Director Gordon Morrison said the figures were an excellent result, despite the gallery again being edged out by the Bendigo Art Gallery which saw 75,000 visitors for its Golden Age of Couture and White Wedding Dress exhibitions.

“It is a striking result for 2011, with exhibitions including the Australian Modern Masterpieces bringing a lot of visitors from Melbourne during the spring.

“Institutions like the National Gallery of Victoria faced a drop in visitation over the same period, meaning the only downside for Ballarat is that every time the numbers go up it makes it a little harder to sustain,” Mr Morrison said.

The NGV attracted more than 1.5 million people in the 2010-11 financial year, down from 1.6 the previous year. The gallery also saw a decrease in ticket sales for its Melbourne Winter Masterpieces series, with 172,000 people seeing the Vienna: Art and Design exhibition.

Mr Morrison said the Art Gallery of Ballarat was actively positioning itself with a focus on paintings, sculpture and drawings – adding to its extensive permanent collection.

“Wherever possible we are seeking to relate our exhibitions to the collection and base them alongside works we own.

“That was evident with the Australian Modern Masterpieces exhibition which saw works from the Art Gallery of New South Wales alongside our own,” he said.

He said advertising budgets of other regional exhibitions and the length of shows reflected higher visitor numbers.

“We can be quiet happy with where we stand in terms of the investment which has been put into our shows, and the outcomes we’ve achieved as a result,” he said.

A special exhibition of Cecil Beaton photography of Queen Elizabeth II will open on February 25 at the Art Gallery of Ballarat.