Building the Collection

On 12 October 1982 the nation’s new cultural flagship on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin, Canberra, opened to the public. The collection seemed to have been born in full form.

In the short period between the late 1960s, when the National Gallery project received the go-ahead from government, and its opening in 1982 the national collection of art took shape. Twenty years on, this book of essays tells how the various collections which make up the national collection came into being – and the ways in which these collections continue to evolve. Time enough to be able to tap first-hand accounts and to source valuable documentation before it disappears into archival oblivion.