Oceania Womens fund

QAGOMA’s long history of commissioning, acquiring and exhibiting the work of female artists in the Pacific was significantly enhanced by the generous bequest of Jennifer Phipps (1944–2014), which created the Oceania Women’s Fund.

A curator with a deep belief in the power of art to change lives, Jennifer’s vision was to enable women working in under-resourced areas of the Pacific to engage in projects and learning opportunities to build creative capacity. The Oceania Women’s Fund entrusts QAGOMA with the ongoing role of fostering creative production by women living and working in the region.

Jennifer Phipps’s visionary bequest has supported a number of major projects, including the participation of women from the Solomon Islands in the 2017 Women’s Wealth creative workshop, and women from the Marshall Islands participating in the Jaki-Ed weaving workshop. The resulting works were part of ‘The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT9).

Vida Lahey Memorial Travelling Scholarship

In 2014, the bequest of Shirley Lahey (1925–2011) helped the QAGOMA Foundation establish the Vida Lahey Memorial Travelling Scholarship. Named in memory of Shirley’s aunt, the eminent Queensland artist Vida Lahey (1882–1968), the scholarship honours Lahey’s artistic and social work, as well as the significance of travel in her life and practice.

Every two years, the Vida Lahey Memorial Travelling Scholarship gives emerging Australian artists or art history students the opportunity to develop their practice or research through an itinerary of national or overseas travel that will contribute to an understanding of Australian art.

Galleries 1 and 2

Philanthropist and leading clinical haematologist and oncologist Dr Paul Eliadis AM’s remarkable support has enriched the Gallery’s Australian and international art collections since 1992, with gifts of major works by Gordon Bennett, Ian Burn, Juan Davila, Emily Kame Kngwarreye and Edward Ruscha. Dr Eliadis’s extraordinary gift of works by Tracey Moffatt includes the entire group of photographic and video works from the artist’s Australian Pavilion exhibition at the 2017 Venice Biennale.

Galleries 5 and 6

British-born and Oxford University‑trained Henry Bartlett CMG OBE was an artist, patron and diplomat with the British Foreign Service, and a Trustee of the Gallery from 1977 to 1987. Together with his wife Amanda, Bartlett supported the acquisition of many works during his lifetime. The Henry and Amanda Bartlett Fund builds on their significant legacy by continuing to enable the Gallery to acquire historical European and Asian art for the Collection.

Galleries 10, 11, 12 and 13

Philanthropist, gallerist and fashion business owner Win Schubert AO supported the Gallery in acquiring many major works during her lifetime. In 2019, her landmark bequest established a charitable trust to develop a permanent collection of works to advance education. Schubert named these galleries in memory of her friend, the late Josephine Ulrick, teacher, writer, poet and co-director of Art Galleries Schubert.

Gallery 1.3

The Taylor family has enabled some of the Gallery’s most significant acquisitions of Australian art, and these now form the Taylor Family Collection, which includes Arthur Boyd’s Sleeping bride 1957-58. The children and grandchildren of the late Eric and Marion Taylor are closely involved with the Gallery; one is a Trustee and others are Foundation members. The Taylor family was also instrumental in realising the Gallery’s iconic Night Life 2018 by James Turrell.

Galleries 3.5 and 3.6

Margaret (1931–2013) and Cathryn Mittelheuser’s generosity has significantly enhanced the Collection since 1985. Margaret, the first woman stockbroker in Australia, and Cathryn, an eminent plant physiologist and academic, were pioneers for women in finance and science. Together, the sisters have supported the Gallery in acquiring over 100 artworks, including key works by Indigenous Australian women artists Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori and Nora Wompi.