An important milestone was the 1980 acquisition of O'Neil's cottage, built 100 years earlier on the bank of the Queanbeyan River. The cottage was acquired when viewing it as the subject of the winning painting by well known local artist Mrs. Peg Minty, at the Society's annual exhibition in 1978.
A great deal of community volunteer work was needed to get the old cottage shipshape for a gallery and among the major contributors where Mr Frank Bresnik and members of the Rotaract, Apex and the Art society,with the then President and expert builder , Mr Trevor Hardy.
Trevor also was a Trustee and Director in 1980 and it is with great
sadness that Trevor is no longer with us as of 2nd July,2001 he
was
taken from us at the age of 72 years.
There has been a hardcore of Society people who have also worked
tirelessly to build up the gallery and the quality of paintings hung
in it over
the past thirty years, and todays members continue to benefit from
their efforts.
The Queanbeyan Art Society has a healthy membership of about 120 people who come mainly from the Queanbeyan and Canberra regions, but also from as far away as Cooma, Cowra and the South Coast. Volunteers help out in the gallery with food, cleaning, maintenance and the hanging of paintings.
The Society hold a different exhibition in the Gallery each month.
These comprise exhibitions by the Society's tutored groups and a
number
of major
exhibitions
and competitions each year, including:-
Queanbeyan
Leagues CLub Art Award
Member's Molonglo Competition
Queanbeyan City Council Art Prize
Calendar Competition
Nove Travel Art Prize.
A People's Choice prize is awarded at every exhibition. The votes for these are tallied for the Artist of the Year award.
