the state of the building and the level of the annual grant in those early years allowed for only an exhibitions program, display of the state collection and operation of the blackwood street gallery. in 1981, the hon. rupert hamer, who was now minister for tourism, approved a direct grant to the centre to enable the setting up of the crafts shop with the important objective of providing high quality australian crafts to the tourist market. in 1982 with specified funding from the victorian ministry for the arts, and the crafts board of the australia council, the ceramic and textile access workshops were established.