4 February 2021

Shepparton Art Museum (SAM) is offering an exciting new hospitality opportunity to operate a café, a separate roof top bar and multifunction area. SAM is one of Australia’s leading art museums located in Greater Shepparton, recognised for its ceramics and Indigenous art collections and engagement programs.

SAM is getting ready for the biggest move in its history, as Shepparton Council’s largest building project nears completion. The new purpose-built art museum and community spaces is designed by internationally acclaimed Australian architects Denton Corker Marshall.

The new SAM building will be home to Shepparton Art Museum (SAM), Kaiela Arts, and the Visitor Centre, offering community, visitors and the region a new arts and culture space to experience, share and enjoy. For Shepparton and north central Victoria, it’s a game-changer. Contemporary, indigenous, inclusive, art and ideas, kids and families, exciting experiences, great food and wine are just some of the experience and ideas that underpin the new spaces and opportunities. Subscribe via the SAM website to get up to date information on our plans for a Grand Opening Weekend, which will be held in the second half of 2021.

Shepparton Art Museum (SAM Limited) will be managing the lease for the hospitality opportunity in the new building. To join them on this exciting journey, SAM is seeking to partner with an experienced and entrepreneurial hospitality operator to deliver an exceptional and mutually beneficial café and bar experience to museum and other visitors. SAM is seeking a café operator with style, flair and business acumen who can maximise this rare and unique opportunity to create a high-quality café and bar experience that complements and enhances the visitor experience offered at SAM.

Great coffee, food and friendship, or a spectacular location to hold one of those major events, is part of the new SAM experience. How many of us remember that great meal, or fabulous view, when we visited great cultural destinations on those far-off overseas and interstate travels?

The café and roof top bar are in central positions in the new purpose-built SAM building. The café and fully furnished kitchen are on Level 1 with an adjoint deck/grass area and is accessible through the building and the grass area leading to the walking path at the lake. The roof top bar and multifunction area are on the Level 4, with a roof top viewing deck. The café and the bar must be conceptually sympathetic with SAM, ensuring a steady flow of cultural tourists.

While the SAM team wait for the building to be ready, they have been busy. They are preparing for the move of their collection of over 4,000 artworks; their offices, shop and operations; and developing over seven major new exhibitions and art projects that will attract visitors of all ages from near and far.

A move of this scale does not happen overnight. On completion, over the next months SAM and their co-tenants will settle into the new building and get things ready for the community and a Grand Opening Weekend later in the year. In the meantime, share some of these experiences via SAM’s socials, and join SAM’s mailing list through the SAM website to keep up to date with the move, and watch out for announcements around opening programs, sneak peeks, and what’s to come.

Expression of Interest applications are to be submitted electronically via Tender Search. (https://eprocure.com.au/lite).

Applications open on 4 February 2021 and close on 26 February 2021. The question period ends on 20 February 2021.