Experience stories of our rich maritime heritage & celebrate the history of the Rotary Art Show.

This exhibition showcases painting from the City of Victor Harbor art collection, acquired mostly through acquisitive sponsorship of the Rotary Art Show, as well as portraits depicting local fisherman who operated across our coast line from 1855.

View floor sheet.

Below - Wallaby Track, Hal Barton, SA. Acquisition from Rotary Art Show in 2001.

Acquired Works from the Rotary Art Show Rotary Art Show

This exhibition presents a selection of the work which has been acquired by the City of Victor Harbor from the annual Rotary Art Show. This has been a popular event in the arts calendar and attracts national interest. Profits from the Show enable Rotary Victor Harbor to inject funds into the local community projects and provide grants, scholarships and research opportunities into a number of humanitarian and health projects. The contributions of the sponsors, volunteers, artists, the City of Victor and the local community has resulted in a number of awards and commendations including SA Great Regional Awards.

In January 2022, the 43nd Rotary Art Show which has become part of the culture of Victor Harbor. It is also Australia’s largest outdoor art exhibition with over 10,000 people attending the event over nine days viewing in excess of 1400 paintings and sculptures on display. This year, there will be acknowledgement for Indigenous work with inaugural prizes.

Importantly, the Rotary Art Show has provide many opportunities to promote for artists locally and nationally to display and sell their work. For many artists, it has been a pivotal point in their career, it has provided a sound basis for emerging artists to establish their careers, consolidate and proceed to the next stage of development of becoming an established artist.

The Special Collections Exhibition presents a wonderful array of talent, technical competence and work which is highly resolved. It is an exhibition, that you need to take time over, view each painting in the context of the time, it was acquired and the subject matter of the artist. There is a diversity of work in this display from the fine detail inherent in landscape and the sea. Many paintings capture of their emotional engagement with the subject, through abstraction to realist work. Throughout this exhibition, the capturing of light in many works is exceptional and this has helped to bring the exhibition together and become cohesive. In many ways, it is a snapshot of art yet to come in the next Rotary Art Show and a testament to the quality of entries that it attracts.