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“YOU don't know what you've got 'til it's gone."
It might be a hackneyed expression, but it’s one more than a few Castlemaine residents would have uttered in the week since their local gallery announced it would shut up shop.
Mounting expenses have led to the board of the century-old gallery deciding its Lyttleton Street site will close for two years while a more reliable funding model is sought.
The move is a blow to the arts and to the community of Castlemaine.
The gallery is not only valuable for its art deco setting and collection of Australian works, it also has substantial pulling power for tourists whose visits to town support the local economy.
Its 2016 exhibition of Ben Quilty war portraits drew 10,000 people - about the same number of people as the Castlemaine population.
That visitor-to-population ratio is not far from the figures achieved by the Marilyn Monroe exhibition at the Bendigo Art Gallery, which welcomed about 1.5 people for every one of the city’s residents.
Surely that's reason enough for the town's powers-that-be to take notice and act?
But unlike most regional galleries for which councils assume much of the funding responsibility, the Castlemaine Art Museum receives less than 10 percent of its revenue from the Mount Alexander Shire Council.
A review of the operations in 2015 also found the local government’s engagement with the gallery was low.
The council would do well to look at the benefits the treasured display of art brings to its part of regional Victoria, and consider what else it could offer to help directors make ends meet.
The gallery board, which decided to close the gallery without first turning to their community of loyal supporters, should also have exhausted all of its options before calling for a two-year hiatus.
Ultimately, it is these blindsided members of the public the closure will affect most intimately.
Galleries should be hives of activity that offer even the most uninitiated of spectators a glimpse of the arts.
Instead of being on show, the Castlemaine collection is about to be locked up until a white knight with an open checkbook can be found to save the day.
And that, as Ben Quilty himself has said this week, is a tragedy.
Mark Kearney, journalist