After 11 years, Brett Adlington is leaving his job as director of Lismore Regional Gallery. At the end of this month, Brett will be taking on a new role as chief executive officer of Museums & Galleries of NSW.

While the position is Sydney based, Brett will be working between the two locations and keeping a strong focus on regional NSW.

With 25 years of gallery sector experience already under his belt, Brett said his new role is a bit different – and he is looking forward to challenges, particularly getting involved with new creative programs, new visions, voices and thoughts.

“The position supports the running and development of galleries and museums, as well as staff,” he said. “The museums side of it is interesting and challenging as it involves the volunteer sector and the museums are responsible for housing important collections.”

Getting the top job at a major institution is no mean feat. It gives credit to the work Brett has done locally in establishing the Lismore Regional Gallery in its current location in 2015. The old gallery location on Molesworth Street was small and unsuited to its purpose.

New location

“Where the gallery is now was going to be the location we built the Margaret Olley Arts Centre in 2010, but the funding fell through,” Brett said.

“So, I spent a few years looking at what could be done to allow us to function as a public gallery and looked at so many buildings and kept coming back the old Lismore High School site.

“We adapted the building to purpose and the result has really worked for our community in many positive ways.”

The old gallery.

The new gallery.

Achievements

Brett said one of his achievements he was proud of in his time as director was the access program for the deaf community.

“It’s become an important part of who we are as an organisation and I am lucky to have had such incredible staff supporting our work,” he said. “The team of people we have at the gallery really stick together.”

Hannah Cabinet

Another huge achievement for the local gallery was raising enough money to keep the Hannah cabinet in the local gallery.

“When we first proposed to fundraise for that, there weren’t many precedents in regional Australia to acquire something like that,” Brett said.

“The Hurfords and Brian Henry drove that campaign so expertly. It now makes Lismore a good place to visit. One woman in Perth saw the Hannah cabinet on TV and flew here especially to see it."

Geoff Hannah with Brett opening open of the secret drawers to the Hannah Cabinet.

Funding challenges

Despite the challenges of finding funding for the arts, Brett sees the local gallery well placed for the future.

“The gallery has three years of State Government funding secured and the Quad has one year,” he said. “The whole arts sector is looking at what it does and we are now looking at the space and how we as a community can make it work.”

Favourite artworks

Brett said his favourite stand out artworks in the Lismore Regional Gallery collection were the Tim Hixson photographs, commissioned in 2014.

“We commissioned a photographer to document hand made houses from the 1970s that had been built in the region for the Not Quite Square exhibition,” he said.

It was an important show at the time and shows how galleries can tell local stories and social history through contemporary work.

“It crosses over into the galleries sector and really shows how galleries play an important role in the social fabric of a regional area.”

The future

Brett said he’s always loved the community connection in Lismore and sees it strengthened by the gallery and its exhibitions and openings.

“I was reflecting on what a diverse community we have here compared to other places I’ve worked,” he said. “We have a different Lismore audience – we have young, old and children.

“It’s kept me connected to the place so long. last year with Covid, we missed having the bigger exhibition openings that brought a bigger range of people to the gallery where we could all meet.

“I want to give a huge thanks to everyone involved for their support over the years – from coming to openings, volunteering and support to build our gallery.”