AS Canberra’s coolest new entertainment precinct begins to assert itself at Dairy Road, Fyshwick, one thing’s been missing so far – an art gallery.

Not any more, with the opening of the new Grainger Gallery in building 3.3, close to the food and drink outlets and soon to be marked with a huge sculpture commissioned by the Molonglo Group from Chilean architect, Pezo von Ellrichshausen.

Co-owners Kacy and Richard Grainger can hardly suppress their excitement as they talk about plans for the new gallery.

Kacy, an ANU School of Art graduate in painting and printmaking and Richard, a former student of artist history and star of local punk bands in his heyday, have spent two years turning a nondescript corner of a huge warehouse into a chic gallery with a mezzanine floor for art workshops and a framing business to accompany the fine art they’ll be exhibiting and selling.

Both come from artistic families. Kacy‘s mother, “a maker”, she says, used to work at the NGA and Richard’s father in Sydney preferred to take his son to Europe to see the art rather than send him on school excursions.

“I’ve always been passionate about the arts,” Richard says, explaining that for his day job in his post-punk period he worked as a media producer at Parliament House for SBS, later going it alone and travelling in the world doing sound for docos about food and lifestyle.

He and Kacy met at the ANU, married young and had kids early. Kacy ran a small business doing artworks, including a 25-metre mosaic at Manuka Pool, had a wedding cake business for a while, then worked for six years at Aarwun Gallery in Gold Creek, becoming a familiar face to art buyers.

After the GFC, Richard reports, he went into a real estate for a while. He doesn’t speak very highly of his own talents in that department, but says at least the contacts and the know-how allowed him to consider opening a gallery.

“Johnathan Efkarpidis [from Molonglo Group, which is developing the precinct] showed us the building… when I walked into the space, a massive open warehouse, I could immediately see exactly where my gallery would be,” Kacy says.

Richard did his calculations and said, “we’ll burn the boats – let’s do it”.

It was a hard slog to turn it into the sophisticated surroundings it is now, “but with the help of architect Craig Tan and the Molonglo Group, we made it”, the couple chorus.

It’s the first gallery in the precinct, although there will be a small object gallery opening soon, showing fine furniture.

The Graingers admit that it’s likely to be a construction zone for quite a while, but they’re looking forward to the coming sculpture by Ellrichshausen, which will draw water out of the artesian basin and reticulate it to the top.

“And there’ll be a sub-woofer in it playing music,” ex-muso Richard rejoices.

Kacy, who will direct the gallery, believes that more established Canberra artists are well catered for by local galleries, so the plan is to exhibit national and international works, while running artist residencies in the mezzanine where emerging artists can exhibit what they’ve made.

Artists in Kacy’s stable so far include Catherine Cassidy, Chen Ping, Gria Shead, George Raftopoulos and Vanessa Stockard, Lisa Cahill, Sian Watson and Rachel Theodorakis.

They’ve opened with a group show, but in February they will have a solo exhibition by Stefan Heyer from Germany and in March, another solo by Catherine Cassidy.

They’re hoping that Canberra art lovers will have deep enough pockets to buy a piece and support artists but say, “we don’t want to be an exclusive snobby gallery”.

“I am a maker, I’m a hands-on person and I want anyone who comes in to feel comfortable and connected to our space,” Kacy says.

Grainger Gallery, Building 3.3, 1 Dairy Road, Fyshwick, Wednesday to Sunday 10am to 5pm or by appointment at 0404 769 843.