Activities


Sabah Art Gallery also organizes monthly exhibitions featuring works by groups or individual artists. Some of these exhibitions are annual displays such as the Annual Art Selection Exhibition (September), Annual Invitational Exhibition (April), Annual Water Colour Open Exhibition (February) Annual Graphic and Cartoon Exhibition (October), while the rest of the activities are staged based on the request from groups or individual artists.

On top of these the gallery also organizes travelling exhibitions particularly for school children.

The gallery is also involved in staging exhibitions of works by foreign artists especially those which are organized and sponsored by their own governments or private agencies.

One of the gallery's major activities is the Annual Art Selection which was started in 1985 with the objective of involving the participation of members of the community in the state both in the production and in the support for the development of creative and artistic works. Normally the activity is launched in January, closed at the end of June and climaxed in a special exhibition and prizes presentation ceremony held in conjunction with the National Day Celebration in August every year. As from 1996 the scope of this activity is broaden to include the participation of artists from other states of Malaysia.

The gallery also organizes informal workshops of drawing and painting which is open to anybody and is free of charge. It is conducted every weekend at the Sabah Museum compound by a well known artist with the objective of creating an avenue for those interested to develop their skill under a conducive environment.

To date (1996) the gallery owns over 1200 pieces of works of art in its permanent collection acquired through various activities such as through purchase, Annual Art Selection donation and so on. Almost all the works are by local artists and students. As many as 1,267 and no less than 301 pieces of works are submitted to the art gallery on loan each year for exhibitions.

Despite of its awkward location in the Sabah Museum at the moment the Sabah Art Gallery still manages to attract reasonable number of visitors, at an average of 5,000 a month.