Since it began in 1981, the Noosa Regional Gallery has been a vital creative centre for the Sunshine Coast.

As a publicly owned non-collecting gallery funded by the Sunshine Coast Regional Council, the Noosa Regional Gallery is known nationally for its innovative exhibitions, programs and events involving local and international contemporary artists.

How it started

The Noosa Regional Gallery was originally found on the second floor of the Council Offices, overlooking the Noosa River. An extraordinarily active and dedicated voluntary group, the Noosa Gallery Society, were responsible for the operations, curatorship, promotion and fund-raising for this new creative space.

Their calibre was obvious from their first exhibition, The Hinton Collection, which showed works by Norman Lindsay, Sydney Long, Margaret Preston, Tom Roberts and Sir Arthur Streeton. The following year saw exhibitions of Papua New Guinean art and etchings by Arthur Boyd.

Acquiring status and a Director

In 1984 the Noosa Gallery Society decided it was time to achieve official regional gallery status – making them the only regional gallery in South East Queensland. This required persuading the Council to hire a Gallery Director and to agree to upgrade the facilities.

It took some convincing, but in 1986 the Gallery's first Director, Merton Chambers, was appointed. The Gallery Society continued to raise funds while volunteers carried out daily operations. The Gallery program was expanded to include music and film, and a dynamic exchange of artists from Canada, Japan and other Australian states was created and fostered.

New space

With regional gallery status there was now greater pressure for appropriate facilities to be organised. So, in 1989, the gallery was moved to its current location on the ground floor, and. a unique program of exhibitions relating to the community was created. Exhibitions by major Australian contemporary artists were opened alongside those by local artists, and international artists travelled from far and wide to work 'in residence' here.

Beyond Noosa

Kevin Wilson (director of Noosa Regional Gallery between 1995 and 2005) and the Gallery staff assisted Bark Design Architects with their successful tender for the design of the Caloundra Art Gallery. Noosa Regional Gallery also played a significant role in establishing the Cooloola Shire Public Gallery, with Kevin Wilson acting as consultant and the Noosa Gallery Society contributing towards setting up a Friends group.

Now

The Noosa Regional Gallery's current director, Christine Ballinger, was appointed in 2006. Since then, the Noosa Regional Gallery Society has become 'the friends' and the Gallery's volunteer base continues to grow.

The Noosa Regional Gallery's regularly changing international, national and local exhibitions reflect and support excellence in visual art.

Our workshop program offers artists and designers a host of hands-on opportunities to develop their professional practice in new and exciting ways.

Locally handcrafted glassware, jewellery, ceramics, textiles, woodworked pieces, and cards are sold from our busy Gallery Shop (Coming Soon)

We would like to thank Sunshine Coast Regional Council for their generous support.

Indigenous recognition

We would like to acknowledge the Gubbi Gubbi people as the Traditional Owners of the Noosa area.