After having a browse of the galleries website, we traveled down from Melbourne to purchase an artwork. However we were not greeted kindly at all. A woman, who we believe was the owner, gave us the death stare as we looked for a place to park. It was raining and the carpark was flooded with huge puddles, parking there would mean getting soaked in a massive puddle as you get out of your car. They really need to invest in some crushed rock so people can park like you would expect to in a civilised society. She kept staring at us in the most condescending manner. We decided to move along and call the gallery and explain that we wanted to make a purchase but were put off by the guard person staring us down as we looked for a place to park. She said "well where did you park? " ( we had parked on the nature strip, she must own that or police it as a guard maybe. There are no no parking on the naturestrip signs of any nature in the vicinity. We did nothing illegal) And told us she doesn't want business from people like us and hung up the phone :/ we took it personally but now after reading all these reviews we can see it was just her being the miserable person she is. I'm glad I wasn't an international tourist because they might think Australians are nasty people. And I hope it was the owner who behaved that way because if my staff made people feel like that and cost me business I would not be happy.
I parked on the nature strip to get a coffee and look through the gallery, and was then confronted with abuse from the Gallery owner/manager for doing so. Being born and breed Cowes locals, we are still left astonished about how we were treated and spoken to. Left my family quite rattled.
Shameful treatment of a young budding artist visiting Mingara. Noelle rude and dismissive. Could not name the curator- really??? Too busy to answer a couple of basic questions for VCE studio art. Nobody in the gallery beside ourselves on a Sunday. I would not buy any art here on principle. Some young enthusiastic staff would improve the situation greatly. Avoid this place in its current form.
Was hardly inside for more than 5 minutes when a staff berrated me and was extremely disrespectful. 0/10 for customer service and for being the biggest snobs. Do not come here if you dont want to be insulted.
Do your homework on prices before buying here. We visited Mingara five weeks ago and I was interested in a Del Kathryn Barton framed limited edition print. The price was quoted as being "About two. A bit more than two", ready to buy we called the gallery last weekend to discover the price was now $2900. Today, just one week later we stopped in to see if we loved it enough to buy it, only to find it was now $3500. Thinking this was a very fast and unusual price increase I googled and found another copy of the print from the same print run, also numbered and signed, framed in an almost identical way for $1150. That's a saving of $2350 for the same framed print. And that's without mentioning that the quoted price at Mingara increased $1000+ in just five weeks which is something that did not happen at other resellers of this artist's work. This is just my one experience but obviously it pays to do your homework when buying here since prices vary dramatically based on unknown criteria.The space itself is beautifully curated, represents some very talented artists and also has a good assortment of giftware. It sits beside a little cafe with exceptionally good coffee and cake so be sure to visit both.
Mingara Gallery is an Australian Art Gallery based in Cowes, Victoria. Mingara Gallery is located at 242 Thompson Ave, Cowes VIC 3922, Australia.
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