Collie & Districts Community Bank Branch of the Bendigo Bank became the gallery’s first Premier Patron when it allocated $500,000 towards the gallery project.
Ian Miffling, the bank’s board chairman, had this to say:
Arts and culture has not featured highly in Collie in past years but now, through the enthusiastic endeavours of your group, it is gaining a much higher profile and the proposed new art gallery will no doubt lift it to yet another level of acceptance and enjoyment.