Unlocking the Collection: 2021 Foundation Appeal

Digitising Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori’s Makarrki 2008, GOMA, November 2020 / Gift of the Estate of Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori through the QAGOMA Foundation 2017 / © Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda/Copyright Agency, 2021/ Photograph: Lee Wilkes

Digitising Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori’s Makarrki 2008, GOMA, November 2020 / Gift of the Estate of Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori through the QAGOMA Foundation 2017 / © Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda/Copyright Agency, 2021/ Photograph: Lee Wilkes / View full image

The 2021 QAGOMA Foundation Digital Appeal invites support for a transformative digitisation project that will unlock the doors to our storerooms and make the entire Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) Collection available online to audiences here and around the world.

While every major art museum is constrained by the number of works it can display at any one point in time, digitisation makes an entire collection accessible to online visitors around the clock and around the world. In the twenty-first century, that’s not just transformative; it’s vital.
Chris Saines CNZM, Director, QAGOMA

QAGOMA is home to an internationally acclaimed collection of more than 19 000 artworks, but like many art museums across the globe, the Gallery can only display a fraction of its holdings at any time. This means that 90 per cent of our most important asset exists behind closed doors.

Our photographers are currently capturing every artwork in the Collection, including works so large that a whole gallery space has been transformed into a photographic studio to accommodate them. Visitors to the Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) can go behind the scenes in Gallery 14 to see this process in action until 1 August 2021.

Unlocking QAGOMA’s Collection will revolutionise how our audiences discover and experience art. People everywhere will be able to take a closer look at the works we hold, as well as access an extraordinary range of resources including videos, essays and interpretive educational material.

Digitising Nindityo Adipurnomo’s Introversion (April the twenty-first) 1995–96, QAG, March 2021 / Purchased 1996. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation / Photograph: Lee Wilkes

Digitising Nindityo Adipurnomo’s Introversion (April the twenty-first) 1995–96,
QAG, March 2021 / Purchased 1996. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation / Photograph: Lee Wilkes / View full image

Students taking a closer look at Grace Cossington Smith’s Church interior c.1941–42 during a tour of the Australian art collection, QAG, June 2018 / Purchased 2001 with funds raised through The Grace Cossington Smith Queensland Art Gallery Foundation Appeal / © Estate of Grace Cossington Smith / Photograph: Chloe Callistemon

Students taking a closer look at Grace Cossington Smith’s Church interior c.1941–42 during a tour of the Australian art collection, QAG, June 2018 / Purchased 2001 with funds
raised through The Grace Cossington Smith Queensland Art Gallery Foundation Appeal /
© Estate of Grace Cossington Smith / Photograph: Chloe Callistemon / View full image

About the Foundation

The Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) Foundation is the Gallery’s vital fundraising body. Since its establishment in 1979, the Foundation has raised more than $155 million, enabling the acquisition of more than 9300 artworks and supporting the development of QAGOMA exhibitions, publications and programs.

Digitising the Collection

Digitising the Collection / View full image

Featured image: Digitising Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori’s Makarrki 2008, GOMA, November 2020 / Gift of the Estate of Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori through the QAGOMA Foundation 2017 / © Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda/Copyright Agency / Photograph: Lee Wilkes

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