Mary made a significant contribution to the arts, particularly in Orange, prior to relocating to Newcastle about a decade ago.

Many readers may not know that the Orange Regional Gallery Collection was founded on the Mary Turner Collection, which she presented to the City of Orange in 1982. 

It is thanks to her foresight and generosity that plans to build a regional gallery were progressed — with the award-winning building opening in 1986.

In 2012, Mary donated 100 additional works to the Gallery.

She also donated numerous letters from her time as co-director of Macquarie Galleries in Sydney. 

The letters between Mary and a range of prominent artists including Kevin Connor, Ian Fairweather, Sidney Nolan, Lloyd Rees, Grace Cossington Smith and Roland Wakelin provide a fascinating glimpse into the vital role Mary played in guiding artists’ careers, securing sales, and arranging for their material needs. 

The letters reveal the artists’ appreciation, and the high regard in which Mary and her co-director Treania Smith were held.

We are currently displaying the Mary Turner Collection in our upstairs exhibition space.

Visitors can see for themselves Mary’s brilliance at spotting and nurturing some of Australia’s most important modernist painters. 

To honour Mary’s contribution, the gallery has loaned - and will soon be acquiring  - this extraordinary photographic portrait of her by Gary Grealy.

I look forward to showing this portrait at the gallery each time we exhibit the Mary Turner Collection.

I’m sure you’ll agree that it is a striking and tender image conveying an intriguing mix of strength, frailty, memory and vision.  

This week we submitted our stage-two application to the Regional Cultural Fund for extensions to the gallery. 

The regional cultural fund has been established by the NSW government to support the development of cultural infrastructure in regional areas.

If we are successful, the expansion plan would see the Gallery’s collection capacity more than doubled with additional climate-controlled exhibition space and a 70-seat theatrette.

We were fortunate to have had the opportunity to work closely with the original architect of the building, Colin Still, on conceptual plans for the extension before he passed away at the end of last year.

Nina Still, his daughter, continues to work with us on evolving the plans.

Orange Regional Gallery is located at  149 Byng Street.

It is open 10am till 4pm daily.