Inadequate gallery space, sub-par storage facilities and ageing infrastructure are some of the concerns raised in submissions to the Statutory Authorities Review Committee’s (SARC) inquiry into the Art Gallery of South Australia and the South Australian Museum.
The SARC inquiry was launched in May following backlash to a controversial proposed restructure at the SA Museum, which has been paused pending the outcome of a Premier’s Review.
The Upper House initially rejected the inquiry on May 1, where Frank Pangallo MLC introduced an amendment to expand it to look at the Art Gallery as well as the SA Museum. However, standing committees can establish their own inquiries into matters.
The submissions come after changes to leadership at the Art Gallery following the recent departure of director Rhana Devenport and assistant director of artistic programs Lisa Slade.
When the motion to establish an inquiry was debated in the Upper House, Pangallo told parliament that donors were being turned off the Art Gallery and the Museum due to uncertainty caused by the planned restructuring at the Museum.
“I have received information that there are also administration issues that need to be addressed at the Art Gallery by the same concerned parties involved in the Museum protests,” he said.
Pangallo said Museum and Art Gallery donors told the Premier at an April meeting “in no uncertain terms that they would stop making donations to both institutions if the restructure [of the Museum] went ahead”.
“One was even contemplating changing their will,” he said.
In one submission to the SARC inquiry, art historian Margot Osborne suggested that the Art Gallery’s ability to fulfil its charter was compromised by lack of space and funding.
“AGSA is currently able to display 2-3% of its collections at any given time, with the bulk of the collection stored offsite in an overcrowded store,” she wrote.
“This overcrowding and lack of display space threatens AGSA’s ability to carry out its charter to display, conserve and research works of art in its collection.
“There was a pivot to a future-oriented priority to ‘reflect the Gallery’s unique position in Australia on the edge of the desert and in close proximity to Aboriginal Australia’.
“While this perspective ticks obvious boxes for the Government in terms of Indigenous art and tourism, it does not address the reality of the Gallery’s broader role in respect to its heritage collections, and narrows the focus as well in terms of collecting Australian and South Australian art.”
Osborne said that the abandoned contemporary art gallery at Lot 14 would have solved these issues.
“The new gallery would have enabled implementation of the vision for a gallery on the edge of the desert with a strong focus on Indigenous art, while there would be greater space in existing gallery for display of the heritage collection and visiting exhibitions, with Adelaide Contemporary being home to 21st century Australian and International art,” she wrote.
The Art Gallery of South Australia collection includes 47,000 works of art valued at over $1 billion dollars. Photo: Charlie Gilchrist/InDaily
Another submission from past and present Art Gallery volunteer guides warned that donors are being turned off by the lack of exhibition space, among other issues.
“The inability of AGSA to rotate its artefacts more frequently has led to a reluctance on the part of donors to fund or donate new acquisitions because of concerns such donations will not be exhibited or only for very limited periods and thereafter not seen again for years,” the submission said.
“Lack of appropriate storage facilities represents a significant long-term threat to the material condition and preservation of highly valuable art and artefacts which is the result of more than a century of assiduous collecting.”
In a separate submission seen by InDaily, a long-term Art Gallery donor who did not wish to be named publicly expressed their concerns.
“Now faced with filling the two most senior positions at the Gallery, the Art Gallery Board can address the organisational cultural issues which seem to have beset the Gallery in recent years,” the donor wrote.
“The suggestion that the Art Gallery is to suspend acquisitions for the time being, if correct, will mean a loss of opportunities to sustain the quality and balance of its priceless collections and consequent loss of support and trust in this institution.
“Further, curatorial knowledge, experience and commitment appear, in recent years, to have been disregarded or undervalued in maintaining a balanced and relevant Art Gallery of South Australia, its collections, its scholarship and its publications.”
In its own submission, the Art Gallery acknowledged it was affected by limited exhibition and storage space, outdated infrastructure, rapid cost escalations and static revenue.
“With only 2.8% of the Gallery’s exemplary collection of 47,000 works of art on display in or around its North Terrace building, pressures on exhibition space are real,” it wrote.
“The combination of limited gallery exhibition space and limited collection storage has led to a major exhibition gallery (G24) being closed to the public for three years, to be used for collection storage.
“With the last expansion of the Gallery (the Western Wing) occurring in 1996, the building has now fallen behind comparative standards of facilities, especially for exhibition and events spaces, relative to other state art galleries in Australia.”
In response to questions sent by InDaily to the Art Gallery of South Australia, a spokesperson said AGSA “looks forward to fully participating in the Statutory Authorities Review Committee’s inquiry, as required by the Committee. AGSA does not intend to comment on individual submissions at this time”.
“AGSA takes seriously its mission to care for and present its remarkable collection of 47,000 works, through its team of dedicated staff, for the benefit of all South Australians and the wider community,” the spokesperson said.
In a statement to InDaily, Arts Minister Andrea Michaels said that “the Art Gallery of South Australia is vitally important to the people of South Australia and the Malinauskas Government will continue to support it in the future”.
“In the recent state budget, we announced an additional $20 million to strategically invest in the arts and applications for that extra funding will be open shortly,” she said.
Michaels said the planned cultural institutions storage facility at Walkley Heights was set for completion in December 2025 and the state government was in discussions with the Commonwealth and other potential funding partners.
Opposition arts spokesman John Gardner said the Art Gallery and Museum had been affected by “dramatic” budget cuts since the election of the Malinauskas Labor Government. This was denied by Labor who said the cuts were made under the former Liberal government.
“We are hearing that those cuts are now undermining its capacity to deliver its full potential, particularly in terms of driving the visitor economy, and also community engagement within South Australia,” Gardner said.
“For example, along with the Museum and the History Trust’s State History collection, we also understand the Art Gallery is also facing challenges posed by delays and reductions in the scope of the new Cultural Collections Storage Facility.”
Update: This article has been updated with additional comments from Minister Michaels
