Regional Galleries of NSW, Regional Galleries of NSW Limited, 1987,

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Old C-Block Building from Lismore High School built in 1961.

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Bennett Constructions working on Lismore Regional Gallery, 2017

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From Here to There: Australian art and walking, 2018. Photo: Carl Warner

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Lismore Regional Gallery, Keen Street end, 2018. Photo: Andy McPherson

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Lismore Regional Gallery, 2018. Photo: Andy McPherson

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History

Lismore Regional Gallery is one of the longest-running regional galleries in New South Wales, first established in 1953. The Gallery opened in the Trench Building on Molesworth Street in 1954 by the Director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Hal Missingham. The Trench Building was built in 1908 as a combination of Art Nouveau and Continental Secession architecture to house the Lismore Branch of the Government Savings Bank of New South Wales.

While the Gallery fulfilled its role in presenting a wide range of exhibitions to the region, restrictive facilities severely hampered it. Nonetheless, the Gallery delivered solo exhibitions in the Molesworth Street building, including by established artists such as Margaret Olley, Patricia Piccinini, Tracey Moffatt, Roger Ballen, Sam Jinks, Laurence Aberhart, Hiromi Tango, and Khadim Ali.

Over the years, passionate and dedicated individuals continued to work towards relocating the Gallery to a suitable home. In 2015, the Gallery secured funding from the Federal Government's National Stronger Regions Fund and a donation of $500,000 from the Margaret Olley Arts Trust. These funds contributed to the transformation of the old Lismore High School site, on the corner of Keen and Magellan Streets, which evolved into a central cultural hub for the city with a new home for the Gallery.

The new Gallery was a $5.8 million project. It included the significant redevelopment of the existing C-Block building into a contemporary art gallery with major landscaping works transforming the green space into the Lismore Quadrangle, linking the Gallery with the Northern Rivers Conservatorium and Lismore Library. Dominic Finlay Jones Architects delivered the project in partnership with Phillips Smith Conwell, with the Gallery opening its doors in 2017. Dominic Finlay Jones Architects also oversaw the redevelopment of Lismore City Hall.

The new building dramatically transformed the Gallery's capacity to deliver world-class exhibitions such as EuroVisions: Contemporary Art from the Goldberg Collection, including work by internationally acclaimed artists Anish Kapoor, Urs Fischer, Katharina Grosse, Sarah Lucas, Ugo Rondinone, and Wolfgang Tillmans. The Gallery became home to The Hannah Cabinet by local craftsman Geoff Hannah OAM. The Hannah Cabinet is a work of incredible complexity and an object of great pride for the community and visitors alike.