The Bendigo Art Gallery hopes to expand in the coming years by constructing a new building in View Street.
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A new building would potentially include a dedicated First Nations space as well as educational, interactive and community areas. It would be the gallery's first development since unveiling its new wing in 2014.
Bendigo Art Gallery director Jessica Bridgfoot said the new building could be an extension of the entrance and take over the garden in front of the gallery.
"In some ways it would be our most ambitious building to date," she said. "We have identified a footprint out the front of the gallery space that would be an extension of entrance... across to where the pear trees are.
"There are heritage overlays in place, so we can't build out front of the original gallery building but we can extend across. We are planning on street frontage and a more inviting entrance and an atrium."
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The idea for further gallery expansion was part of the Greater CREATIVE Bendigo strategy adopted by council in 2018.
It showed a possible action to continue to "develop and expand Capital Venues and Events and Bendigo Art Gallery facilities" including developing storage, exhibition and retail space at the gallery.
Applications to create a feasibility study and business case funded by the Bendigo Art Gallery board for the development have closed. Ms Bridgfoot said community input would be part of the feasibility study.
"It's fluid at this stage (but) we are expecting concept drawings and a business case to be ready by end of the year." Ms Bridgfoot said. "Part of the business case and feasibility study is to determine what the need is.
"What we aim to have out of this (feasibility study) is a sense of what the community needs are (and) what the needs of gallery are. We are seeing this as a people's wing.
"We want people to be invested in this and we want to get it right."
Ms Bridgfoot said the potential for a new building at the Bendigo Art Gallery wasn't a new idea.
"We have been at it looking for a long time," Ms Bridgfoot said. "This was scoped out in 2014 but there wasn't the budget or appetite to do the whole thing then. Now we have demonstrated the last extension increased visitation and economical yield to city.
"We always imagined another building out the front. It's part of a bigger picture and a push to consolidate the arts precinct. We hope to get the business case side resolved relatively quickly, so we can hit streets and start canvassing."
Ms Bridgfoot said funding the project would potentially involve a number of different avenues.
"There is likely a big fundraising campaign to come out of this and we will be looking at local, state and federal government funding," she said.
"We haven't secured federal funding in the past and are hopeful they will invest in the region. It's not just about tourism. It's about regional capacity."