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 an opportunity for the Greater Shepparton community to showcase their work at SAM in four unique exhibitions 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: 

Application rounds opening in 2024:

SAM Fresh – Our annual youth arts exhibition celebrating the creativity of community members aged 16 – 25. Eligible artists may submit works of all mediums and themes.

Applications for SAM Fresh 2024 will open on 13 January 2024

SAM Open - A open exhibition for artists aged 25+ that celebrates the creativity of our community. Applicants are asked to submit works that respond to a chosen theme. The theme for 2024 is Remnants, memories, and objects.

Applications for SAM Open 2024 will open in April 2024.

SAM Selects (formerly SAM EOI) – accepts proposals from artists, curators, creative practitioners and community groups to exhibit in the Community Gallery at SAM, a rare opportunity to present within a major art museum.

Applications for our 2024 program have now closed. Dates for our 2025 program will be announced later in 2024.

SAM Spotlight – a paid solo exhibition opportunity dedicated to showcasing the work of an emerging artist living and working in the Goulburn Valley region.

Applications for our 2024 program have now closed. Dates for our 2025 program will be announced later in 2024.

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.

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