Goulburn Regional Art Gallery welcomed thousands of visitors between 19 January – 3 March 2024 to the Archibald Prize 2023, an Art Gallery of New South Wales touring exhibition. The Archibald Prize is Australia’s foremost prize for portraiture, and the exhibition provided an exciting and energetic start to the Gallery’s 2024 exhibition program.
This was an extremely successful exhibition, with all 57 of the finalist’s portraits on display. The renowned exhibition enlivened the local community and attracted visitors. The Gallery had visitors from the far reaches of Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland and even Internationally, as well as drawing people from across New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. Some of the public responses to the exhibition include, “Absolutely brilliant! How wonderful for this exhibition to come to Goulburn! This Gallery is fantastic.” and “Thank you to the Goulburn Regional Art Gallery for hosting this fantastic show. Some absolutely amazing, beautiful and insightful art. We are so lucky and grateful to the staff”.
The Gallery welcomed many of the Archibald Prize 2023 finalist artists to the Gallery including Luke Cornish (E.L.K.), Eliza Gosse, Julia Gutman, Patrice Wills. Daniel Kim, Catherine McGuiness, Charles Mouyat, James Powditch, Charlotte Ruth, Sally Ryan, Oliver Shepherd, Michael Simms, Oliver Watts and Zoe Young. Several of these artists delivered workshops, in-conversations, panel discussions and more. It was an immense privilege to bring these prominent Australian artists to Goulburn to interact with the community and visitors through talks, conversation and art making activities. The impact of these programs with artists are profound and have lasting positive influences.
During the Archibald Prize 2023 the Gallery hosted hundreds of school children visiting the exhibition, with students and educators immersing themselves in the exhibition with tours and creative activities. Over 70 public programs, education offerings and outreach activities catering to people of all ages were delivered during the exhibition.
“The Archibald Prize 2023, one of the most widely recognised exhibitions in Australia, touring to Goulburn Regional Art Gallery was a major success. The exhibition attracted thousands of people to Goulburn as a major cultural event. We are so proud of the Goulburn Regional Art Gallery team’s expertise, passion and high-quality professional reputation and applaud them for presenting high quality exhibitions.”- Mayor Peter Walker, Goulburn Mulwaree Council
“The Gallery was delighted to host the Archibald Prize 2023 in Goulburn, one of Australia’s most iconic portraiture exhibitions. Visitors were enthusiastic and loved seeing the diversity of artists and sitters featured in the exhibition. I commend the Gallery team on capably hosting this nationally significant exhibition and enlivening the presentation through original programming and education initiatives which intrigued, informed and brought joy to thousands of people. It was a great success and exemplary of the calibre and vitality of the Goulburn Regional Art Gallery – Yvette Dal Pozzo, Director, Goulburn Regional Art Gallery
