Lisa Dennis
Castlemaine Art Museum director Naomi Cass celebrates her fourth year at the helm of the beloved local institution in 2023 and says it has been an honour to lead the gallery through the period of ‘renewal’.
Ms Cass joined the CAM team just before the Castlemaine State Festival in 2019, after 15 years as director of the Centre for Contemporary Photography in Fitzroy.
“I was just completing a major project as part of the Ballarat International Foto Biennale ‘Capital’, which derived its theme from the historic former Ballarat Union Bank building it was based in,” Ms Cass said.
“As a curator I am an admirer of art in all its forms and an advocate of artists and makers of all mediums and disciplines.
“I have a huge respect for artists and our fabulous art and museum collections, and I have been focused on sharing these with the local community, including the local First Nations community, and those from further afield, in beautiful, new and interesting ways.”
The CAM team is currently in the process of undertaking an audit and significant assessment of the art and museum collections.
It has also done some work upgrading its website and digitising the collection to enable it to be shared more broadly.
“We have very limited resources with just 2.6 staff and a small but dedicated pool of skilled local volunteers,” Ms Cass said.
“We have been working hard to build relationships and partnerships with supporters and artists in the local community, particularly those who are new to visiting galleries.
“Our Orbit exhibition series highlights the work of artists in our local ‘orbit’ and we also received funding to introduce the Terrace Projections series, which effectively smashes a metaphorical hole through the wall of the gallery and takes art onto the street.
“The commissioned works on a range of subjects are projected onto the heritage-listed facade of the building every night of the year after sunset, engaging the local community with art and the CAM collection.
“Entry to the gallery is free. We don’t charge a fee as we feel this would deter people from visiting. People are free to make a donation if they wish and many do.
“The gallery is a beautiful welcoming space where our local community can come, sit and immerse themselves in a range of art and be rejuvenated and inspired, entertained, stimulated and uplifted.
“We see our job as to feed people’s imagination and in particular the imagination of local artists and makers so they can come up with new ideas and works,” Ms Cass said.
LONG-TERM GOALS
The CAM board and management are working very hard behind the scenes to respond to the museum’s operational funding issues and ensure it will be viable from July 2023 onwards.
“Our 100 for 1000 fundraiser has been extremely well supported with 40 bricks now having been purchased and our CAM Commissions prints continue to sell, but we are also working towards finding long-term solutions,” Ms Cass said.
“We have big plans for the upgrade and redevelopment of the gallery, having been awarded $6.2 million for improvement works including universal access and business case for Stage Two of the redevelopment.”
However, addressing future operational funding remains critical.
Ms Cass also touched on recent comments in our Opinions pages about the gallery paying artists a fee for their work.
“As a public gallery we don’t sell artworks. We pay a nominal fee to artists to create or share their work at CAM,” she said.
“We pay our other contractors – electricians, auditors, plumbers etc. Why not our artists?
“Without artists there wouldn’t be any art to enjoy, and artists fees are a small budget item.
“Artists are extremely generous, they subsidise the sector and put much more into the field than do governments and philanthropists.”
CAM is open Thursday 12-4pm, Friday 12-6.30pm, Saturday 12-4pm and Sunday 12-4pm. To discover more about their latest exhibitions visit castlemaineartmuseum.org.au
