The OAM is in recognition of Mr Perram’s service to visual arts, particularly through the museums and galleries sector.

Mr Perram, who has been the BRAG director since 2004, said he was overwhelmed when he found out he would be awarded the honour.

“Around April I was told I was nominated and was quite taken aback,” he said.

“Then in May I got a letter saying it was all happening. I’m very flattered and am sure many people have done more for visual arts than me.

“It’s weird you just work on doing what you like doing and then get a reward.”

Mr Perram has worked in arts administration and other art roles since the early 1970s.

“I was doing law and I hated it, then I got a job at the Australian Council of the Arts,” he said.

Mr Perram worked there until the mid 1980s, when he was invited to become director of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Arts in Melbourne.

“I had never run an art gallery before, it was a massive learning curve, but very important for me as I learnt a lot about myself and people,” he said.

In the years that followed, Mr Perram was a board member of the Arts Law Centre of Australia; the board director, chair and then executive officers of Sydney Mardi Gras, and he also worked as a corporate events co-ordinator and in cultural and community affairs for both South Sydney and Sydney City councils.

Mr Perram held executive and board positions at Arts Queensland, the Australian Sculpture Triennials, Artspace, Arts NSW’s Funding Program for Young People, the Museum and Galleries Foundation of NSW and Res Arts.

Mr Perram said he had moved to Bathurst with the intention of only staying for a few years.

“My partner saw the ad in the paper and said we could leave Sydney and find out what living in the country was like for a bit, it’s 10 years later now and I have been having a fantastic time,” he said.

As BRAG director Mr Perram has helped develop enhanced education and public programs, such as ‘Art in a Suitcase’, which takes tactile and stimulating art works into local schools, and  ‘Look-Art-Talk’, an art course for Alzheimer sufferers and their carers that promotes social inclusion and intellectual stimulation.

He has also expanded the gallery’s permanent collection, promoted the arts and done some significant fundraising. Outside the gallery he is a senior member of Bathurst Regional Council’s cultural team and was a member of the Bathurst Arts and Health Committee for several years.

Mr Perram said he still passionate about art after all these years and still loved facilitating art and making it available to the public.

“Without art the world would be a bleak place. It’s such a wonderful thing,” he said. “If you look back in time very few gladiators were remembered, but the artists creating the sculptures, the paintings, the plays, the music – they were.”