It’s hard to believe an irreplaceable art collection valued at more than $43 million is being kept in a 152-year-old house, partly stacked on top of each other and surrounded by bushfire-prone scrub. This is all about to change.
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On Friday the state government awarded $8.592 million to the Bundanon Trust to build a new storage facility and subterranean contemporary gallery for the collection – which includes hundreds of works by leading 20th century Australian painter Arthur Boyd and his family.
The new fireproof facility will be partly embedded into the landscape at Riversdale, near the Shoalhaven River.
It’s set to protect and showcase the collection (also including Pablo Picasso, Brett Whitely, Sidney Nolan, John Perceval and Charles Blackman) which has rarely ventured out of storage.
“Apart from the bushfire risk it’s not to museum industry standard,” Minister for the Arts Don Harwin told the Mercury.
“It doesn't have the proper artwork hanging racks, works are inadequately stored leaning against each other in very crowded conditions and I believe it’s not very well ventilated either.”
Currently the priceless works are housed at Boyd’s secluded Bundanon property which he gifted to the nation in 1993, and only accessed via a narrow dirt road.
Trust CEO Deborah Ely said the was the “green light” then needed for stage one of their masterplan and would sit down with Melbourne architects Kerstin Thompson on Monday.
“We want to get cracking on it,” she said, estimating it to be open to the public in about two years.
Ms Ely said another driver of the development was to ensure the collection was more accessible and inviting to the public.
The grant is the single largest allocation of state monies from the Berejiklian Government’s Regional Cultural Fund, worth almost $50 million and to be shared by 68 cultural projects across the state.
Ms Ely said the Trust would still seek another $19 million from state and federal grants for stage two of their masterplan, a creative learning centre. This space would include a cafe, performance space and a new accommodation wing for an extra 64 people.
“I think [Arthur Boyd’s] dream would have come true actually,” she said. “I think he’d say that he had always envisaged a gallery for the artworks … and this is fulfilling his dream.”
The Bundanon art collection is considered as significant as that of Melbourne's Heide Museum of Modern Art, and celebrates its 35th anniversary this year.
Meantime, applications for the second round of the NSW Regional Cultural Fund are now open, with a further $47 million in funding set to be allocated to regional arts and culture projects across the state.
Mr Barilaro said as part of round two, up to $5 million would also be dedicated to the revitalisation and creation of public libraries as a priority, helping to extend community access to library services.