IF art is about stripping away the layers to help us better see who we are, then Nick Mitzevich embraced that idea in an eye-popping fashion.
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As the director of Newcastle Art Gallery, Mr Mitzevich posed nude for a photo in the Herald in 2005. As he recalled, the act "demonstrated there is no limit to what I'd do to promote art".
"I think I can claim to be the only director of the gallery, and probably the only official of Newcastle City Council, to pose nude in the Herald - so far, anyway!," Mr Mitzevich said.
On Monday, a fully clothed Nick Mitzevich stepped back inside the building where he was director for about six years to receive a key to the City of Newcastle from Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes.
The honour, Cr Nelmes told the small gathering of family members, friends and arts community representatives, was "to celebrate his illustrious career and his connection to the City of Newcastle".
"You have been an amazing ambassador for the arts and culture in this country," Cr Nelmes said.
Since 2018, Nick Mitzevich has been the director of the National Gallery of Australia. But his journey to the peak of arts administration in this country began on a farm at Abermain. He saw his first pictures at Maitland Regional Art Gallery and studied fine art at the University of Newcastle. Mr Mitzevich's father and two of his three sisters were among family members at the ceremony.
"We're just very proud of him," said younger sister Sharon O'Keefe. "This is where Nick started, so it's going full circle to be recognised, what he's done for Newcastle, and what Newcastle's done for him."
Before the ceremony, Nick Mitzevich talked about how the city had shaped him.
"Newcastle was the place that gave me the leg up and the opportunity," he said. "So I've always been incredibly grateful that I learnt my craft here in Newcastle.
"I hold it dear in my heart, because all the things I'm doing today I learnt the basics on the job in Newcastle."
During the ceremony, Cr Nelmes explained that Mr Mitzevich was not just an ambassador for the city. As the recipient of the key, he would be "able to unlock every single door in the whole city of Newcastle".
However, Mr Mitzevich intends to use that key to open doors further afield, helping bring to life the $36-million art gallery redevelopment project, which has been on the drawing board in one form or another since he was director more than a decade ago.
"A redevelopment will really help elevate and amplify the great things about the cultural heart of the city, and when people get here, they'll realise there's so many other amazing parts to the city, like the beaches and the Hunter Valley," he said.
"I think Newcastle is still yet to maximise its appeal, and investing in culture is a part of giving the city its best opportunity to flex all the facets that make it so great."
Although, as Mr Mitzevich pointed out at the ceremony, he regularly talked about the importance of the redevelopment project, and the need for governments to recommit to financially supporting it.
"Every time I see the [NSW] Arts Minister Don Harwin, he rolls his eyes at me, because he says, 'Don't say it'. And I say, 'Yes, Don. You need to write a cheque for Newcastle'," Mr Mitzevich said. "And I'll keep saying it to him, because Newcastle has this great ability to flex its cultural credentials even more in the future."
Chair of the city's art gallery expansion working party, Cathy Tate, was at the ceremony. When she was lady mayoress, Mrs Tate and Mr Mitzevich worked together on fundraising initiatives for the gallery's redevelopment. More than a decade on, she remains confident the project will happen, but "I did not for one moment think it would take this long".
On Monday, Mrs Tate was just celebrating the recognition of a "wonderful person".
"We knew we wouldn't keep him, and just look where he is now," she said. "But we trained him!"
Nick Mitzevich said he was "100 per cent" confident the gallery would be redeveloped, and he looked forward to the day he attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
In the meantime, he would be jangling that key, drawing attention to a city that still had so much potential to unlock.
"Hopefully it will give me an opportunity to spruik the city I love, and to start a conversation more readily - 'I just happen to have the key to the city in my pocket!'," he said. "And one extra lock should be on a bigger door to the front of the Newcastle Art Gallery."
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