Construction of the expansion works at Grafton’s Regional Gallery have continued to progress over the last six months.

Grafton Regional Gallery director Niomi Sands said that the site works began in December last year, with most of the work beginning in January 2020.

“We are still on schedule to get our keys in December,” Ms Sands said.

“It will take us a bit of time to move back into our building so we’re looking at the official opening in February 2021.

“At the moment we really only have the front section of the gallery ‘Prentice House’ open, so next year we will be opening everything from the courtyard back.

“The renovation extends our current gallery main building into Robinson Avenue.

“One of the key things we are doing is moving the ‘collections store’ out of the flood zone and up to the second floor which will be really a great thing to do because we have such a wonderful collection and we need to take care of that for our community.

“We will get some new exhibition space which will almost double that space. “This will allow us to host exhibitions (from State Institutions) which normally we couldn’t host because we didn’t have the right climate facilities to host them.

“Other gallery areas are being renovated and we will have an artist’s residence space on site, so we can really develop our artist residency program.

“The café will get a new kitchen and it will be relocated to the other side of the courtyard and have a slightly better ergonomic layout. We will have space for seating out the front and on the deck,” she said.

The gallery will still be operating a self-service visitor information service as well during opening times.