Queensland Art Gallery Annual Report 1991-92

FRAMEWORKS FOR T HE FUTURE A recent survey revealed the audience as being increasingly discriminating in its expectations. Such research has given the Gallery a quantitative and qualitative snapshot of its actual and potential audience, enabling a more closely grained assessment of future space, facility and resource needs, particularly as these touch upon issues such as the Gallery's educational role, its capacity for access by community and specialist groups, its reach into cultural tourism, and its recognition As part of the 1988 of an ageing and more leisured population. exhibition 'The Inspired To retain the viability of this deepening and broadening role requires comparatively higher levels of self-generated funding. Dream', eight women To this end, the Gallery has encouraged an even greater diversity of private and corporate support programs, including artists from Papunya those generously supported through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation. It has also recently embarked upon a joint created a ceremonial ground painting within venture which will extend its merchandising and marketing profile into a national network of retail outlets. the Gallery. In developing and adopting its Corporate Plan 1991-95, containing the mission, goals, objectives and performance indicators, the Gallery has posited a clear and comprehensive statement for a challenging future. A key component of that challenge is consistent provision for the development, management, research and display of the Collection as one of the Gallery's primary goals. r , The Gallery holds a fundamental commitment to the art of this century, such works dominating all levels of its Australian and international acquisitions activity. A recent review of the Collection demonstrated the Gallery's successful implementation * - of profile collections, those medium- or theme-based components of the Collection which effectively form its strengths, including Queensland-based art, works on paper, and emergent collections such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and international art glass. Given the exponential rate of the Collection's development, the Gallery must continue to remain adaptable in its provision of technical resources and facilities as well as its spatial organisation. Aboriginal and Islander art is one area of increasing Collection activity. This relatively small collection is presently integrated into the View across the principal Australian collection display as a sculpture courtyard to fundamental element of our visual culture. With the site of the Gallery's a continuation of initiatives forged through 'The projected building . . . . ' Inspired Dream' and 'Balance 1990', Aboriginal extensions. Xw and Islander art must continue to assume a much . ' 0 greater presence and provoke a more distinct ' .. sense of place and identity within the Collection. j for Gallery has forged a national reputation ' its manifold commitment to contemporary Australian art, which now forms an extensive and dynamic tenet of Collection display. The j k Gallery 14 project space, with its emphasis on contemporary installation, strives to increase the visibility of and access to new and innovative forms of art practice. Through its visiting artist and residency programs, artists floortalks and lectures, and the provision of studio-based scholarships for young and emerging artists, the Gallery aims to reassert continually 10