Dr Anne Beggs Sunter said she was "thoroughly appalled" by next month's Ballarat in the Raw - A Snapshot of our Community.

"I certainly don't like the idea of the Eureka flag being used in a disrespectful way," Dr Beggs Sunter said.

"The whole thing is sensationalist and it's not artistic."

The photographic display will be curated by the City of Ballarat's artistic and creative director Roland Rocchiccioli, who set the tone for the exhibition last month by posing naked for The Courier.

It will form part of the gallery's The Naked and the Nude exhibition, an event Dr Beggs Sunter said the association fully supported.

"Our problem is not with The Naked and the Nude, it's with the photographic exhibition because it's not part of the gallery's official exhibition program," Dr Beggs Sunter said.

"It only started being talked about in the last couple of months whereas The Naked and the Nude has been on the program for at least a year."

"It's not an art exhibition that has been planned by the professionals within the gallery and a lot of the association members are disturbed by it being in the gallery."

The City of Ballarat declined to comment.