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Surprises at 25th birthday party
by Heather Wallace
In August the Australian Government is throwing a 25th birthday party and there'll be a few surprises on the guest list. Ellis Rowan, Max Dupain and Fred Williams will be there, joined by a giant Tyrannosaurus Rex. As for costumes and accessories, the fashion tip for the evening is a vintage Chanel suit teamed with Harold Holt's briefcase.
It's not a fancy dress party the Government is hosting but the launch of an online gallery celebrating 25 years of the Cultural Gifts Program.
The program began in 1978, offering tax incentives for donations of cultural material to Australia's public museums, libraries and galleries. In the past 25 years more than $270 million of gifts have been donated under the program.
The 25th Anniversary Online Gallery will feature a dazzling array of gifts donated to cultural collecting organisations around the country. Visitors to the Online Gallery can expect to see artworks from leading Australian artists like Fred Williams and Albert Tucker, rare fossil collections including the complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex and the remains of a Plesiosaur, and even General Douglas MacArthur's World War II fishing dinghy.
There's something to interest everyone in the Online Gallery. It brings together important pieces from the collections of participating organisations of the program, set up to encourage gifts of significant cultural items to public art galleries, museums and libraries by offering donors a tax deduction for the market value of their gifts.
Simon Klose, Director of the Benalla Art Gallery in Victoria, is enthusiastic about the virtual gallery. 'This is a great way to see many of the treasures donated under the Cultural Gifts Program all in one place'.
One of the Benalla Art Gallery's most popular images, Arthur Streeton's Impression for Golden Summer, joins another Heidelberg piece donated to the National Gallery of Australia-The Yarra, Heidelberg by Charles Condor.
'This is a unique opportunity to see pieces from one of Australia's most influential artistic periods brought together under the umbrella of a support system that benefits every Australian,' Mr Klose said.
More than 380 collecting institutions are endorsed by the Australian Government to receive donations under the Cultural Gifts Program. Many organisations with limited operational budgets rely on the gifts of benefactors to acquire new items for their collections.
Gifts under the program are exempt from capital gains tax and donors can claim the cost of valuations and, in most cases, the full market value of the gift as a tax deduction. The deduction for the gift can also be apportioned over a period of up to five years, enabling donors to realise the full benefit of their tax deduction.
The generosity of donors enables researchers, students and the Australian community to access a diverse range of cultural material that may otherwise not be available to them.
The Online Gallery is also an excellent resource for anyone interested in browsing through the fascinating, beautiful and intriguing collections of many of our cultural institutions.
The Cultural Gifts Program is administered by the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. The 25th Anniversary Online Gallery will be available at www.dcita.gov.au/cgp/anniversary.html from the end of August 2003.