Edmund Capon Fellowship

The long-term objective of the fellowship is to foster a closer relationship with key museums that will lead to the exchange of ideas, programs, individual works of art and temporary exhibitions between Australia and Asia, including sending exhibitions of Australian art to Asia or other Art Gallery of New South Wales self-generating exhibitions being offered to Asian museums. The fellowship also aims to offer development opportunities for Art Gallery staff and position the Art Gallery as a leading international cultural institution.

The Art Gallery of New South Wales is grateful for the generosity and support from arts philanthropist Neil Balnaves AO who proposed the fellowship and has provided funding for the program through the Balnaves Foundation since 2013. Additional support has been generously provided by VisAsia (the Australian Institute of Asian Culture and Visual Arts) as well as founding donors including Mr Luca Belgiorno-Nettis AM and Mrs Anita Belgiorno-Nettis AM, Ms Jillian Broadbent AC and Mr Olev Rahn, Mr Andrew Cameron AM and Mrs Cathy Cameron, Mr Edmund Capon AM OBE and Mrs Joanna Capon OAM, Hon Mrs Ashley Dawson-Damer AM, Mr John Kaldor AO and Ms Naomi Milgrom AO, Ms Maureen Kerridge and Mr Keith Kerridge, Mr Anthony Lewis, Dr and Mrs Mark Nelson, Ms Susan and Mr Garry Rothwell and Mrs Penelope Seidler AM. Additional funding was raised through an auction of works donated by artists Bill Henson, Lindy Lee, John Olsen AO OBE, Alex Seton, Tim Storrier AM and Guan Wei.

The Art Gallery of New South Wales is deeply grateful to the Balnaves Foundation for their additional significant contribution of $250,000 to the Edmund Capon Fellowship in 2019, the year of Edmund Capon’s passing. Their increased support and further donations, will broaden the curatorial opportunities of fellowship recipients internationally, beyond Asian art.

The fellowship supports three fellows annually, for Art Gallery staff and leading international representatives.

Support the Edmund Capon Fellowship with a tax-deductible donation by selecting ‘Edmund Capon Fellowship (Memorial Fund)’ under 'Current fundraising campaign/s’ using the online donation form

A donation receipt will be emailed to you.

2015 Richard Beresford, senior curator, European art, international art – India
2015 Matt Cox, curator, Asian art – Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines
2016 Lily Yang, head of Asian art conservation – China
2017 Yuki Kawakami, youth programs producer – Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong
2018 Dr Natalie Seiz, curator, Asian art – Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong
2019 Melanie Eastburn, senior curator, Asian art – Japan
2020 Lisa Catt, assistant curator of international art

2014 Dong Li, head of the Exhibition Department, Shaanxi History Museum, China
2015 Pitra Hutomo, Indonesian Visual Art Archive in Yogyakarta, Indonesia
2016 Dr Ana Labrador, assistant director, National Museum of the Philippines, Philippines
2017 Dr Vandana Sinha, director, Centre for Art and Archaeology, American Institute of Indian Studies, India
2019 Dr Lyu Xiao, director, Research Department, Beijing Fine Art Academy, China
2020 Dr Manami Yasui, professor of Japanese folklore and cultural anthropology, International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken), Japan