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Mildura Arts Centre Gallery

Address:
199 Cureton Avenue, Mildura, Victoria
Postal Address:
PO Box 105 Mildura Vic 3502
Telephone: 03 5018 8330
Facsimile:  03 5021 1462
Email: Arts_centre@mildura.vic.gov.au
Website: http://www.milduraarts
.net.au

Admission Charges:
Adults $3, concession $2

Opening Hours:
10am-5pm Monday-Sunday
Closed Christmas Day and Good Friday

Mildura is situated on the shores of the Murray River on the border between Victoria and New South Wales. The city has an interesting history of agricultural development, closely tied to the revolutionary irrigation schemes of the Murray River begun in the late 1800s by two Canadian settlers, William and George Chaffey. The district now produces around 80 percent of Australia's dried fruit and 85 percent of Victoria's wine-making grapes. The surrounding area is known as 'Sunraysia' after a publicity campaign to promote the 'sun-raised' fruits (most famously, sultanas) of Mildura in the early 1900s.

Founded in 1956, the Mildura Arts Centre Gallery was originally located in Rio Vista House. Rio Vista House was built by one of the Chaffey brothers and is now a historic house museum. A highlight of the permanent collection is a significant collection of English and traditional Australian paintings donated by Robert and Hilda Elliott as well as the pastel pictured at right by French impressionist Edgar Degas.

Robert Elliott was a Melbourne investor who had bought a share in the local newspaper and had become attatched to the Murray Valley region, vigorously promoting its develpment. On a trip to London, he met English painters William Orpen and Frank Brangwyn and by the 1940s he and his wife Hilda had amassed a huge private collection of their paintings. In 1944 the Elliotts offered their collection to the people of Mildura on the condition that they be suitably housed and displayed.

When Rio Vista house became vacant in 1947, the council purchased it and converted the old house to a gallery to house the Elliott collection, which opened in 1956. The house was less than ideal as a gallery however particularly given the large size of murals by Frank Brangwyn in the collection and in 1966 a new gallery was completed next to Rio Vista.

The gallery changed its collection policy to focus on contemporary art in the 1960s and has a significant collection of contemporary Australian sculpture. The ground-breaking exhibitions of the Mildura Sculpture Triennials were first held at Mildura in 1961 and continued until 1988, making Mildura a critically important place in the history of modern Australian Sculpture.

The gallery also hosts the annual Palimpsest Festival  - a showcase of cutting edge contemporary work by Australian and overseas artists that focuses on the interplay between environment, science and art. 

Resume the trail or choose another gallery on this trail: Hamilton  Swan Hill Horsham