Aust, crafts supported by gallery patronage

Press, 12 May 1984, Page 9

Aust, crafts supported by gallery patronage

Australian galleries support craftspeople with a strong policy of buying contemporary works, says a visiting museum official. Mr Carl Andrew, the assistant director of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences in Sydney, is in New Zealand to select entries for the “Great New Zealand Box Show” in Wellington next month, and to give public lectures on contemporary Australian craft. While here he has bought 16 contemporary New Zealand ceramic pieces to add to his museum’s growing collection. That collection has prompted several moves for the 104-year-old museum. Its new home will

be Sydney’s old tram powerhouse building and the museum will be known as the Power House Museum. The move has been financed by the New South Wales Government as a bicentenary project and will be completed in 1988. When finished it will be the biggest museum in Australia. The applied arts collection includes ceramics, glass, musical instruments, textiles, stamps and coins. Although the museum collects new pieces, it has added ancient pieces recently — Roman glass and ceramics, to its collection. Australian galleries, national, regional and state, were helped in their collect-

ing by a Government subsidy, Mr Andrew said. “If a state gallery buys a work of a living craftsperson it gets a 40 per cent subsidy; a regional gallery gets a 70 per cent subsidy. That means the gallery has to pay only $3OO for a $lOOO work. It is a great incentive to galleries to buy, and the craftspeople benefit from the support.” The subsidies were administered by the Crafts Board of the Australian Arts Council, which had no equivalent in New Zealand, Mr Andrew said. While in New Zealand he has talked to gallery directors about their methods of acquiring items for their collections.