Oceania Womens fund

QAGOMA’s long history of commissioning, acquiring and exhibiting the work of female artists in the Pacific was significantly enhanced by the generous bequest of Jennifer Phipps (1944–2014), which created the Oceania Women’s Fund.

A curator with a deep belief in the power of art to change lives, Jennifer’s vision was to enable women working in under-resourced areas of the Pacific to engage in projects and learning opportunities to build creative capacity. The Oceania Women’s Fund entrusts QAGOMA with the ongoing role of fostering creative production by women living and working in the region.

Jennifer Phipps’s visionary bequest has supported a number of major projects, including the participation of women from the Solomon Islands in the 2017 Women’s Wealth creative workshop, and women from the Marshall Islands participating in the Jaki-Ed weaving workshop. The resulting works were part of ‘The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT9).

Vida Lahey Memorial Travelling Scholarship

In 2014, the bequest of Shirley Lahey (1925–2011) helped the QAGOMA Foundation establish the Vida Lahey Memorial Travelling Scholarship. Named in memory of Shirley’s aunt, the eminent Queensland artist Vida Lahey (1882–1968), the scholarship honours Lahey’s artistic and social work, as well as the significance of travel in her life and practice.

Every two years, the Vida Lahey Memorial Travelling Scholarship gives emerging Australian artists or art history students the opportunity to develop their practice or research through an itinerary of national or overseas travel, that will contribute to understandings of Australian art.

Galleries 5 and 6

British-born and Oxford University‑trained Henry Bartlett CMG OBE was an artist, patron and diplomat with the British Foreign Service, and a Trustee of the Gallery from 1977 to 1987. Together with his wife Amanda, Bartlett supported the acquisition of many works during his lifetime. The Henry and Amanda Bartlett Fund builds on their significant legacy by continuing to enable the Gallery to acquire historical European and Asian art for the Collection.

Galleries 10, 11, 12 and 13

Philanthropist, gallerist and fashion business owner Win Schubert AO supported the Gallery in acquiring many major works during her lifetime. In 2019, her landmark bequest established a charitable trust to develop a permanent collection of works to advance education. Schubert named these galleries in memory of her friend, the late Josephine Ulrick, teacher, writer, poet and co-director of Art Galleries Schubert.

Gallery 1.3

The Taylor family has enabled some of the Gallery’s most significant acquisitions of Australian art, and these now form the Taylor Family Collection, which includes Arthur Boyd’s Sleeping bride 1957-58. The children and grandchildren of the late Eric and Marion Taylor are closely involved with the Gallery; one is a Trustee and others are Foundation members. The Taylor family was also instrumental in realising the Gallery’s iconic Night Life 2018 by James Turrell.

River Room

Andrew King and Dr Susan King’s support has been instrumental in the realisation of Tony Albert and Nell’s outdoor play sculpture The BIG HOSE 2024, which will be located between the north-eastern end of GOMA and the river. In recognition of their exceptional benefaction, the River Room has been named in memory of Andrew and siblings Bede, Edwina, Grainia and Megan’s late parents, Sue and Brian King, and honours their mother’s passionate and dedicated service to the Gallery over many decades as a Volunteer Guide.