Grants

The Crown Resorts Foundation’s and the Packer Family Foundation’s visionary grants supported strategic projects and development gallery-wide, including the exhibition John Russell: Australia’s French impressionist.

The foundations also continue to support the Art Pathways program. This program works with teachers to provide customised education programs for Western Sydney school students. The students are introduced to the Art Gallery’s resources to help inspire a lifelong connection with art.

Major support from the Pohl Foundation has enabled conservation of The five senses 1670s by Carlo Cignani and Workshop, the only 17th-century northern Italian painting in the Art Gallery’s collection.

This Hong Kong-based foundation has supported the realisation of vibrant programs associated with Art Gallery’s exhibition Heaven and Earth in Chinese Art: Treasures from the National Palace Museum, Taipei.

The Balnaves Foundation supported the creation of the Australian Sculpture Archive. This rare resource captures interviews with significant Australian sculptors and artists.

The Balnaves Foundation is also a key contributor to the Edmund Capon Fellowship, along with several distinguished individual donors, supporting focused staff exchanges with Asian museums. In 2018, Dr Vandana Sinha, director, Center for Art and Archaeology, American Institute of Indian Studies, a specialist in digital heritage, engaged with the Art Gallery’s curatorial department and archives. Dr Natalie Seiz, curator of Asian art, researched overseas collections and curatorial approaches.

Increased support from the Campbell Edwards Trust has enabled the Djamu project to continue and extend its reach. Djamu engages Indigenous students with art collections and resources to inspire vocational pathways in the arts, and now engages an assistant Indigenous programs producer.

A Darling Travel Grant enabled Asti Sherring, the Art Gallery’s time-based art conservator, and Lisa Catt, our assistant curator of international art, to present our progressive time-based art collection management practices in the United States and forge networks for future engagement and sector development in Australia.

The Keir Foundation supported a commission by First Nations choreographer Amrita Hepi for the exhibition The National 2019: New Australian Art. The original performative work, the tender, engaged diverse dancers with skipping rope routines.

An entity of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Australia–China Council has provided a grant for programs and artists associated with the Art Gallery’s collaborative exhibition with the National Palace Museum, Taipei.

The Art Gallery has completed the first of a two-year skills development project, RAW, for disengaged youth from Woolloomooloo in partnership with Artspace and Save the Children. Enabled by a City of Sydney Community Services grant, it builds local creative community engagement with the Art Gallery.

The Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund enabled the Art Gallery to develop digital resources to support the Home: Aboriginal art in NSW project, to stimulate fresh engagement by artists, schools and communities with local Aboriginal art practices throughout NSW.

A Conference Sponsorship Program grant from the NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer supported the hosting of a very successful 13th International Conference of the Infrared and Raman Users Group (IRUG) 2018 at the Art Gallery, building strategic international engagement.