MORE than 25 years after sharing a dream for Orange to have its own art gallery, Jane Raffin says she is enormously proud of the council and community effort in securing funding for a gallery.
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Back in Orange at the weekend to officially open an exhibition of 180 contributing local artists, Mrs Raffin says she remains in awe of Orange residents who in the 1970s and 80s helped lobby for a gallery.
From a small office set up in the chair storage room at Orange Civic Theatre, Mrs Raffin helped organise exhibitions in the foyer of the theatre in what would become forerunners to the Orange Regional Gallery which would take shape nearby.
“At the time Bill Marshall was the town clerk and all I can say is that he was a complete visionary - a man who was so supportive of the art gallery and the theatre facility and always had his door open to the community,” Mrs Raffin said.
“Orange is a fortunate place to have had Bill Marshall and to have had a mayor like Dick Niven who shared that vision.”
Orange Regional Gallery is this year celebrating 25 years since it was officially opened and Mrs Raffin reflected with fondness the united approach of council at the time.
“There were no factions and everyone was working together - and look at what they achieved - this magnificent gallery and of course the theatre,” she said.
“As far as I am concerned there isn’t one regional gallery in NSW that was born out of a deep passion from the community, the way this gallery was.”
All their married life Mrs Raffin and her husband Peter, a former Orange City councillor, have shared a love of the arts.
“Raffo [Peter Raffin] and Ed Appleton, who was also a councillor at the time, managed to secure John Young as the first manager of the theatre and it was John who encouraged us to start setting up exhibitions in the foyer,” Mrs Raffin said.
“He said it was a dead space and it needed to be livened up.”
Mrs Raffin worked with ArtsOutWest when the gallery was first opened. After she and her husband moved to Sydney she took on the role of the chief executive officer of the Regional Galleries Association of NSW.
“Naively I thought that after Orange every gallery built in NSW would be a better facility but that didn’t happen,” she said.
“In my opinion so many other galleries just turned out to be monuments to architects but that simply hasn’t happened here in Orange where the community has taken real ownership of this gallery under the wonderful direction of Alan Sisley.”
Mrs Raffin says as she has returned to Orange to visit family and friends over the years she has been encouraged by the continuing development in the arts.
“The people in Orange are just so fortunate,” she said.
“You also have a wonderful regional music conservatorium, and a very enthusiastic group of people in the Orange Arts Foundation who are a tremendous support to the arts.”
However, in recent times she says the collaborative efforts of council, the Western NSW Local Health District and Arts NSW has made a big impression.
“When I heard about the project to put the artworks that are in storage on the walls of Orange hospital I was absolutely blown away by the concept,” Mrs Raffin said.
“I’ve been involved in arts for a long time and I have never heard of this kind of wonderful arrangement.
“What an innovative way for the public to interface with great works of art.”
