Celebrating a decade of giving through the Future Collective

Mon 16 Jun 2025

The Future Collective — the Gallery’s giving circle dedicated to supporting acquisitions of contemporary Australian art — celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2025. Designed as a pathway to joining the QAGOMA Foundation, the Future Collective aims to secure lifelong relationships with art, artists and the Gallery through giving.

A key element of the QAGOMA Foundation’s commitment to engaging younger generations in philanthropy, the Future Collective is a space for supporting contemporary artists and connecting with their ideas, while helping the Gallery secure significant works that will be enjoyed by visitors long into the future. Its members have access to bespoke behind-the-scenes events and experiences, including curator-led tours, artist talks and special exhibitions, while playing an active role in shaping Queensland’s art collection. Since launching in late 2014, 59 Future Collective members have reached full QAGOMA Foundation membership, and the group has raised almost $600,000 to support the acquisition of 31 works by 13 emerging and mid-career artists. Acquisitions are chosen through a curatorial pitching process; once the pitches are heard, members vote on the work to be acquired for the Collection. On the giving group’s raison d’etre, long-time member Kamillea Aghtan has commented:

One of the Future Collective’s driving motivations is to support exciting contemporary Australian art and artists as they gain their footing and momentum, and hopefully to provide a midway launching platform during their ascendancy.

Echoing this sentiment, QAGOMA Director Chris Saines CNZM has remarked:

In its first decade, the Future Collective has made a conspicuous mark on the Gallery’s holdings, cementing the group’s reputation as risk-takers and tastemakers. In confidently supporting the work of Australian artists, many of them young and emerging, their decisions have often marked an artist’s first entry into the Collection.

Yasmin Smith’s Flooded Rose Red Basin 2018 included in the 10th Asia Pacific Triennial preview, 2021

Watch | Yasmin Smith discusses the ceramic installation Flooded Rose Red Basin 2018

Thirty works acquired through the Future Collective’s activities have featured in ten major exhibitions across QAG and GOMA, including three Asia Pacific Triennials, and have toured to regional venues across Queensland. In 2022, the Future Collective voted to acquire Kamilaroi/Bigambul artist Archie Moore’s United Neytions 2014/2017 — a monumental flag-based installation by the creator of kith and kin 2024, which was awarded the prestigious Golden Lion for Best National Participation at the 2024 Venice Biennale and will be displayed at GOMA from August 2025. Also this year, Yankunytjatjara artist Kaylene Whiskey’s Working 9 to 5 2022 will travel to the National Portrait Gallery for an exhibition honouring the artist; and in 2026, works from Kaantju/Umpila artist Naomi Hobson’s 2018 series ‘A Warrior without a Weapon’ will tour to London’s Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum for a major exhibition of highlights from past Triennials and the Collection. Not only have members of the giving group seen their support result in major exhibition outcomes; they’ve also heard about the significance of their efforts from the artists directly. As 2019 Project Pitch artist Taree Mackenzie has said:

This acquisition was a really big deal to me and a great opportunity. The works that were acquired were probably two of my most ambitious works that I’m most proud of making, so I’m really pleased to have them in the Gallery.

Taree Mackenzie Pepper’s ghost, wind turners, blue and yellow 2018

Viewing of Taree Mackenzie’s Pepper’s ghost, wind turners, blue and yellow 2018, 2023

The Future Collective celebrated its launch at GOMA in November 2014, at an event that included an address given by Torres Strait Islander artist Brian Robinson (Maluyligal, Wuthathi and Dayak peoples), who was the youngest person to be appointed a Queensland Art Gallery Trustee (1999–2008); followed by exclusive tours of the GOMA exhibitions ‘David Lynch: Between Two Worlds’ and ‘Michael Parekōwhai: The Promised Land’. Starting with just 28 members, by 2017 the group had doubled in size and continues to grow.

Future Collective launch event, 2014

Tour of ‘Michael Parekōwhai: The Promised Land’, 2014

July 2016 saw the Collective host Revel, its first gala event, at GOMA, complete with a performance by band Michelle Xen and the Neon Wild, a making activity led by Brisbane icon Rachel Burke, and exclusive after-hours access to the exhibitions ‘Cindy Sherman’ and ‘A World View: The Tim Fairfax Gift’. Subsequent Revels have celebrated blockbuster exhibitions including ‘Marvel: Creating the Cinematic Universe’ in 2017, ‘Patricia Piccinini: Curious Affection’ in 2018, ‘Chiharu Shiota: The Soul Trembles’ in 2022, and ‘Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses’ in 2024.

Activity with Brisbane artist Rachel Burke, 2016

The group supported their first commission in 2016: two paintings by Melbourne-based artist Helen Johnson, responding to two celebrated Collection paintings by women artists — AME Bale’s Leisure moments 1902 and Vida Lahey’s Monday morning 1912.

Watch | Helen Johnson introduces Women’s Work 2017

Helen Johnson at an in-conversation event, 2019

Members met Johnson at an in-conversation event in 2017; later, they viewed the finished works in the reimagined Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Galleries (10–13) at QAG, and again as part of the exhibition ‘Living Patterns: Contemporary Australian Abstraction’ in 2023–24. The group’s second commission was Moving the line 2018 by Girramay/Yidinyji/Kuku Yalanji artist and long-time Future Collective member Tony Albert, which members saw unveiled by the artist during a preview of ‘Tony Albert: Visible’ in 2018.

Watch | Tony Albert gives a floor talk about his exhibition ‘Visible’, 2018

Tony Albert speaks about his work Moving the line 2018, 2018

In 2019, the Future Collective welcomed its inaugural Artist Ambassador, D Harding, a descendant of the Bidjara, Ghungalu and Garingbal peoples of central Queensland. A rich program of events, developed in collaboration with Harding, introduced members to a number of emerging and established contemporary artists through tours of Harding’s solo exhibition ‘Current Iterations’ and ‘Ana Mendieta: Connecting to the Earth’ at Brisbane’s Institute of Modern Art (IMA), and ‘Goobalathaldin Dick Roughsey: Stories of this Land’ at QAG, followed by a panel discussion with Quandamooka artists Delvene Cockatoo-Collins and Sonja Carmichael (Ngugi people) about their connection to Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island).

D Harding at an in-conversation event

Future Collective members enjoy a tour of D Harding’s work

Also in 2019, the Future Collective held its first Artist Dinner in GOMA’s Long Gallery. Featuring table arrangements by Quandamooka artist Elisa Jane Carmichael, and exclusive access to the dual exhibitions ‘Quilty’ and ‘Margaret Olley: A Generous Life’, members also enjoyed a tour of ‘I, object’, the newly opened exhibition drawn from the Gallery’s Indigenous Australian art collection, featuring Naomi Hobson’s ‘A Warrior without a Weapon’ series, and heard from exhibiting artists Judy Watson and D Harding. The Artist Dinner returned in 2023 to celebrate ‘eX de Medici: Beautiful Wickedness’ and ‘Michael Zavros: The Favourite’, and in 2025, the Future Collective will toast to a decade of impact with a tenth-anniversary gala dinner during major winter exhibition ‘Wonderstruck’.

Future Collective Artist Dinner, 2019

Future Collective Artist Dinner, 2023

When pandemic restrictions prevented the Future Collective from gathering in person in 2020, programming pivoted online. From home, the group attended a video tour of Brisbane-based artist Natalya Hughes’s exhibition ‘Maybe I was painting the woman in me’ at Milani Gallery, and participated in a Zoom panel discussion featuring Hughes, who was the 2020 Future Collective Artist Ambassador, in conversation with emerging artists Savannah Jarvis and Emily Galicek.

Watch | 2020 Future Collective Artist Ambassador Natalya Hughes gives a tour of her exhibition ‘Maybe I was painting the woman in me’, 2020

Artists Abdul Abdullah & Tony Albert, 2021

In May 2021, the group reconnected with Sydney-based artist Abdul Abdullah, whose photographs from his ‘Coming to terms’ series were the Collective’s inaugural acquisition in 2015 and featured in ‘The 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’. At an ‘Artist in Focus’ event, Abdullah spoke about the development of his practice and led a tour of his Open Studio project at QAG. In 2023, after voting to acquire Drift and meander 2022 by Queensland artist Joanne Currie Nalingu (Gunggari people), the Future Collective enjoyed a tour of four works they had generously supported across two exhibitions: Pitjantjatjara artist Timo Hogan’s Lake Baker 2021 and Kaylene Whiskey’s Working 9 to 5 2022 in ‘North by North-West’, and Taree Mackenzie’s Pepper’s ghost, wind turners blue and yellow 2018 and Helen Johnson’s Women’s work (1912) 2017 in ‘Living Patterns: Contemporary Australian Abstraction’.

Robert Andrew speaks about his work Information Transfer #3 2015–18, 2024

Kaylene Whiskey Working 9 to 5 2022

In 2023, artist Tony Albert generously welcomed Future Collective members into his home for a tour of his private collection and new purpose-built studio. Speaking on his connection to the giving group, Albert said: ‘As an artist, I particularly find it so important that there’s a community of engaged supporters outside of the art community. People come from all walks of life’. The private tour was followed by a basket-weaving workshop with Ivy Minniecon (Kuku Yalanji/ Kabi Kabi/Gooreng Gooreng peoples and Australian South Sea Islander). The following year, after a tour of the major solo exhibition ‘mudunama kundana wandaraba jarribirri: Judy Watson’, members heard from Yawuru artist Robert Andrew about his work Information Transfer #3 2015–18, which was on display in ‘North by North-West’ at QAG, the work’s first public appearance post-acquisition. More recently, after having supported the acquisition of the artist’s Dystopia [all the debils are here] 2018 at their 2018 Project Pitch, the Future Collective enjoyed a tour of Ngadjon-jii/Mamu artist Danie Mellor’s current exhibition, ‘marru | the unseen visible’, which opened in March this year, followed by a viewing of the Asia Pacific Triennial display featuring three works from Karla Dicken’s 'Disastrous' series 2022, supported for acquisition by the group at their 2024 Project Pitch.

Danie Mellor Dystopia [all the debils are here] 2018

Viewing of Karla Dicken’s 11th Asia Pacific Triennial display, 2025

In its first decade, the Future Collective has grown into a passionate and innovative community of active contributors to the cultural landscape. As member Lara Cresser has said:

Joining the Future Collective is one of the most rewarding decisions I have made in recent years. The Future Collective has given me so many wonderful opportunities to support artists, contribute to the future of QAGOMA, and generally pursue my artistic curiosity amongst a group of diverse but similarly minded people.

Tour of ‘Sugar Spin you, me, art and everything’, 2017

To celebrate a decade of impact with the Future Collective, or to find out more, please contact the QAGOMA Foundation on (07) 3840 7316 or email foundation@qagoma.qld.gov.au.

Caitlin Morgan is Bequest and Communications Officer, QAGOMA Foundation.