Description:
On July 15th 1995, Cairns Regional Gallery opened to the public; the culmination of over sixty years of vision, planning, lobbying and fundraising. Housed in a refurbished heritage building in central Cairns, the Gallery incorporates four individual exhibition spaces, a stylish gift shop and highly acclaimed restaurant/cafe.Cairns Regional Gallery is Far North Queensland's only visual art museum and in 2005 celebrated 10 years of documenting and presenting history, heritage and contemporary culture of this vast and distinctive region of Australia through the visual arts, craft and design.Over 450,000 people have visited the Gallery since its opening, with the audience comprising a mix of local residents, domestic tourists and overseas visitors. As well as appreciating the artworks on show at Cairns Regional Gallery, visitors are often awed at the heritage qualities of the building itself, including the rainforest timber panelling evident throughout, and Chillagoe marble flooring.Tourists comprise almost 50% of the Gallery’s visitors and this segment plays an active role in continuing our reputation as one of Australia's most innovative regional galleries. Cairns Regional Gallery's unique Pacific-rim identity and commitment to promoting the visual art of Far North Queensland provides a unique and rich experience for visitors and residents of the region.Cairns Regional Gallery is a unique enterprise, quite different from other regional galleries not only in Queensland, but indeed Australia and internationally. It is the region’s dynamics that stand this Gallery apart, with the cultural diversity, heavy inflow of tourists and the remoteness from capital cities all contributing factors to the unique development of the arts in the Far North. In addition, the dynamics of local arts practices and the rapid development of Cairns city as a cultural centre in the Far North, are key factors in distinguishing the Gallery from other similarly defined arts organisations.Boasting a vigorous and diverse exhibitions calendar, the motivation behind the Gallery team is the company’s mission statement:“Through art, we will continue to showcase the people, places and events of Far North Queensland, locally, nationally and internationally. We will stimulate the development of the visual arts in this region and we will present the art of the world.”