Exhibit at SAM

Images 1-5: SAM Open 2023: Home, SAM Open 2022: New Horizons, SAM Fresh: GV Top Art & Design 2022, Tuesday Junction: After the Rain (SAM EOI/Selects 2023), Aleisa Miksad: Between Scylla and Charybdis | Amphora (SAM Spotlight 2022). Images 1, 4 & 5 by Leon Schoots, images 2 & 3 by Christian Capurro.

SAM is proud to offer four unique opportunities for the Greater Shepparton community to showcase their work at SAM across the year. Through exhibiting in our dedicated community gallery, the Hugh D. T. Williamson Community Gallery, local creatives are given the chance to work in a professional museum context and connect with new audiences across a range of exhibitions, public programs, and events.  

Through four open callouts, creatives in the Greater Shepparton and Goulburn Valley region may apply for the following: 

SAM Fresh: An annual youth arts exhibition celebrating young creatives aged 16 – 25.

SAM Fresh is an annual youth arts exhibition celebrating the creativity of community members aged 16 – 25. An open-call group exhibition, eligible artists living, working, or studying in the Goulburn Valley and Hume regions may submit works of all mediums and themes.

Through the generous support of La Trobe University, two cash prizes will now be available to SAM Fresh 2024 entrants. The top prize of $1,500 will be awarded to the artist whose entry displays high artistic merit, demonstrated by their creativity, technical proficiency and overall aesthetic quality.

Additionally, visitors can vote for their preferred entry in the People’s Choice Award over the course of the exhibition, the winner of which will receive a cash prize of $500.

Applications to SAM Fresh 2024 have now closed. Successful artists will be notified of their inclusion in the exhibition in mid-April 2024.

SAM Open: A themed group exhibition open to all local creatives aged 26+.

SAM Open is an open-call group exhibition for artists aged 26+ that celebrates the artistic talent and creativity of our community. Applicants are asked to submit an artwork that responds to a chosen theme. The theme for 2024 is Remnants, memories, and objects.

Applications for SAM Open 2024 will open on 15 April 2024.

Interested in entering your work in SAM Open 2024? Learn more about the SAM Open 2024 theme, application process and key dates here

SAM Selects – Accepts proposals from artists, curators, creative practitioners and community groups to exhibit an original creative project or body of work.

SAM Selects accepts proposals from artists, curators, creative practitioners and community groups to exhibit an original creative project or body of work in the Community Gallery at SAM, offering a rare opportunity to present within a major art museum.

Applications for our 2024 program have now closed. Applications for our 2025 program will open mid-2024 - dates to be announced soon.

SAM Spotlight – A paid solo exhibition opportunity for emerging artists living and working in the Goulburn Valley region.

SAM Spotlight is a paid solo exhibition opportunity dedicated to showcasing the work of an emerging artist living and working in the Goulburn Valley region. The successful SAM Spotlight artist will work closely with the SAM Curator – Community to create a new body of work and exhibition to be presented in the Hugh D.T Williamson Community Gallery at SAM.

Applications for our 2024 program have now closed. Applications for our 2025 program will open mid-2024 - dates to be announced soon.

If you would like to learn more about SAM Selects or SAM Spotlight, please view our information session from August 2023 here.

About Hugh D.T. Williamson Community Gallery

The Hugh D. T. Williamson Community Gallery is located on Level 2 of the Shepparton Art Museum. The gallery takes its name from Hugh Dean Thomas Williamson, who grew up in country Victoria and at sixteen began his banking career as a teller for the Ballarat Banking Company. His steady achievements over the next 44 years in the banking industry saw him rise to become the General Manager of the ANZ Bank. Hard work and constancy were principles that informed his life and career; these principles gave rise to Williamson’s philanthropic commitment to others by supporting and strengthening community organisations.

Williamson was a founding trustee of the William Buckland Foundation, and for 21 years was the honorary treasurer to the Building Committee and Trust of the Victorian Arts Centre (Arts Centre Melbourne). Established in 1986, the Hugh Williamson Foundation generously supports the community gallery at SAM in recognition of Williamson’s lifelong commitment to supporting and strengthening opportunities to enhance the cultural life of all Victorians.

To receive SAM Open, FRESH, SAM Selects and SAM Spotlight updates via SAM's monthly newsletter, please sign up via the link below: