General News
11 July, 2025
BARRY'S CORNER: New art centre
I had watched the evolution of this built asset over a number of years and know some of the people who were putting the vision together.
It was a brand-new purpose constructed exhibition building designed for displaying environment focussed art. Of many genres. It goes by the name of WAMA.
This is to be an international project and is set at an easily reached location off the Pomonal to Halls Gap road.
Who could have imagined such a project so distant from major population centres to be open for business and has been rolled together in only a few years.
It has been said it is the only environment focussed gallery in the world, now that is a big call but time will tell.
Now it will be up to us to make it supported.
It will be open seven days a week and is not hard to find just near the zoo.
It fits in with the silo art trail scattered across the grain belt of Victoria and some other states where silos have been painted mostly with a local theme.
It is one of those projects that will never be totally finished because there will always be something else to do an addition to the sculpture walk, an addition to the wall space for display, or the carefully designed landscaping.
This will become an active study site for researching and school learning as well as a cultural program and exhibition of many future artists.
The Gariwerds National Park is a magnet for many unique weather worn rock features, walking tracks and viewing sites and changing vegetation and now it has an art centre nestled in the eastern foothills of the ranges.
Galleries are no stranger to the region with a long standing, now re furbished city centre at Horsham and an active Ararat gallery.
Dotted around the district are smaller mostly privately owned and run that add greater diversity to how we interpret our surroundings.
There are many creative people in the area who have been using their skills to develop agricultural and industrial machinery and the community should not under rate its potential to achieve great results.
To have such a project driven by a dream and a handful of visionaries it is an inspiration to the rest of us. There is so much to get involved with.