$244m funding for AGNSW’s Sydney Modern Project

On Wednesday 14 June, Arts Minister Don Harwin announced the NSW Government’s commitment to supporting the expansion of the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), a $244 million project that will transform the gallery into one of the world’s greatest art museums.

Sydney Modern Project, dusk view from Woolloomooloo as produced by Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA. © Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2017

The extension will create a global art museum for a global city with new and expanded spaces for art, live performance and film along with spaces to learn, study and participate in cultural experiences.

In progress image of Sydney Modern Project, view from north-east as produced by Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA. © Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2017

“Our expanded gallery will deliver an iconic building that combines art, architecture and landscape in an extraordinary way, and in one of the most breathtaking locations in the world,” said Dr Michael Brand, Director AGNSW.

Combined with government funds of $244 million, the AGNSW capital campaign, to be officially launched later this year, will raise $100 million in philanthropic support for the project of which $70 million has been pledged.

In progress image of Sydney Modern Project, oil tank gallery. © Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2017

The Sydney Modern Project will allow for more of the gallery’s iconic collection, worth $1.3 billion, to be on display including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art which will be showcased and celebrated with the prominence it deserves.

Expected to attract two million visitors annually, the project will significantly improve the State’s ability to attract more major international art exhibitions and widen its economic benefits with $1 billion plus over the next 25 years with the creation of up to 242 full-time jobs in NSW.

Atrium In progress image of Sydney Modern Project, dusk view from Woolloomooloo as produced by Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA. © Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2017

The gallery has worked with Pritzker Prize-winning architects SANAA for the past two years to evolve the design concept. Major construction of the project will commence in 2019 with the expansion due for completion in 2021, in time for the 150th anniversary of the gallery’s founding in 1871.

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