Deputy Premier John Barilaro, the Minister for Regional New South Wales, and Don Harwin, the NSW Minister for the Arts, announced this week a foundational grant of $8.592 million towards realising Bundanon Trust’s Masterplan to house and display its collection and expand its children’s education programs. A light-filled contemporary art gallery embedded in the landscape sits at the heart of the expansion plans for Bundanon Trust on the NSW south coast, gifted to the nation by renowned Australia artist Arthur Boyd and his wife Yvonne in 1993.

$8.592 million, the largest allocation from the NSW Government’s Regional Cultural Fund, will enable the building of the gallery and storage component of the project, designed to display and house the Bundanon Trust’s $43 million art collection. This tranche of government funds will contribute to the $28.5 million required to complete the project.

Bundanon CEO Deborah Ely commented that the Trust is “thrilled that the NSW state government is setting the precedent for funding these world-class facilities to attract visitors to regional Australia and to house this internationally significant, and rapidly growing, modern and contemporary art collection. We are looking forward to embarking on this dynamic design and realising Boyd’s vision for Bundanon.”

Minister Harwin said: “To stand here at Bundanon to announce the NSW Government’s commitment of $8.5 million to build a wonderful new gallery and storage facility is a truly special moment. Arthur Boyd’s extraordinary works live on as enduring  nspiration for the many passionate and talented artists across regional NSW. This new facility housed on this famous landscape will pave the way for the Bundanon Trust’s revered $43 million collection to be housed and presented for all visitors to enjoy.”

Local Member for Kiama, Gareth Ward commented: “This is an enormous win for arts in the Shoalhaven, our region and our State. I have been fighting for these funds together with Bundanon Trust and today we get to deliver this outstanding result.”

Designed by Kerstin Thompson Architects (KTA) the new subterranean contemporary art gallery will house Bundanon Trust’s collection of over 3,800 items, featuring 1,300 works by Arthur Boyd together with Boyd’s contemporaries such as Sidney  olan, John Perceval, Joy Hester and Charles Blackman. The Collection also includes etchings by Goya and Picasso as well as  ieces by Brett Whiteley, contemporary works by Brook Andrew, Rosemary Laing and Polixeni Papapetrou. In addition, the Trust has an archive of artist books, scripts, compositions and working models related to artwork developed on the properties through the Artist in Residence program.

KTA’s Masterplan design for Riversdale also encompasses a world-class creative learning centre for school students, a  contemporary visitor hub, accommodation and cafe. Sensitively embracing the existing landscape and its ecology, the design responds to current and future climatic conditions with inspiration drawn from rural Australia’s trestle flood bridges. The new facilities will be housed within a new 140-metre-long by 9-metre-wide structure that at one end abuts the art gallery within the sloping hillside, continuing along to bridge an existing gully, and containing 34 bedrooms, teaching and dining space and public cafe.