AGNSW_AnnRep_00 full.pdf - Parliament of New South Wales ...

Ian Fairweather, The pool 1959
synthetic polymer paint on cardboard on hardboard, 96.5 x 117.8 cm
Purchased with funds provided by the Cezanne Dinner Fund 1999
canvas and punch him on the nose. A good omen for a
winning portrait painting we all felt.
In the meantime the new format for the presentation
of our Annual Report permits this review to consider less
the detail and more the principles and momentums that
determine the Gallery’s progress. However, the details and
activities of the Gallery in the 1999-2000 year may be
summarised in the achievement of staging some forty
exhibitions all but three of which were curated and
organised within the Gallery; in purchasing $3.6 million
worth of works of art without a cent of Government
funding for acquisitions and receiving through gifts
further works of art to the value of $2 million; publishing
ten major catalogues among which were the very
successful and substantial Michelangelo to Matisse:
Drawing the figure and Jeffrey Smart books; delivering
over 150 public lectures in addition to a non-stop range
of public and family programmes; hosting over 260
evening events; achieving a record $4 million turnover in
the Gallery shop of which $1.2 million was in sale of Art
Gallery publications; lending 290 works of art to
exhibitions throughout Australia and around the world;
substantially enhancing the building with the opening of
the Dorothy Street Galleries of Twentieth Century
Australian Art and the new Gallery shop; expanding our
conservation activities through private support and,
finally, once again sustaining a membership of the Art
Gallery Society in excess of 30,000 members.
The challenges, though, remain much the same and
fundamentally revolve around maintaining such levels of
activity without prejudice to the content and quality of
the Art Gallery’s activities. The political and economic
climate in which we now operate is very different from as
recently as 15 or 20 years ago when art museums such as
this were naturally assumed to be wholly government
responsibilities and we relied upon government for the
vast majority of our capital and recurrent funding. Our
situation, of ever-increasing financial self-reliance, is
paralleled in the experiences of other State art galleries.
However, there are substantial levels of government
investment in permanent resources and we are only too
aware of the commitments of around $100 million plus to
the National Gallery of Victoria for the refurbishment of
the St. Kilda Road premises, of the $100 million for the
Queensland Gallery to extend its building facilities and
the $60 million for the National Gallery. So far as this
Gallery is concerned I am delighted to report that the
government will be providing the funds for the next stage
of the development of this building which will include the
construction of a new conservation centre, an expansive
new upper level gallery, a second gallery for Asian art and
a relocated restaurant, all for a more modest $15 million.
Expenditure on such infrastructure and permanent
facilities such as buildings is, as these figures demonstrate,
as substantial as it is welcome, but as we all know the
recurrent funding to ensure the viability and growth of
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