The staff of the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery have farewelled its director, Dr Lee-Anne Hall (front left). Photo: Jarryd Rowley.
The Wagga Wagga Art Gallery has farewelled much-loved director Dr Lee-Anne Hall, who held the position for the past five years.
Dr Hall, who moved to Wagga in 2020 after working in galleries in Sydney, will be moving back to her hometown of Adelaide, where she will be taking up the position of Curatorial Director at the well-known JamFactory Gallery.
With the Wagga Art Gallery celebrating its 50th year, Dr Hall said now was the perfect time to pass the baton to someone else with a new, unique vision.
“It’s definitely a strange feeling saying goodbye, but I think it’s the right thing, that it’s time, it’s time for a new person, a new direction, new leadership,” she said.
“I have loved every moment of being here at the Wagga Art Gallery. I’ve been here for five years, three months. I expected to only be here for 12 months, but I’ve stayed because it’s been such a rewarding and fabulous place to work.
“This is the 50th year of the gallery, so it’s a perfect year for me to end on, right at the end of the year.”
Dr Hall said she was proud to have seen the gallery develop in her time as the director and credited the local arts community with contributing to its success.
“It’s important that the community realise that this is a community asset, and it’s an asset that we are helping realise,” she said.
“The gallery needs to continue working closely with our stakeholders, the community, schools, artists, Friends of the Gallery, our peer cultural services, like the theatre, the museum, the library and so forth.
“It’s really important because of the ideas and the freshness and, you know, teaching them that art can be a career, but even if it’s not a career for you as a young person, that you will see reflected diversity, it’s a place of inclusion.”
Dr Hall said she had loved working with the countless artists who had held exhibitions at the gallery, and the residents who had made careers with the support of the gallery.
“Prior to me being here, there was certainly support for regional artists, but it was more of the order of, ‘We’ll put up an exhibition,'” she said.
“What we do now is we offer a residency program under our RAD program (regional artist development), and in addition, we offer three in-house residencies, which means that you get to work under a mentored residency.
“We host three artists a year for four weeks, and they get a studio, a mentor and access to our collection for inspiration.
“They can access curators here, our comms people, our engagement people and our design people to really have an intense period of developing your work.”
Even with her time at the gallery coming to an end, Dr Hall said she was excited to see it continue to grow and develop.
“It is a glorious place to come into,” she said.
“I’ve said since I started here, this is a safe place for challenging ideas. Sometimes they’re very challenging. Sometimes we just have sheer, beautiful work. There’s something for everyone, but certainly it’s a very safe and welcoming space.”
Dr Hall’s last day at the gallery was on 31 October.
