20,000 visit MAMA in first two months

MAMA has welcomed more than 20,000 visitors since it opened on 2 October.

The new Murray Art Museum Albury has surpassed all crowd number expectations - even before it welcomes its first blockbuster exhibitions.

In the entire last year it was open, the former Albury Regional Gallery had 24,000 visitors. MAMA has almost reached that figure in less than two months.

MAMA Director Jacqui Hemsley said to hit the 20,000 visitor mark in just two months, exceeded all expectations.

"I thank the Albury and broader community for embracing MAMA the way it has," Hemsley said.

Ms Hemsley said an estimated 70 per cent of visitors had been local and 30 per cent had been from out of town. People had travelled from Melbourne, Sydney and Ballarat specifically to see MAMA.

Ms Hemsley said MAMA had hosted almost 2500 students in October – more than the former gallery hosted in its entire last year.

"To see so many young people visiting MAMA has been extremely rewarding," she said.

AlburyCity Mayor Henk van de Ven said the crowd numbers were outstanding and urged residents to take their summer holiday visitors to MAMA.

"I thank all the MAMA staff for their hard work and dedication to making this new art museum a success for our community," Cr van de Ven said.

On 12 December 2015, MAMA will open Impressions of Paris: Lautrec, Degas, Daumier - a stunning exhibition of more than 150 prints, posters, drawings and monotypes by the Impressionist masters on loan from the collection of the National Gallery of Australia.

On 12 February 2016, MAMA will open its first blockbuster exhibition - Marilyn: Celebrating an American Icon.