It was perhaps not quite the birthday celebration members of the Art Gallery of Ballarat Association originally had in mind.
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While the doors of the gallery remained steadfastly closed on the day of its 130th anniversary, there were at least bright, pink balloons fluttering in celebration to mark the occasion on Saturday afternoon.
There was also a brief opportunity to look ahead to the Lydiard Street gallery's reopening on July 1.
Pamela Foulkes, the vice president of the Gallery Association, said she was "thrilled" at the prospect.
"Once things get back to whatever the new normal is, we'll schedule a proper celebration," she told The Courier.
Standing outside of the building exactly 130 years to the day since it was officially opened by Alfred Deakin, Ms Foulkes also wished to pay tribute to the architect William Brittain Tappin.
Mr Tappin designed the building in its distinctive Renaissance Revival style.
"He was a very highly regarded architect, not only in Victoria but nationally," Ms Foulkes said. ""He was a very important architect in his day, and a local Ballarat man too."
"It is really important to acknowledge him on a day like this as he gave us such a beautiful building."
The gallery director Louise Tegart was also there.
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"It's been tough being closed for the past nearly three months," she said. "What I've realised is we don't fulfil our mission as a public space without the public.
"The artworks don't function without someone looking at them."
Ms Tegart said the building, which was the first purpose-built art gallery in regional Australia, owed a lot to the people who had the vision and energy to start it in the first place.
"One of the fantastic things about this gallery is the passion of the members, which has continued over the past 135 years and that the gallery came out of people's desire to share art. It didn't come out of a government initiative, it was just passionate Ballarat citizens who believed in the power of art to transform people's lives."
The foundation stone of the gallery was laid on June 21 1887, as part of the celebrations for Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee. The construction took another three years until it was ready for its official opening in June 1890.
The gallery transferred its ownership to the council back in 1978 but the Gallery Association, which has around 2,000 members, still plays an important role.
- The ground floor of the gallery reopens on July 1, with up to 50 members of the public allowed in at a time. People will need to book in advance for timed slots of 45 minutes. See artgalleryofballarat.com.au for tickets.
Do you have a gallery story to tell? Let us know your cherished moment at the gallery.