Queensland Art Gallery Annual Report 2003-04

5 HIGHLIGHTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS JANUARY 2004 + The 'Lost and Found' holiday program of workshops and performances continues the Gallery's collaboration with artists in developing creative learning programs for children. More than 13 600 people attend the week-long program, including more than 5500 children. + Aurukun artist Craig Koomeeta, whose works featured in 'Story Place', returns to the Gallery for a six-week Artist-in-Residence program called 'Ngamp yotam ma kee antan' (Working together to achieve a goal). FEBRUARY + 'Video Hits: Art & Music Video' opens in Gallery 4. It is the first time the Gallery's largest single exhibition space is dedicated to an audiovisual installation. The exhibition reflects the type of screen- based work to be exhibited by the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art. MARCH + The Gallery announces Australia's first major survey exhibition of works by international art icon Andy Warhol as one of the exhibitions for the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art in 2007. The announcement coincides with a public lecture by Vincent Fremont, a founding director of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. + Prime, the Gallery's annual National Youth Week event, attracts a broad cross-section of young people, and over 4000 visitors, through a dynamic program of exhibitions, performances and events. + A Public Art Curator is appointed to oversee all public art projects for the Millennium Arts–Queensland Cultural Centre Project. + The Gallery acquires two significant works for its international collection — Jun Kaneko's large-scale glass sculpture Clear, blue, yellow and red slabs 2001 and Double tail 2003 by Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco. APRIL + The Queensland Art Gallery Foundation's Indigenous Australian Art Appeal is successful in raising funds for the purchase of 27 significant works for the Gallery's Collection. The works are from Arnhem Land, the Central Desert, the northern coast of Western Australia, and the east coast of Cape York Peninsula. MAY + Construction begins on the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art as part of the Queensland Government's Millennium Arts–Queensland Cultural Centre Project, and is scheduled for completion by the second half of 2006. + The Gallery hosts Australia's first monographic exhibition of work by dada/surrealist photographer Man Ray, organised by the Art Gallery of New South Wales. + The seven-venue regional Queensland tour of 'Story Place: Indigenous Art of Cape York and the Rainforest' commences at Hervey Bay Regional Gallery. JUNE + Attendances for the Gallery in 2003–04 total more than 404 000. + 29 728 people visit travelling exhibitions in regional Queensland for the same period. JULY 2003 + The Gallery welcomes more than 100 Indigenous artists, elders and performers from Cape York Peninsula, and more than 10 000 visitors, for the Opening Celebrations weekend for 'Story Place: Indigenous Art of Cape York and the Rainforest' — Australia's first major survey exhibition of historical and contemporary Indigenous art from Cape York. + More than 1000 people attend the Gallery's official opening of 'Pierre Bonnard: Observing Nature', an exhibition organised by the National Gallery of Australia in association with the Queensland Art Gallery. AUGUST + 'Pop: The Continuing Influence of Popular Culture on Contemporary Art' begins an eight–venue tour of regional Queensland at Logan Art Gallery, and continues the Gallery's range of programs for young audiences. + The National Gallery of Australia travelling exhibition 'Seeing the Centre: The Art of Albert Namatjira 1902–1959' opens, and guests at the official launch include the artist's great grandson Walangari Karntawarra. SEPTEMBER + The Gallery is awarded a 2003 Queensland Government Reconciliation Award for Business for the 'Story Place: Indigenous Art of Cape York and the Rainforest' project. + Bovis Lend Lease, a leading project management and construction company, is appointed by the Queensland Government as Managing Contractor for the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art and the Millennium Arts–Queensland Cultural Centre Project. OCTOBER + The major art work Vine intersects four other streets 2003 by American artist Edward Ruscha is acquired with funds from the Queensland Government's Queensland Gallery of Modern Art Acquisitions Fund. + The Gallery's APT 2002: Asia–Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art publication is awarded a prestigious gold award for design at the annual Brisbane Advertising and Design Awards. NOVEMBER + 'Lost and Found', a new children's exhibition that engages young viewers with notions of the found object in contemporary art, opens at the Gallery. + 'Story Place: Indigenous Art of Cape York and the Rainforest' closes, having attracted more than 142 000 visitors. DECEMBER + The 'Ah Xian' exhibition opens at the Gallery. The centrepiece of the show is Ah Xian's major figurative sculpture, Human human — lotus, cloisonné figure 1 2000–01. + Brett Whiteley's important work Calcutta , painted in response to the artist's visit to this Indian city in 1966, is acquired.