Worth $57.5 million, the giant chrome gnome’s home is under threat

The McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery, just outside Frankston, is a treasured community asset worth $57.5 million and visited by 60,000 people a year.

McClelland is facing a shortfall of $750,000 a year, without which, its director says, it can’t cover its operating costs and may have to close. Recent state government and council funding cuts have had a significant impact on its financial viability, and efforts to raise funds have even included selling some of the collection.

McClelland was established in 1971 – through a family bequest of money and eight hectares of land to build the gallery and open the park – and has grown to cover 16 hectares. It receives more than $500,000 a year in philanthropy, which those involved argue should be matched by public funding.

Works by Lisa Roet, Ron Mueck, Inge King, Phil Price, Louise Paramor, Rick Amor, Lisa Waup, Brian Robinson and Clement Meadmore are held in the collection.

McClelland director Lisa Byrne says she wants equitable funding that reflects the gallery’s contribution to its local community. “We have benefited from philanthropy, but the substantial support we once received ceased almost 15 years ago,” she says.

“[It’s] astounding that decades of cash donations, artworks, in-kind professional services and government project funding now seem highly likely to be lost forever.

“Despite perceptions that McClelland still has access to that level of support, we have long been without it. We have restructured and sold assets, including publicly reported sales of paintings following a review of the collection, to keep our doors open for the past 18 months.”

Entry is free, as Byrne is reluctant to charge locals, many of whom are already under financial stress. “We want them to participate in arts and culture, so we’re working to remove barriers,” she says.

If the doors are closed, the state government will probably have to step in, she says, given McClelland’s $57.5 million asset value, comprising its land, buildings and art collection.

The gallery has launched a public campaign, with a petition released online along with plans to lobby relevant government and stakeholders. Byrne wants a funding increase of $750,000 a year for five years. “This would support us as we progress our joint venture development and move towards near self-sufficiency, which current projections indicate will take five years,” she says.

Chair of the board Matt Healy says regional galleries such as Geelong Gallery and Heide Museum of Modern Art receive at least 10 times as much government funding as McClelland. Local, state and federal funding totals just $140,500 a year, he says, “a pittance” that “verges on the disrespectful”.

“The board has exhausted every option within our control to increase revenue and visitation and reduce costs,” Healy says. “We’ve hosted music and film festivals, weddings and functions, with a constant stream of activity. We’ve also revised our operating model several times to cover as much of our operating budget as possible.”

McClelland has effectively operated at a deficit for years, probably more than a decade, according to Healy, something raised with federal and state arts ministers and local members over that time to try to avoid the current crisis. Ideas explored by the board to sustain operations include the sale of the block of land next door to a developer, to be used for affordable housing.

As well as the gallery and sculpture park, McClelland plays an important role in ecological conservation, as a home for eastern long-necked turtles, echidnas, snakes, wallabies and birds, including powerful owls, gang gangs and tawny frogmouths. There are also indigenous orchid, butterfly and moth species throughout the parklands.

Victorians who use Peninsula Link in the south-east will be familiar with the nine-metre-high silver gnome – nicknamed the Chrome Gnome but officially known as Reflective Lullaby by Gregor Kregar – a product of the McClelland Commission, a public/private initiative established in 2013 between Peninsula Link company Southern Way and McClelland. Southern Way donates $300,000 to the winner for the creation of a work; 14 pieces are planned over the 25-year period to 2037. Once shown along the highway, the works are acquired by the gallery and moved to its sculpture park.

Approaching her eighth year at McClelland, Byrne says 30 FTE staff work there, including 9.2 for the gallery; the rest are cafe and events team.

She says McClelland’s closure is unthinkable. “I fundamentally cannot understand the shortsightedness of allowing it to wind up. It welcomes people from all walks of life, with local people and those from the Mornington Peninsula accounting for two-thirds of visitors a year.”

McLelland’s dire scenario is mirrored by many arts organisations across the state, according to the organisers of the Save Our Arts rally to be held in Melbourne on Monday. Small to medium-sized organisations, including La Mama Theatre, Theatre Works and St Martins Youth Arts Centre are among those hit hardest.

Organised by the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) and the Don’t Break Our Arts campaign, the rally will call for the protection of creative jobs, measures to keep live performance accessible, plus increased arts investment and support for venues.

A collective of artists and arts workers, Don’t Break Our Arts estimates that funding to small-to-medium organisations and independent artists in Victoria has fallen by about 35 per cent since 2022. The Victorian government’s Creative Enterprises Program provides McClelland with $115,500 a year until June 2028.

Opposition arts and creative industries spokesman David Davis said: “The gallery needs a long-term solution that deals with all the challenges it faces. The Liberals and the Nationals will work with McClelland if elected.”

Frankston City Council provides McClelland with $25,000 a year to 2028. A spokesperson for the council said: “While council recognises McClelland’s importance, the level of funding required to address its current financial position is beyond what council can sustainably provide.”

The Don’t Break Our Arts rally is at the steps of State Library Victoria from 4.30pm, November 9.

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