New Wildlife Art Museum of Australia opens next door to Grampians National Park
The new Wildlife Art Museum of Australia (WAMA) at Pomonal in western Victoria is a celebration of environmental art.
The venue is an Australian first, combining an environmental art gallery with a native Australian garden.
Chief executive Pippa Mott said the 16-hectare project was 14 years in the making.
"[WAMA is] a gallery and garden precinct that exists in proximity to beautiful Gariwerd Grampians National Park, which is a place of such amazing geological, cultural, and ecological significance," Ms Mott said.
The gallery opening on July 5 featured an exhibition called End & Being by Jacobus Capone, exploring the concept of climate change through pre-recorded performance art created on the glaciers of Mont Blanc in France.
Ms Mott said the installation was the newest addition to the environmental art movement.
"[Environmental art is] a really broad genre and it's not a new thing," Ms Mott said.
"It's been really accelerating since the 1960s. Artists have forever responded to the environment and the natural world.
"But I suppose in the past few decades, they're responding with a little bit more agency, are often informed more by science, and often speaking directly to some of the issues facing the natural world."
Botanical gardens on the site contain 500 native Australian plants including 20 of the 40 plants endemic to the Grampians.
WAMA director Jill Burness said the plants were protected by a feral-proof fence.
She said the plants could be used as a seed bank to revegetate the Grampians after bushfire, and, if the site itself were affected by fire, seeds could be brought in to regenerate it.
"[The protected endemic plants are] not only here, they're at Halls Gap and they're certainly protected at the Cranbourne botanical gardens," Ms Burness said.
"If a bushfire came through here … we could duplicate these plants again from Cranbourne."
The art gallery is a privately funded venture.
Ms Mott said the board was still fundraising to support future developments.
"[This is] stage one of the centre and the endemic garden is just the beginning," Ms Mott said.
"We rely on giving or philanthropy alongside grants and sponsorships."
Tickets to the venue are free for children, and $12–18 for adults.
"Obviously, we are a ticketed destination," Ms Mott said.
"We have a retail space, we have a cafe, but we are essentially a not-for-profit at the end of the day, and so we hope that what we're doing inspires people."
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