Greater Shepparton City Council, Media Release, 18 November 2021

Greater Shepparton City Council is excited to announce the official virtual opening of the new Shepparton Art Museum (SAM) building on Friday 19 November at 7.00pm.

The virtual opening will be available online for everyone to view and will feature some very special guests and presenters.

From Saturday 20 November the building will be fully open for visitors who can enjoy the many interesting spaces including the Shepparton Art Museum galleries, the SAM café, the Greater Shepparton Visitor Centre, the Kaiela Arts gallery and shop, and the SAM shop.

Visitors can enjoy a coffee and cake in the SAM café located on the second level and overlooking the newly named Orchard Hill and the Victoria Park Lake, providing a relaxing view to the surrounding wetlands and park.

The 150 person events space on the fourth floor has a balcony facing the west and provides a view unrivalled by any other building in Shepparton.

SAM features numerous display spaces along with the four main galleries totalling 800m2. The gallery spaces include The Lin Onus Gallery, People’s Gallery, Williamson Community Space, SAM Kids Space, the Bill Kelly Peace Room designed as a collection viewing space, and Showcases at the entrance to SAM and across each floor featuring new commissions and SAM’s ceramics collection.

The transition to the new site for the Shepparton Art Museum involved relocating a collection of 4,000 plus unique artworks to the new purpose-built facility.

Please remember the building will be open to the public in line with COVID-19 restrictions. 

Due to COVID-19 restrictions an in-person community celebration event will be held next year. More information will be provided in early 2022.

To view the Official Opening please visit https://samopening.com.au/