Moving to Armidale never having seen the place, Mr Heather came from an illustrious past in the arts.

From the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne to regional NSW, Mr Heather said the tree change paid off.

“It was a huge change, it was a change on every level but it was what I was after,” he said.

“I was after a real challenge, a job where I could make a difference.”

Working at the State Library of Victoria, Mr Heather helped curate an exhibition featuring notorious bushranger Ned Kelly’s armour.

He travelled to the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris and the British Library in London to research Victor Hugo’s writing of Les Miserables.

“You deal with Australia’s history every day,” Mr Heather said.

“It was a great place to work and a beautiful building, but there were things I missed.

“Being regional you can do things that you can’t do in an institution, you can be more creative but you can make things happen easier.”

Working for the State Library, planning an exhibition would take several proposals, and may still be cancelled two years down the track.

At NERAM, Mr Heather can approach an artist and make things happen.

Turning the Howard Hinton Collection into a national icon is one of his goals.

“The collection here is amazing, it’s a really under-utilised resource,” he said.

“We want to put it on display in a more permanent way so it will become a tourist destination.

“People will know that if they come to Armidale they’ll see the Howard Hinton Collection – they’ll see around 100 works on display all the time.”

That exhibition will open in February, meanwhile, Mr Heather wants to make NERAM family-friendly.

“Historically NERAM has a perception of being elitist, what we want to do is make sure the whole community feels welcome,” he said.

“Bringing the building back to life, bringing the community into the building is the big thing for me.”