Wagga's Yellow House Art Gallery is not so 'little' anymore

Almost four years on from artist Maggie Deall’s unexpected career change, she’s ready to take her Tompson Street art gallery and studio to the next level.

The Little Yellow House is undergoing a rebrand that reflects its evolution from a small, community-focused gallery to a professional regional art gallery that showcases local artists.

“We’ve grown up! It’s ‘yellowhouseart’ now,” Maggie said.

“We’re still doing all of the same things we were doing before with all of the workshops and classes and lessons and private events and still the same focus on community and Riverina artists, but we’ve grown up so we’re not ‘little’ anymore.

“Physically, we’re not little, and I think psychologically, we’re not little anymore either.”

The former police officer had initially returned to painting as a form of therapy and, to her surprise, art soon became her new vocation after she opened the storefront in 2021.

Looking back over the past few years, Maggie said the bustling gallery and studio had grown beyond her expectations.

“I thought it might be a pop-up for six weeks or so and then I thought – oh, maybe I could make a go of this and have a financially sustainable business,” she said.

I knew I wanted it to be community focused. I knew I wanted local artists, and I knew I wanted to give a platform, particularly to women, but beyond that, I had no idea and no experience in business!

“We grew from just using the front area, and we slowly worked our way back until now we’ve filled every literal spare centimetre of the premises.”

The snazzy new logo and colour scheme are only part of the transformation as Yellow House Art has also expanded its services to include professional art photography and printing for its stable of creatives.

“We got a grant through Wagga Council to pay for half of a really nice fine art printer, which was fantastic, and not something we could have afforded to do without their help,” she said.

“Having that in-house now and up and operational for about the last three weeks, we’ve already started making fine art prints and the quality is exceptional, because we have fantastic images from local artists and it gives people another option if maybe they can’t afford an original artwork.”

Maggie said selling prints was another way for local artists to magnify the return on their own investment of time and materials and helped build the local arts economy.

“I really encourage our artists to develop as business people in their own right, so that they’re running their art businesses and making money out of it, and for some, they might want to be able to step away from their day to day and make art a more significant part of their life,” she said.

“We’ve also branched out to include a lot more products like our mugs or our cushions and tote bags.

“We explain to people that while they’re not necessarily manufactured in Wagga, they feature only the work of local artists so we’re remaining true to that original commitment.”

Looking ahead, 2025 is set to be big with an arts festival in October and plans to take yellowhouseart to the big smoke.

“We’re looking to take a stand at the Affordable Art Fair in Sydney in June, which is a big commitment both financially and in time and effort,” Maggie said.

“The logistics behind moving virtually 80 per cent of the gallery to Sydney for four days, and then getting it back here is going to be massive!

“Then in October, is the first-ever Wagga Arts Festival, so it’s going to be a massive, massive year.”