The brand-new Mudgee Arts Precinct opened to the public on Saturday, August 7.
The precinct is set to become the home of the arts for the Mid-Western region. It will offer a community workspace for artists with resources and facilities to foster art, creative and cultural education. In addition to a state-of-the-art, purpose-built gallery space to host exhibitions, these facilities will nurture the existing arts community in the Central West and encourage a new generation of emerging artists.
Nurturing an appreciation of the arts in Mudgee has long been a dream of the Rosby family. Over the last 10 years Rosby has hosted countless art workshops and exhibitions in the grounds of the Rosby property, and more recently in the permanent indoor gallery space built in 2020.
The annual Sculptures in the Garden (SIG) exhibition, now in its 11th year, was born out of Artistic Director Kay Norton-Knight’s vision to develop public art for the benefit of the Mudgee community and visitors to our region.
It is with unbridled joy that we celebrate the development of the Mudgee Arts Precinct and thank the Mid-Western Regional Council for their support in advancing this vision.
To show our support, the Sculptures in the Garden committee have donated a sculpture to the precinct to be positioned in the forecourt. ‘Encounter’, by John Fitzmaurice is made from 316 polished stainless steel and stands at two and half metres tall and over three metres wide; a perfect match for the magnificence of the precinct it now guards.
The donation symbolises a special connection between Sculptures in the Garden and arts in the Central West. Its placement links the precinct to the Sculpture Walk in Lawson Park – the true legacy of SIG – where visitors can meander through the park on the banks of the Cudgegong River where the 23 winning acquisitions reside. It is a much loved cultural experience for locals and visitors that is now accentuated by the addition of the Mudgee Arts Precinct.