Visitors to the Art Gallery of Ballarat will be subject to timed tickets and limited numbers of patrons when the gallery reopens its doors on Saturday for the first time in months.
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"We are a public institution and we can't do our job without the public so it's a pretty momentous occasion," said gallery director Louise Tegart.
Since the gallery shop reopened last month, Ms Tegart said there had been a steady stream of customers with a noticable increase in visitors from Melbourne this week after the 'ring of steel' restrictions were lifted on Sunday.
"Our instagram post about reopening is one of our top five instagram posts of all time so there's obviously a lot of excitement and interest," she said.
Several exhibitions that had been open only a matter of days before the gallery was forced to close because of COVID restrictions, have had their run extended for visitors to enjoy including David Noonan's Stagecraft and the Pitcha Makin Fellas' Join the Club.
During the closure, gallery staff completed a rehang of the collection, overhauled systems, reorganised storage, digitised part of the collection and rolled out building upgrades.
Contact tracing, hand sanitiser and entry and exit through the gallery annexe in Alfred Deakin Place will be part of the new gallery experience.
The gallery will be open to visitors in two ticketed sessions, from 10 am to 1 pm and from 2 pm to 5 pm daily. Once visitors have reserved their free tickets, they will be able to enter the gallery at any time during that session.
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Tickets should be reserved online in advance to avoid disappointment and visitors who arrive without a ticket risk missing out. Sessions not fully booked will be made available for walk-up visitors.
Ms Tegart said staff were very excited to welcome visitors back.
"Visitors are the heart and soul of the gallery - we put our visitors at the very centre of what we do and we are very keen to have them back again to enjoy our beautiful gallery.
"We are particularly pleased that we are able to open this weekend, as we expect that visitors from Melbourne will be keen to come out into the region and enjoy what we have to offer.
Bookings can be made here
