Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art, Qantas, and London’s Tate have announced the establishment of an unprecedented $2.75 million, five-year International Joint Acquisition Program for contemporary Australian art.
The $2.75 million corporate gift from the Qantas Foundation will be used to purchase a range of major works by established contemporary Australian artists spanning all media and dating from the late 1960s through to the present.
The works will be acquired for the collections of MCA and Tate and will be owned and displayed by both institutions. A selection of the first artworks acquired will be presented at the MCA in 2016, before heading to Tate.
Museum of Contemporary Art Director, Elizabeth Ann Macgregor OBE, said: “One of our core missions is to present Australia’s contemporary artists in an international context, stimulate dialogue and raise their profile globally. So we are very excited about what this collaboration means for Australian artists.
“We are extremely grateful to Qantas – one of the MCA’s long-standing Major Partners – for their incredibly generous gift and visionary support of Australian artists. We are thrilled to be working with Tate – a world leader in collecting and presenting contemporary art from around the world.”
Nicholas Serota, Director, Tate said: “In recent years Tate has made great progress in presenting a more international view of art, but this is only possible with the expertise and support of other organisations.
“Thanks to the generosity of the Qantas Foundation, this new collaboration with the MCA will ensure both collections can represent Australian art at its best and its connections with the wider Asia-Pacific context.”
