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February 27, 2026 \u2014 12:00pm<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n Save this article for later<\/p>\n Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.<\/p>\n Got it<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Above two deep coal mine shafts stands the most significant transformation of the NSW regional art landscape in more than a decade. After a four-year closure, Newcastle Art Gallery officially reopens this Saturday, its $48 million expansion more than doubling its footprint to house a world-class $145 million collection previously hidden from view.<\/p>\n The new wing, designed by Clare Design with Smith & Tzannes and Arup, is as much an engineering feat as a cultural one.<\/p>\n To stabilise the \u201cSwiss cheese\u201d of 19th-century mine workings beneath the site, engineers pumped 15,000 cubic metres of grout \u2014 roughly six Olympic-sized swimming pools of concrete \u2014through 100 specialised boreholes.<\/p>\n This voluminous slurry of cement and fly ash was essential to prevent subsidence. And the year-long process also served as an archaeological dig, uncovering artefacts from old workers\u2019 cottages and a cordial factory.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got mine shafts right under our city, a myriad of subterranean pathways\u201d says director Lauretta Morton. \u201cWe had the big tanks out the back; trucks and pumps going on behind the scaffold, and people were seeing nothing being built and, yet, it was all happening underground.\u201d<\/p>\n Two earlier expansion plans failed amid funding shortfalls and political squabbles. One former lord mayor described the gallery plans as a waste of time. <\/a>Success was finally achieved through a coalition of support: $25 million from the City of Newcastle, $13 million from the Gallery Foundation, and $10 million in grants.<\/p>\n \u201cI used to stalk previous arts ministers,\u201d Morton says. \u201cI used to find out where they were going to be and I\u2019d drive down the highway and turn up, and ask, \u2018when is the money going to come [north of] the Hawkesbury\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n The new extension increases the number of gallery spaces from five to 13. The additional 1600 square metres of exhibition space makes Newcastle the largest public gallery in NSW outside Sydney.<\/p>\n The former courtyard has been converted into a glass-walled atrium featuring a \u201cfloating\u201d staircase\u2013 a suspended, white geometric structure designed to bridge the original 1977 brutalist building and the airy extension. First Nations culture takes centre stage in the atrium with Megan Cope\u2019s monumental installation, Kinyingarra Guwinyanba (Off Country).<\/p>\n Nick Mitzevich, a former director now leading the National Gallery of Australia, recalls the gallery had one of the best regional collections in the country, but nowhere to show it off.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was literally bursting at the seams,\u201d he says. \u201cThe gallery footprint far exceeded visitor numbers, and it was always congested. It\u2019s now a facility of great scale and amenity with a standalone bookshop, and restaurant and fulfils the full gamut of research, schools and exhibition programs.\u201d<\/p>\n Says Morton: \u201cThis is the first time our collection, anywhere in the gallery, has been on permanent display because before now we didn\u2019t have the space, and we had to constantly do a 12-week cycle of exhibitions.<\/p>\n \u201cJust in this gallery space, we\u2019ve got some Australian hits. Williams, Boyd, Gascoigne, Hinder, Olsen, Blackman, Smart, Gleeson, and Tucker,\u201d Morton says. \u201cWe have the most significant collection outside the state and national galleries, including the largest collection of avant-garde Sodeisha ceramics outside of Japan.\u201d<\/p>\n Related Article Local legends also feature prominently. William Dobell grew up two streets away, and Margaret Olley was once a landlord to the nearby terraces on Church Street; a new gallery space has been named in her honour.<\/p>\n The reopening is anchored by a significant gift from philanthropists Simon and Catriona Mordant. Their donation of 25 contemporary works \u2013 thought to be valued at about $1 million \u2013 includes pieces by Janet Laurence, Maria Fernanda Cardoso, and Novacastrian artist Jamie North. It is the largest number of artworks the philanthropists have ever gifted a single institution.<\/p>\n Mordant says Newcastle and its energetic director were worthy recipients of artworks drawn from the couple\u2019s massive collection built over 40 years. \u201cWe believe art should be seen and enjoyed by the widest possible audience.\u201d<\/p>\n The Mordant gifts join John Olsen\u2019s The Sea Sun of 5 Bells, the only one of his ceiling paintings on permanent display in an Australian gallery. Also out from storage is Brett Whiteley\u2019s Wynne Prize winner, Summer at Carcoar, a departure from Whiteley\u2019s signature aquamarine blue canvases of Sydney.<\/p>\n The gallery owns three of four known works by the convict painter Joseph Lycett, hung between Abdul-Rahman Abdullah\u2019s carved draped white covered work, a commentary on the \u201clie\u201d of Lycett\u2019s peaceful pastoral scenes.<\/p>\n Upcoming highlights include the first major Australian survey of Angela Tiatia in September, followed by a solo exhibition by painter Anh Do in November, featuring his celebrity portraits and new landscapes.<\/p>\n The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.<\/a><\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n![\"Newcastle](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/48e3f84f721240ac0970fa26d1b07b5c1176fb90.jpeg\")
Newcastle Art Gallery director Lauretta Morton. The gallery is reopening on Saturday after four years and a $48 million expansion. Peter Stoop<\/p>\n![\"Gallery](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/6f6f561b42598848ad57a230bffcf58d3693684c.jpeg\")
Gallery director Lauretta Morton in the new wing.Peter Stoop<\/p>\n![\"More](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/859ff6eb5561ef14a880f0848067b49f777c460a.jpeg\")
More than 100 bores were drilled to fill disused mine shafts lying under the gallery.Peter Stoop<\/p>\n![\"State](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/3a27b06f5a5851f77b0b37ae445d18e195c69921.jpeg\")
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