Matt Hewson
The Geelong Gallery has won gold in the cultural tourism category at the Victorian Tourism Awards (VTA) for the second year in a row.
Geelong Gallery deputy director Penny Whitehead said she and her team were “ecstatic” with the award.
“It’s a fantastic result, and after winning last year as well it was really unexpected,” Mrs Whitehead said.
“It’s a whole team effort, and the award really just legitimises the hard work of the entire team.
“That’s incredibly important, particularly after the challenging years that we’ve recently come out of.”
The gold was awarded due to the gallery’s strong and consistent growth in attendance and engagement.
Victorian Tourism Industry Council stated Geelong Gallery’s success was based on the excellence of its collection, the capacity to deliver popular and scholarly exhibitions, a commitment to lifelong learning, and a significant contribution to Geelong’s economic and cultural renewal.
The win opens up the potential for the gallery to be inducted into the VTA Hall of Fame, which is awarded to an entrant that wins the same category over three consecutive years.
“We now have this fortunate or unfortunate expectation of going up again for the third time next year,” Mrs Whitehead said.
“We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, but it’s pretty exciting, so one of our focuses for next year will be putting together our third submission.”
The gold also advances the gallery to the Australian Tourism Awards, where gold winners at the state level are judged against winners from other states.
“The Australian awards will be held in March next year, so we hope we may achieve the national accolades,” Mrs Whitehead said.
“But from a broader perspective, we are still working very much on our plans for the Geelong Gallery’s proposed expansion; working with all levels of government to see that come to fruition is a major focus for our team.”
The proposed expansion would triple the gallery’s current space, which Mrs Whitehead said would allow much more of its collections to be on show at any one time.
“It’s a significant physical expansion, but it’s more about our ability to deliver exhibitions of significant scale and bring our collection to the people of Geelong,” she said.
“We currently have over 6,000 works in the collection, and at any one time around one to two percent is on show.”
Other Geegold winners from the region included Tourism Greater Geelong and the Bellarine (Tourism Education and Training), Searoad Ferries (Major Tour and Transport Operators), The Woods (Self-contained Accommodation) and Adventure Park (Tourism Attractions).
