art with nature offering will encourage wider audiences, in person and online to visit McClelland and make this their own creative and nature destination.”
