Feb 4 Lecture Report: History of the Geelong Art Gallery

Art in the Park – A History of the Geelong Art Gallery

By Dr David Rowe

You can listen to a reading of this article by clicking the link below:

This month’s lecture was delivered by Dr David Rowe, a Society member ‘since last century’, he is a former editor of Investigator magazine, a contributor to our publications, and the author of the City of Greater Geelong’s Thematic History of Geelong—a major work in its own right. In his work life, David is the Director at Authentic Heritage Services Pty Ltd. His talk traced the long, layered history of the Geelong Art Gallery, revealing how the institution grew from modest beginnings into one of the region’s most significant cultural landmarks.

David opened by noting a surprising fact: despite its civic prominence, the Gallery has no formal standing on either the local or state heritage registers. His own 2021 heritage survey sought to address this gap, and it has provided the foundation for much of the story he shared.

He began with the landscape itself. Using H. W. H. Smythe’s 1838 plan, David described the western gully that once cut across what is now Johnstone Park, a place deeply connected to Wadawurrung people long predating European settlement. Early artists such as S. Mossman captured this terrain in the 1840s, before an excavation reshaped the gully into a dam and altered the site forever. He referenced John Helder Wedge’s 1835 description of the site, ‘as swelling into low tiers and alternating with beautiful hill and dale and luxuriant grass‘.

Before Geelong had an art gallery, the Mechanics Institute at 77 Ryrie Street served as the city’s cultural hub. In 1857 the Governor opened a notable exhibition there. The push for a dedicated gallery emerged in the late nineteenth century, championed by figures such as Edmund Sasse, Edward Alexander Vidler and James Whitley Sayer, whose works helped define the early Geelong art movement.

Sasse’s contribution to art education continued throughout the nineteenth century: In 1869 at the Geelong Technological School, from 1873 at the Ladies School of Design, and as a teacher at his own art school in Myers Street from 1886. Between 1888 and 1896 Sasse was also one of the first instructors at the Gordon Technical College.

A public meeting on 20 January 1896 formally set the idea of Geelong’s Art Gallery in motion, and after four years of effort the Art Gallery Association opened its first modest display in the Town Hall in May 31, 1900. For 15 years, from December 1900, the gallery relocated to the Geelong Free Library.

The question of a permanent home occupied the Association for many years. It seemed impossible for the association to determine the most appropriate site. Market Square was considered, as were rooms near the Town Hall and a site by the old fire station.

By December 1912 six designs had been submitted, with a strict £3,000 budget. The consensus, however, was that any new building should overlook the park. Laird & Buchan offered two schemes, both conceived as a ‘temple to art‘ and stylistically aligned with the Town Hall. Their design drew inspiration from the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the National Gallery of Scotland, and incorporated indirect lighting techniques borrowed from Geelong’s woolstores.

The foundation stone was laid on 28 February 1914 by Premier W. A. Watt, and the Gallery was opened the following year to an invited group of 300 subscribers. Among its early champions was George Hitchcock, whose family’s department store became a Geelong institution for more than a century. As a result of his support, the art gallery became known as G.M. Hitchcock Art Gallery. It was also the first building to open directly onto Johnstone Park, a relationship strengthened by the 1916 design competition for park improvements, won by Percy Everett and shaped by the ideals of the City Beautiful movement.

David then traced the Gallery’s steady physical expansion, each stage reflecting the generosity and vision of local benefactors. H. P. Douglass, managing director of the Geelong Advertiser, funded the 1927 Douglass Gallery, designed to harmonise with the original Hitchcock building. The Horace Frank Richardson Memorial extension followed in 1935, again by Buchan, Laird & Buchan. Soon after, J. H. McPhillimy offered to finance another addition, completed in matching materials and opened by Prime Minister Joseph Lyons. McPhillimy, a Spring Street confectioner and Gallery trustee, also donated paintings and £2,000 to support the collection.

Post‑war growth continued through the W. Max Bell Memorial Fund, which enabled a strikingly modern extension planned for 1956. Planning for the Tiled—or later Sidney Myer—Gallery began in 1963 but was delayed until 1971; its sleek modernist form marked a decisive stylistic shift and cost $110,000 to complete.

David also reflected on the Gallery’s governance. The Art Gallery Association operated without a formal constitution until 1896, and it was not until 1972 that the committee expanded to include women and representatives of neighbouring councils.. The collection itself began with just 58 works by 1911, most donated by local benefactors. Among the early treasures was A Bush Burial, and later acquisitions included works by Ludwig Hirschfeld‑Mack. Collaboration with other regional art galleries, beginning with the Victorian Public Galleries Group— chaired for a time by Donald Webb— strengthened the Gallery’s regional role through the late twentieth century.

David’s lecture reminded us that the Geelong Art Gallery is not simply a building but a century‑long expression of civic aspiration, philanthropy, and cultural identity. His deep knowledge, combined with his characteristic warmth and humour, made for an engaging and memorable evening, one that left many of us seeing both the Gallery and Johnstone Park with fresh eyes.