Eastern Riverina Arts’ Tim Kurylowicz and Ashley Baxter are enjoying the new outlook from the Ambo Gallery. Photo: Chris Roe.
Eastern Riverina Arts (ERA) has unveiled a glassy new look for the facade of the historic Wagga ambulance station on Johnston Street.
Floor-to-ceiling windows now open the Ambo Gallery, located in the former ambulance garage, to the northern sun and provide a host of new possibilities.
“The reason that the glass doors are so exciting is that it just totally transforms what used to be a garage area into a proper gallery space,” said ERA’s Ashleigh Baxter.
“It gives the building that welcoming street frontage, and it looks like there’s activity there and you can see all of the artworks in the gallery.
“We’ve got a wonderful little window gallery nook now as well, which means that we can have little micro shows in that space and in the evenings, the lights will be on, and people can walk past and see what’s happening.”
Tradesmen put the finishing touches on the Ambo Gallery’s new front windows. Photo: Chris Roe.
The Wagga Wagga District Ambulance Station was officially opened in January of 1929 and the earliest photos show large timber garage doors featuring panes of obscure glass. These were later replaced with the roller doors that have fronted the building over more recent decades.
Due to heritage constraints, these more modern steel doors will have to be retained, however, they can remain open, discreetly rolled up in the ceiling.
Now that the space is properly sealed, it has also been possible to make some upgrades to the gallery itself with acoustic ceiling panels and new air conditioning.
“It used to be a garage and it would get quite hot in summer with those two roller doors that just radiated heat, and it also was very loud,” Ashleigh said.
“It was a very live space with all these hard surfaces, so now we are able to control it a bit better with the sound and the temperature and we’ve got lovely light flooding in so it’s all coming together!”
The Wagga Wagga District Ambulance Station originally sported large garage doors with panes of obscure glass. Photo: CSURA.
Eastern Riverina Arts moved into the Station Creative Workspace in April 2023 and the building has been renovated to include offices, and space for artists, creative entrepreneurs and digital producers to experiment, collaborate and showcase new work.
The ongoing improvements now include a spectacular rooftop deck overlooking the Wollundry Lagoon from the first floor and an undercover event space in the former carpark behind the building.
“We’re super excited about our autumn official launch / grand opening for this building, which is something we have been holding off on doing because we wanted to wait until all of these major works were done,” she said.
“It’ll mean we’ll be able to program lots of really exciting activities around it with a schedule of exhibitions and workshops and for the opening, we’ll have a whole weekend full of activities.
“We’ll have a real variety of things to come and see and do with live music and markets and things like that. So it’s going to be a big month of celebrating!”
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