Perc (pronounced purse) Tucker Regional Gallery is a public art gallery in the City Centre of Townsville, Queensland, Australia.[1]
Located on the eastern end of Flinders Mall, the Gallery has a collection of over 2 000 artworks and hosts touring national and international exhibits. The gallery focuses on artwork relevant to North Queensland and the Tropics. The collection includes Contemporary Art of Tropical Queensland, Historical Art of Tropical Queensland, Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Art, Contemporary Art from Papua New Guinea, Popular Art and Ephemera.[2] Perc Tucker has both Membership and Volunteer programs for supporters. Venue hire for functions is also available through Townsville City Council. Included in regular activities are art classes, exhibition tours, artists talks, lectures, workshops, and performances.
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Every second year the gallery presents Strand Ephemera which is hosted for ten days in September on The Strand, Townsville. Sculpture artworks are exhibited over the two kilometre beachfront strip. Complimenting the exhibition are a range of related activities such as guided tours, performances, art workshops, artists' talks and a public art forum.[3]
The Perc Tucker Regional Gallery has established an overall theme for the collection which is reflected also in the Gallery’s exhibitions, education and public relations programs. The theme is intended to give overall unity to the collection and to assist with the interpretation to the public.
The theme adopted - The Tropics - forms the central motif for the collection as a whole and relevance to this theme is the foremost criterion for the acquisition of works of art.
The Tropics, as a thematic umbrella for the entire collection, is interpreted broadly. Emphasis is placed on the construction of the tropics as an idea as well as on the tropics as a particular geographic location.
Emphasis is naturally placed on art made in the tropics which responds to the immediate environment, hence the priority given to the art of Tropical North Queensland. The Gallery also collects art made elsewhere which is seen as being relevant to ideas of cultural construction, spatial history and the identification of place.
Works in all media are held in the collection. [4]
The Building which is now host to Perc Tucker Regional Gallery was built by the Union Bank of Australia in 1885 for their northern headquarters.[5] Designed by colonial architect F.D. G. Stanley the building was single story until a second story was added in the early 30s. The Union Bank eventually became the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group and in the building was its regional headquarters until 1980 when Townsville City Council purchased the heritage building as a venue for Townsville's first public art gallery. The Queensland Government subsidised the initial purchase, however the majority of funding both for the foundation and operating costs of the gallery have been funded by the Local Government Authority.[2]
Perc Tucker Regional Gallery was opened by then Townsville Mayor Mike Reynolds in 1981 and named after former Mayor, Alderman Perc Tucker.[2]
Tucker was a significant North Queensland politician; he was elected as the State Member for North Townsville 1960 and went on to become the Deputy Leader of the Labor Party Opposition to the Bjelke-Petersen Government in the Queensland Parliament. In 1974 he lost his seat of North Townsville, but he moved into the role of Mayor of Townsville in 1976. On top the usual Council responsibilities of roads, drains, sewerage and water-reticulation his administration's achievements included; second stage of the Ross River Dam, the design and construction of the Townsville Civic Theatre, the development of Flinders Mall and the planning for the gallery which was to become commonly known as 'Perc Tucker' to future generations of Townsvillians. Tucker died in office on 20 August 1980.[6]