Bendigo Art Gallery closes for massive $45 million redevelopment

3 months ago 17

Bendigo Art Gallery will close its doors at the end of this month, in preparation for a massive $45 million redevelopment.

When completed in early 2028, the new gallery will include a huge exhibition space on the second level, a learning centre, and a dedicated space for cultural materials belonging to local First Nations people, the Dja Dja Wurrung.

An artist’s impression of the Bendigo Art Gallery redevelopment.

The City of Greater Bendigo contributed $9 million to the project, while the Victorian government provided $21 million. Another $4 million came from the gallery’s board, with philanthropy raising $9.35 million, including from the Sidney Myer Fund and the Ian Potter Foundation, which contributed $4 million and $3 million respectively. The gallery is also seeking project funding from the federal government.

Gallery director Jessica Bridgfoot says the redevelopment has been a critical part of her remit since her appointment in 2019. “You don’t get to do this very often, so you’ve just got to knuckle down and enjoy it,” she says. “You’re doing this for the next generation.”

Bridgfoot says she is thrilled about the new gallery, but feels a tinge of sadness at closing the doors. The redevelopment is so extensive, it means the entire gallery and grounds will become a construction site, so it is not viable to remain open. The treasured collection would not be safe, let alone staff.

“Like many cultural institutions, we’ve outgrown our facilities. We’ve got this incredible international exhibition program but when the shows roll into town, they take over everything else,” she says. “We’d like to establish the gallery as a destination all year round, and reach more diverse people in the community.”

Director of the Bendigo Art Gallery Jessica Bridgfoot.

The redevelopment has five aims: enhanced gallery spaces; a learning centre; a children’s gallery; retail and hospitality, and accessibility.

Because the gallery is owned and run by Bendigo City Council, all staff will be redeployed while the doors are shut; some staff will work with neighbouring cultural institutions.

Melbourne-based architects Jackson Clements Burrows designed the building, in partnership with Clare Design, which designed Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art.

While tourism is part of the equation, it’s also about drawing in locals and regional and rural communities, according to Bridgfoot.

“To be able to provide a free arts offering for people who maybe have never been in to a gallery before, to come and do something constructive and creative with their kids is really important,” she says.

“People enjoy having a creative licence to just make something with no expectation.”

Construction work, to begin early next year, will update the facade and internal gallery spaces, while historic features of the original building remain intact. The revamp comes after another of Victoria’s major regional cultural venues, the Art Gallery of Ballarat, closed for renovations in March. It is due to reopen in early 2026.

The gallery worked closely with traditional owners, the Dja Dja Wurrung people, to co-design elements of the revamped building, as well as a purpose-built place for all cultural artefacts to be known as the Traditional Owner Place of Keeping.

“We’ve worked on a repatriation project with them and we’ve got a list of objects that are scattered around major museums all around Europe and the UK, including the British Museum,” Bridgfoot says.

An artist’s impression of the children’s learning centre.

“So we’re going to be working with them on international repatriation projects, and we’ll have a collection space for those artefacts to come back on to Country, as well as an interpretive exhibition space adjacent to that.”

The new ground floor includes a dedicated space for the gallery’s contemporary Australian and First Nations collections and entry will be free.

Across 1000 square metres on the first floor, a new international gallery will house the blockbuster ticketed shows – events such as Elvis: Direct from Graceland and Frida Kahlo: In her own image.

Recent big shows highlighted how much the gallery needed to expand, with queues in the entrance area extending out the front door, and crowds leaving little room to move in the exhibition spaces.

Bridgfoot at the gallery’s entry during the Frida Kahlo show earlier this year.

A new learning centre will have a children’s art studio, workshop space and theatrette on the ground floor, while an interactive children’s gallery will open seven days a week, with a space for hands-on activities.

To fill the gap while the gallery closes, a series of offsite events will be staged, starting in March with a massive Lego show, a collaboration with Bendigo’s Discovery Science and Technology Centre.

Curiosity: Building Breakthroughs in Lego Bricks is pitched at lovers of all things space-related. Its centrepiece is a 7.5 metre tall replica of the NASA Space Launch system rocket, designed by Ryan “Brickman” McNaught, using 460,000 pieces of Lego.

McNaught, who was born in Shepparton and went to school in Bendigo, spent 563 hours designing and building the piece with his team.

There’s also a life-size model of the Mars Rover Perseverance and Mars Helicopter Ingenuity, made from Lego, female scientists reimagined – again in Lego – an enormous periodic table, plus models of bridges and spacecraft from around the world. Visitors can build their own creations as well.

Bridgfoot also chairs the Australian division of the International Council of Museums, based in Paris. As well as managing the gallery and its redevelopment, she spends a lot of time thinking about the big picture.

“What we need to do as cultural leaders is reinforce the intrinsic value of the arts and what that does for people’s mental health and wellbeing,” she says.

“And all the other wonderful things that come from that communing, having cultural experiences together, shared experiences.”

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.