Sophie Conlon
IN the lead up to celebrating its 50th birthday, members of the South East Art Society have been busy exploring the group’s past.
President Vicky Thorpe said it had been great to uncover the group’s history and find some hidden gems along the way.
“It’s absolutely phenomenal, we’ve got the first 20 years of history in two boxes,” she said.
“All the posters from all the other art competitions we had, exhibitions they had, there’s financials there and minutes of the first meeting of the society.”
Ms Thorpe said she was something of a history buff and had thoroughly enjoyed discovering uncovering the history in the lead up to a celebration.
She said it was exciting to see the continuation of the art awards.
“It started off as the South East Art Painting Festival, and then it became the Art Society and then the Open Art Awards,” she said
“When it was the art festival it was just members and then they decided to include non members as well.”
The incorporations anniversary is on July 19, and Ms Thorpe said members of the society would likely gather for a relaxed meal to honour the occasion.
Ms Thorpe has been involved in the society with her sister Kim for seven years and said they had enjoyed being part of the organisation.
In the short term, Ms Thorpe said the society’s main goal was to find a new space which could house all types of art and be accessible for everyone as their Sutton Avenue premises was not an ideal one.
“To get into a complex that is fully accessible and allows us to do the bigger crafts like woodwork, carving, sculpture, pottery, we can’t do that right now,” she said.
“We have got equipment sitting in sheds all over Mount Gambier at the moment, we’ve got a big kiln sitting in the shed.”
She said previously the society had called significant Mount Gambier/ Berrin landmarks home and they were hoping that would happen again soon.
“We used to have a permanent gallery where local artists could display and sell their artworks,” she said.
“That’s what I want to get back to, have a gallery space for the members…. and then have room for at least three workshops.”
Ms Thorpe said her ultimate goal for art in the city would be to have a dedicated arts history centre.
“I would like to see everybody else’s dream come true and have a big arts history centre,” she said.
She encouraged local artists to register for the upcoming Open Art Awards, with registrations closing on June 23.