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| Territory Arts and Museum | |
|---|---|
| Name | Territory Arts and Museum |
| Established | 1987 |
| Location | Capital City, Northern Territory |
| Type | Art museum and cultural institution |
| Collection size | 120,000 |
| Director | Dr. Eleanor Reed |
Territory Arts and Museum is a major cultural institution in Capital City renowned for its holdings in Indigenous art, colonial archives, contemporary photography and natural history. The institution serves as a nexus for artists, scholars, curators and policymakers from across the Pacific Rim, Australia, Europe and the Americas, hosting rotating exhibitions, research residencies and international loan programs.
The museum was founded in 1987 following discussions among civic leaders, including Paul Keating, Bob Hawke, Gough Whitlam, Don Dunstan-era cultural advocates and regional arts councils such as the Australia Council for the Arts and the National Gallery of Australia. Early alliances involved the Commonwealth Archives, the State Library of New South Wales, the National Museum of Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. Notable donors and patrons included collectors associated with the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the National Gallery, London, philanthropists linked to the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation and trustees from the Getty Foundation. The museum’s inauguration featured exhibitions loaned from the Tate Modern, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Smithsonian Institution and the Louvre. Over time collaborations expanded to include the Asia Society, the Asia-Pacific Triennial, the Venice Biennale, the Sydney Biennale and the Frieze Art Fair.
The permanent collection spans Indigenous bark paintings acquired in exchanges with the National Museum of Australia and the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, colonial-era landscapes in dialogue with holdings at the State Library of Victoria and contemporary works with loans from the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, Rijksmuseum, Hermitage Museum and Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. Natural history specimens in the collection have provenance ties to the Natural History Museum, London, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and the Australian National Botanic Gardens. Photography collections include prints from the archives of Helmut Newton, Ansel Adams, Cindy Sherman, Diane Arbus and regional photographers linked to the National Portrait Gallery, London and the International Center of Photography. The museum stages traveling exhibitions previously shown at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the Prado Museum, the Uffizi Gallery and the Neue Nationalgalerie. Curatorial departments mount themed exhibitions engaging with topics once presented at the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
The complex was designed in a competition won by architects connected to the Gehry Partners, the Zaha Hadid Architects studio and firms influenced by Norman Foster and Renzo Piano. The campus contains climate-controlled galleries meeting standards set by the International Council of Museums (ICOM), conservation laboratories analogous to those at the Getty Conservation Institute and storage modeled on facilities at the National Archives (UK). Public spaces include a sculpture garden referencing installations seen at the Olympic Sculpture Park and a performance hall designed for collaborations with companies such as the Royal Ballet, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Bangarra Dance Theatre and the Metropolitan Opera. The building sits near transit nodes linked to the Central Railway Station, Capital City and urban parks designed in consultation with landscape firms that worked on the High Line and Jardin des Tuileries.
Programming includes school curricula partnerships with the Department of Education, Capital State and teacher-training initiatives inspired by models at the Tate Exchange and the Museum of Modern Art Education Department. Community outreach involves co-curation projects with leaders from the Anangu, Yolngu, Tiwi and Mardu communities, residencies for artists affiliated with the Australia Council for the Arts and fellowship exchanges with the Asia-Pacific Triennial and the Fulbright Program. Public lectures have featured scholars and practitioners connected to Harvard University, University of Oxford, Australian National University, University of Melbourne and Columbia University. Youth programs mirror those at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis and the Victoria and Albert Museum Learning Centre.
The museum is governed by a board comprising representatives from institutions such as the Australia Council for the Arts, the National Gallery of Australia, the State Library of Victoria, the Reserve Bank of Australia and civic organizations akin to the City Council of Capital City. Funding streams include endowments structured like those managed by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, ticketed exhibition income paralleling models at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and corporate sponsorships from multinational partners similar to Google Arts & Culture, Bank of America and Accenture. Philanthropic support has come from foundations with ties to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation and regional trusts modeled on the Myer Foundation.
The research department conducts provenance research following protocols used by the International Council on Archives and collaborates with laboratories at the Getty Conservation Institute, the British Museum conservation department and the Smithsonian Institution Research Centers. Scientific conservation employs technologies developed at the Rijksmuseum Conservation Department, the Courtauld Institute of Art and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. Scholarship from the museum has been published in journals associated with the American Alliance of Museums, the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Antiquity and the Journal of Museum Education. The institution participates in repatriation dialogues with communities represented by the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the International Council of Museums (ICOM).
Visitor services follow accessibility standards championed by organizations such as Accessible Arts, the Australian Human Rights Commission and the World Health Organization. Hours, ticketing tiers, guided tours and membership schemes are managed in formats similar to the National Gallery of Victoria and the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The museum provides multilingual resources in partnership with cultural institutes like the Confucius Institute, the Alliance Française, the Goethe-Institut and the Japan Foundation, as well as sensory-friendly programs modeled on initiatives at the Smithsonian Institution.
Category:Museums in Capital City