National Gallery of Australia

The National Gallery of Australia (NGA) is Australia’s national visual arts institution dedicated to collecting, sharing and celebrating art from Australia and the world. The vision is the cultural enrichment of all Australians through access to their national art gallery, the quality of the national collection, the exceptional displays, exhibitions and programmes, and the professionalism of the staff.

The National Gallery of Australia holds collections that are still newly formed. When the building opened in Canberra in 1982 there had been only 10 years of serious collecting in preparation for the opening. A new collection cannot even hope to eventually cover most areas and periods of world art, as do many long-established overseas national museums of art. Furthermore, except in Australian art, the National Gallery of Australia cannot, and should not, compete in all the same collecting areas as Australia’s state art museums, all founded well over a hundred years ago.

The National Gallery places greatest emphasis on:

• modern art worldwide
• the whole of Australian art
• works of art representing the high cultural achievement of Australia’s neighbours in southern and eastern Asia and the Pacific Islands.