Biography
Founded in 1884, the Art Gallery of Ballarat is the oldest and largest regional art gallery in Australia. It was purpose-built and was the first to be built outside a capital city in the overseas dominions of the British Empire.
The Gallery holds an exceptional collection, built up lovingly, intelligently and often with inspiration over 120 years. An important factor in the growth was the George Crouch Prize for contemporary art, which ran from 1927 till the 1970s. Established by Federal MP Richard Crouch, a native of Ballarat and son of an early pioneer, as an acquisitive art prize in memory of his father, the Crouch Prize was for many years one of the most prestigious art prizes in the country.
The Crouch Prize ensured that the Gallery continued to build its collection of Australian art at a time when any other regional galleries were suffering from a lack of energy and investment. Crouch also established a prizes for watercolours in memory of his sister Minnie and gave the Gallery his remarkable collection of medieval manuscripts and early printed books, the only Australian holding of such items outside the capital cities.
The focus of the Collection is to present the history of Australian Art to the current time through paintings and works on paper with selections of sculpture and decorative arts, also looking closely at the work of regional artists and works depicting the growth of Ballarat. Recent purchases and donations have expanded on the holdings of modern Australian sculpture and opened up a new vista of collecting - the art of the indigenous peoples of Australia's Top End.
