From January 2023, Shepparton Art Museum will be open six days a week with extended weekend hours. 

 Coming into effect from 1 January 2023, Shepparton Art Museum (SAM) will be closed to the public every Tuesday, bringing the museum into alignment with the six-day-week industry norm. On weekends, visitors to the museum can now enjoy time to explore the facility with opening hours extending to 5pm. The Tuesday closures to the public will include room and facility bookings from external parties. 

 Melinda Martin, SAM CEO, says of the change: 

 “When reviewing our opening hours, we made the decision to extend our weekend hours to 5pm to increase the opportunities for our community to explore SAM outside of their own regular working hours. In addition to this, visitors can look forward to the return of SAM at Sunset, which we’ll be bringing back on a monthly basis in a new format to create a more expansive, full museum experience. We will be announcing our February program and information on how the community can buy tickets to the rooftop bar soon.  

 SAM and the SAM Café will be closed every Tuesday to allow museum staff to undertake minor maintenance and exhibition activities, which often require the use of heavy machinery. This will result in fewer sporadic closures and create fewer interruptions during our opening days, Wednesday to Monday. The six-day trading week is common across art institutions, and can be seen in our regional neighbour Benalla Art Gallery, and large institutions nationally and internationally.” 

 In addition to the museum, the SAM Café has also adopted the Tuesday closure and will now be open six days a week from 10am to 4pm. 

 SAM is now open Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 10am to 4pm, and on Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 5pm. For SAM at Sunset, SAM will remain open until 8pm on the last Thursday of each month from February to November.