Olley Art Centre on right track
PREPARATIONS for Tweed River Art Gallery's new Margaret Olley Art Centre are in full swing with more details becoming available as the fundraising effort nears completion.
Tweed River Art Gallery director Susi Muddiman said the total budget for the centre would be around $3.5 million with another $500,000 still needing to be raised.
Ms Muddiman said the centre's progress would hopefully reach a major milestone early next week when the development application was filed with council.
The planned centre will occupy approximately 400 m2 and be added to the building's southern end.
The required traffic study has been finalised and economic impact results were very positive.
Items from Ms Olley's home in Sydney's Paddington have made their way to the Tweed and plans for an 'artist in residence studio' were accepted as part of the building's overall design.
Margaret was keen to support and mentor young artists and the proposed studio will prove to be an integral part of the new centre.
"It's a nice rounding out of Margaret's vision," Ms Muddiman said.
For a couple of months of the year artists will be allowed to work in the studio and resulting art works are set to be shown in the centre.
Designed by Architect Bud Brannigan, the Margaret Olley Art Centre will re-create Margaret's home studio and take the form of a domestic build inside the new wing.
The re-creation will contain the famous hat factory or orange room as well as her famous yellow room where she spent a lot of time painting and which she depicted in many of her paintings.
