It's been five years since the late, great Margaret Olley took pride of place in Maitland to open the city's new-look art gallery.
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Since then the multi-million dollar design has attracted the works of the country's most prominent artists and become a booming cultural hub for the region.
"My dream was always for the gallery to be accessible to everybody and that's what we've worked hard to achieve," gallery director Joe Eisenberg said.
"People coming here don't have to wear a bow tie and a black suit, they can come here wearing thongs and they can come with their prams."
This weekend the gallery, as it stands today, will celebrate its fifth birthday giving the Mercury a chance to reflect on the facility's artistic offerings since 2009.
These include exhibitions such as the controversial Archibald Prize and prestigious ARTEXPRESS, a display reflecting on the life of champion boxer Les Darcy, iconic black and white images of a naked Christine Keeler astride a chair and a homage to Maitland's Jewish heritage.
More recently, the gallery showed the photographic works of NSW senior Crown prosecutor Mark Tedeschi and previously unseen images by Dick Watkins.
"Obviously the quality of the exhibitions has improved during the past five years, but the other thing is that Maitland City Council saw that this was a winner and has given us the extra funding to have the staff," Mr Eisenberg said.
"The past five years has really shown that we needed a new structure, both for funding and the way we work.
"We've also been able to do more things because we can now fund-raise for the extras [including baby art classes, an art in dementia group and the youth-orientated art factory] and that's the breathing space Maitland City Council has given us."
After steering the success of the gallery for the past decade, Mr Eisenberg will hang up his white gloves next year.
"It's been really, really great but it's time to move on. It doesn't mean I'm tired of it or anything, but it's for the gallery to move on into the next stage and it will be wonderful," Mr Eisenberg said.
"So much of what I've wanted to do to has come to fruition. This gallery just works beautifully with the history of Maitland and my dreams for five years have come true."
The gallery will celebrate its success with a picnic in the grounds on Sunday, August 24, from 11am.
