The Shepparton Art Museum’s annual open-call group exhibition, SAM Open 2025, has returned in vibrant form, launching on Saturday, July 5 in the Hugh D.T. Williamson Community Gallery.
Now a staple in the region’s creative calendar, the exhibition showcases the diversity and innovation of artists living and working throughout the Goulburn Valley and Hume regions.
This year’s display features 66 artworks spanning a wide variety of mediums — including painting, photography, sculpture, textiles, and ceramics.
In a break from previous years, no set theme guided submissions for 2025.
Instead, artists were invited to enter a recent work that best reflects their individual creative practice.
The open brief yielded 67 submissions, with 66 selected for the final exhibition.
The result is a dynamic and eclectic show that captures the pulse of local creativity.
Visitors are invited to experience everything from the deeply personal to the whimsically abstract, with works hanging proudly alongside exhibitions by nationally recognised Australian artists.
SAM curator of community Caroline Esbenshade said with no theme to this year’s SAM Open, local creatives seized the opportunity to demonstrate their practice and recent creative obsessions.
“I feel that there is a magical and adventurous undercurrent to this year’s show — glimpses of the fantastical and different means of transportation hint at a wish for an escape from the everyday,” Ms Esbenshade said.
“Hopefully for audiences, the museum and this exhibition can be that — a refreshing step out of the daily routine.”
SAM Open 2025 is now showing at SAM and will run through until November 2, 2025.
Whether you're an art enthusiast or a curious newcomer, this is a must-see celebration of regional creativity.