SARAH Gurich has been appointed the new director of Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, with the position to become official on Monday.
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Ms Gurich will step into the shoes of respected former director Richard Perram who retired in February after 14 years in the job.
She said Mr Perram had helped the gallery become one of the best in regional NSW but she was looking forward to adding her own twist with the help of a new leadership team.
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“Richard’s legacy is that the gallery has such an incredible reputation within the arts sector and the local community and I would like to take that and continue with the in-gallery curated programs but also focus on local and regional artists and pushing our programs out of the gallery,” she said.
“That could mean engaging with public spaces in the CBD or across the region where you can touch base with a broader audience.
“When you are just looking in the gallery space it becomes a bit of a box so it can be good to step out of the box.
“In the short term I will be looking to consolidate our staff because we need to recruit a curator and audience engagement officer. They are two key positions so it is a fantastic opportunity to build a new team.”
Ms Gurich has been the curator BRAG since 2009 but also completed a stint as exhibitions manager at the new Blue Mountains Cultural Centre which opened in 2012.
She said that was a great experience in helping to build a gallery from scratch.
“When I got there it was still a building site so it was a fantastic experience to oversee the development of the gallery,” she said.
“I’ve been incredibly lucky to with a mentor like Richard Perram here but also Paul Brinkman in the Blue Mountains.
“Both had very different styles but I learnt a lot from both.”
BRAG has a permanent collection of more than 2000 pieces (most kept in storage on-site) valued at more than $12 million.