ANNUAL REPORT of the ART GALLERY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA for the year 1 July 2002–30 June 2003 The Hon. Mike Rann MP, Minister for the Arts Sir, I have the honour to present the sixty-second Annual Report of the Art Gallery Board of South Australia for the Gallery’s 122nd year, ended 30 June 2003. Michael Abbott QC, Chairman Art Gallery Board 2002–2003 Chairman Michael Abbott QC Members Mr Max Carter AO Mrs Susan Cocks Mr David McKee Mrs Candy Bennett Mr Richard Cohen Ms Virginia Hickey Mrs Sue Tweddell Mr Adam Wynn 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Principal Objectives 5 Major Achievements 2002-2003 6 Issues and Trends 9 Major Objectives 2003–2004 11 Resources and Administration 13 Collections 21 3 APPENDICES Appendix A Charter and Goals of the Art Gallery of South Australia 26 Appendix B1 Art Gallery Board 28 Appendix B2 Members of the Art Gallery of South Australia 28 Foundation Council and Friends of the Art Gallery of South Australia Committee Appendix B3 Art Gallery Organisational Chart 29 Appendix B4 Art Gallery Staff and Volunteers 30 Appendix C Staff Public Commitments 34 Appendix D Conservation 37 Appendix E Donors, Funds, Sponsorships 38 Appendix F Acquisitions 39 Appendix G Inward Loans 51 Appendix H Outward Loans 54 Appendix I Exhibitions and Public Programs 56 Appendix J Schools Support Services 62 Appendix K Gallery Guide Tour Services 62 Appendix L Gallery Publications 63 Appendix M Annual Attendances 65 Information Statement 66 Appendix N Financial Statements 67 4 PRINCIPAL OBJECTIVES The Art Gallery of South Australia’s objectives and functions are effectively prescribed by the Art Gallery Act, 1939 and can be described as follows: • To collect heritage and contemporary works of art of aesthetic excellence and art historical or regional significance. • To display the collections. • To program temporary exhibitions. • To ensure the preservation and conservation of Gallery collections. • To research and evaluate the collections, and to make the collections and documentation accessible to others for the purposes of research, as a basis for teaching and communication. • To document the collections within a central cataloguing system. • To provide interpretative information about collection displays and temporary exhibitions and other public programs. • To promote the Gallery’s collections and temporary exhibitions. • To ensure that the Gallery’s operations, resources and commercial programs are managed efficiently, responsibly and profitably. • To advise the South Australian Government on the allocation of South Australian resources to works of art, art collections, art museums and art associations. These objectives can be summarised as: preservation, research and communication. They are consistent with the objectives of all major art museums and galleries throughout the world. 5 ART GALLERY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS 2002–2003 • The Gallery received a record number of gifts of works of art. • The value of gifts and purchases of works of art is nearly $4.8 million. • Heading the list of major international heritage acquisition are a large Renaissance altarpiece by Passerotti, a twelfth century sculpture of a Jain saint, a sculpture by the French nineteenth century sculptor Carpeaux, a rare watercolour design and a valuable handknotted William Morris carpet, a collection of Japanese woodcuts and a significant collection of ancient Islamic ceramics. Major twentieth century and contemporary acquisitions include works by Stella Bowen, Horace Trenerry, Clarice Beckett, Jeffrey Smart, Tony Tuckson, Robert Hunter, Marcel Breuer, Donald Judd, Robert Rooney, Juan Davila, Patricia Piccinini, Fiona Hall and John Mowanjul. • For the second year fifty-seven percent of the Gallery’s more than $13,808,000 in cash revenue, donated works of art and in-kind sponsorship was raised privately or through the Gallery’s commercial activities. This is a much higher proportion of self-funding than other art institutions. • The Gallery has received acquisition bequest funds amounting to nearly $1.6 million, a record amount. • The Gallery’s large collection has been officially revalued and is now worth approximately $540 million, $200 million more than the last official valuation five years ago; The Art Gallery of South Australia is the state’s single most valuable asset. • Over 460,000 people visited the Gallery, the third highest Australian Gallery visitation (after Melbourne and Sydney). • 60,000 people visited Gallery touring exhibitions. • There was a record number of visits to the Gallery’s website of over 1.2 million and for the first time the Gallery introduced virtual tours of exhibitions. • The Gallery staged a well-balanced and successful program of nine exhibitions, most of which were curated by the Gallery. They included Arid Arcadia: Art of the Flinders Ranges, Stella Bowen, Morris & Co., Art of Arnhem Land: 1940s– 6 1970s, SEEING THE CENTRE: The art of Albert Namatjira, JOURNEY TO NOW: John Kaldor Art Projects & Collection and The Morgan Thomas Bequest Centenary Exhibition. • In its third year, the post-graduate Art History Course, which the Gallery conducts jointly with the University of Adelaide, achieved record enrolments. • The Gallery reviewed and updated its risk management policies. • The Gallery reviewed Occupational Health, Safety and Welfare policies, improved Occupational Health, Safety and Welfare systems and upgraded facilities at the Unley Store to meet requirements. • Plans were developed for a refurbishment and expansion of the Bookshop and the creation of a fundraising lounge. • The Gallery completed a review of its Public Programs section and implemented major changes. • Nearly 4,234 digital images were added to the Gallery’s collections database making a total of 14, 685 representing almost half of the Gallery’s collect on. • The Gallery stock-checked the European and Australian painting collections and European and Australian ceramic collections. • The international tour of the Gallery’s exhibition Love & Death: Art in the Age of Queen Victoria was completed this year. • A new benefactors’ group was successfully launched for contemporary art called the Contemporary Collectors. • The Gallery toured its Lionel Lindsay exhibition to Carrick Hill and to four South Australian regional galleries. • The Gallery continued to build on its reputation as a major art publisher and published two major books including its most elaborately illustrated book Morris & Co. with a broad international market. • The Gallery’s publications Morris & Co. and The Encounter 1802 both won national prizes for printing. • The Gallery won the Golden Service Award for excellent cleaning of a public institution. 7 • As an initiative of the State Government, solar panels were installed on the roof of the Gallery to help reduce electricity consumption. 8 ISSUES AND TRENDS • The Gallery’s enhanced collection displays, exhibitions, publications and marketing program have continued to result in increases in attendances and visitor enjoyment. • There has been a steady increase in international and interstate tourists visiting the Gallery making it one of the State’s major tourist attractions. • There is growing support for the Gallery both within South Australia and interstate resulting in the steady increase in gifts of money and works of art. • The Gallery now operates in an environment of intense competition in the ‘leisure and entertainment industry’ and is having to compete with many more events to keep and develop its audience. • The national and international trend of declining attendances to paid exhibitions continues, mainly through significant changes in work and leisure patterns. • The costs of staging exhibitions, including insurance, has increased markedly over the last five years. • The Gallery’s unique self-funded exhibition program faces difficulties absent in other state capitals, including a smaller audience base, lower average income, a diminishing number of Adelaide-based corporations to provide sponsorship, no Government funding for exhibitions and fierce competition from other arts, entertainment and sporting organisations. • Cultural institutions are becoming increasingly aware that they need to attract more diverse audiences. • The community now has greater expectations of state-owned cultural resources such as the Gallery. • There is some pressure from the community for the Gallery to remain open every day of the week as well as to open later on weekends and one evening per week. • There is demand from other galleries for the Gallery’s travelling exhibitions. • There is an international demand to borrow the Gallery’s major works for important overseas exhibitions. • Declining rates of return have effectively reduced the income from the Gallery’s Foundation and other investment funds by more than 50% over the last decade or so. 9 • Over the last five years the falling value of the Australian dollar has decreased opportunities for acquiring major works overseas. • There is an ever-growing demand for popular and scholarly publications on the Gallery’s collections and exhibitions. • The Gallery has a growing reputation as a prestigious art publisher both in Australia and abroad. • There is burgeoning demand for the Gallery’s postcards, greeting cards and reproductions of works in the Gallery's collection. • There is increasing demand to disseminate information about the collections through lectures, seminars, special guided tours and the internet. • The Gallery increasingly relies on funds generated through its commercial