Vew from the chair: Speeches of Richard WL Austin

The Government's contribution in round figures is $4 million a year. We are fortunate in having such generous governmental support for the actual running of the Gallery-unlike the National Gallery of Victoria, where a very able director resigned last year for the lack of such support. Since 30 June, corporate and private donations have totalled some $850 000, of which more than half has come from Japan. This will be acknowledged in full at the Gallery Foundation's Annual Dinner on 3 April, when the Premier will once again honour us with his presence. The third leg, self-generated income, brought in $600 000 in the Bicentennial year, resulting from paying exhibitions, private receptions held in the Gallery, and the Bookshop's operations. This year has been one of consolidation, but the Bookshop has already made a profit of about $ I00 000, and the Chinese exhibition in September will certainly be a blockbuster. All this adds up to a very happy and satisfactory situation for the Gallery. Long may it continue. 17 Speech to open the exhibition 'The Grace Davies and Nell Davies Donation', 5 April 1995 NOTE: THE WORKS WHICH FORM THE GRACE DAVIES AND NELL DAVIES DONATION' ARE TESTIMONY TO A BROADLY BASED AND LONG TERM CONTRIBUTION TO THE GALLERY'S COLLECTION. 1 GRACE DAVIES AND NELL DAVIES BOTH BECAME FOUNDER BENEFACTORS OF THE GALLERY'S FOUNDATION. GRACE DAVIES DIED IN AUGUST 1996. I have said before, and I shall say again, that, while a State Gallery needs Government funding if it is to survive, it needs private patronage if it is to prosper-especially patronage from individual members of society. For whereas corporate support is somehow impersonal and disembodied, individual support is very personal indeed. This is very much the case with Grace and Nell Davies. Over the past twenty years they have generously donated works in a wide variety of media and this exhibition is a tribute to their generosity. They have been among the Gallery's most enthusiastic long term donors to the Gallery's collections. They have assisted the Gallery to secure works which would otherwise not have been within its reach at the time. Through this exhibition, the Gallery is able to show its appreciation for their support of the State Collection. In all they have donated nineteen works, all of which are on display this morning-– six works on paper, three sculptures and ten pieces of decorative art. Perhaps the most important is Leonard Shillam's Reclining woman 1942, acquired in 1994 from the Johnstone Collection, but indeed all are important and worthy of a special place in the Collection. To sum up, year after year Grace and Nell have given to the Gallery as much as they felt they could afford to give-and sometimes I suspect even more than that. If motive, not money, be the true test of generosity, Grace and Nell Davies pass that test with flying colours. _And now, ladies and gendemen, it gives me great pleasure to declare this exhibition open. 134