Art Museums in Australia: A Personal Retrospect

• Main Author: Daniel Thomas
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Department of Art History, University of Birmingham 2011
• Subjects: Museology; Art Gallery Societies; Australian Gallery Directors Conference; State Galleries; Aboriginal art; post colonialism; crowd-pulling exhibitions; cultural regions and internationalism; art; anthro-se; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://arthistoriography.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/dthistoriogartmus-reedit29may11ref.pdf; https://doaj.org/article/df0cda7f21904c6fa086625558bba921

A survey of, and reflections on, the growth of art museums in Australia based on personal experience and involvement. It starts with the early art collections and state galleries and their organisation. It looks at changing patterns of leadership and governance. It considers the roles of inter-state competition, the varying patters of organisation and support and the impact of federal institutions. It reflects on factors of race, gender and ethnicity and also the situation of Australian exhibitions and collections in the Global Village. It considers the effects of popularisation, commercialisation and celebrity culture on exhibition practices. It concludes that Australia’s art museums, more perhaps than any others, have become unusually well-suited to a post-European or post-North Atlantic age.