SECCA celebrates 6000 visitors as Archibald exhibition ends

SECCA gallery director Iain Dawson said comments had been "overwhelmingly positive" and shared how the Archibald Prize ticketed exhibition still produced high numbers, even when compared to the 8000 visitors who attended a previous exhibition with free entry.

"We had close to 6000 visitors to SECCA over the Archibald Prize exhibition, a lot of first time visitors to the gallery, [and] we took some data from our visitors in terms of postcode and I think the breakdown was pretty roughly 50/50 on visitors to the area and locals," Mr Dawson said.

During early December, SECCA also launched a free, two-day community open event that saw more than 800 share in a music and art-filled couple of days showcasing the exhibition alongside fellow arts and culture practitioners including Fling Physical Theatre and local musicians.

"All people that we spoke to were overjoyed and thrilled to have a fit for purpose contemporary art gallery in their town," Mr Dawson said.

"A lot of the comments were like, 'I can't believe this is in Bega,' which we kind of came back with, 'This is what Bega is now, this is modern and contemporary Bega."

Before the Archibald Prize finished, the SECCA People's Choice prize was tallied and the award went to a piece called 'Through the Window'.

"No surprises to be honest, there was so many comments about how wonderful the portrait of Noni Hazlehurst by Jaq Grantford was that we had no doubt that it would win and it was clearly ahead in the voting numbers, double the following portrait in the prizing," he said.

Mr Dawson said the new exhibition launching on January 13 and running until February 9, 'HOME: Works from the collection', would showcase artworks pioneered by the Bega Valley Arts and Crafts Society in the sixties, and hoped the community would enjoy learning about and seeing works that call the gallery home.

"It's mostly new works [from] our collection, some have been older pieces we hold in our collection, [and] it's a nice mix of works that haven't been on exhibition with us previously or haven't been on exhibition for a long time," he said.

"It's really just about us having a contemporary art collection as well as some historic pieces that have been in the collection for the last 30 years."