When I look around this country and think about the efforts of our state art galleries to excite and educate people about Aboriginal art and culture, I’d have to conclude that there’s not much fire in the belly. True ” the National Gallery of Victoria is working up to a big show of early Papunya boards next year, the National Gallery of Australia is opening ten new spaces next spring and the Art Gallery of New South Wales is planning a show to complement its curator Hetti Perkins’ forthcoming television series. Further, the museums and galleries of the Northern Territory and West Australian Gallery are playing the game with annual competitions that attract interest for a month or so. But is it really enough?
There have been calls for a national museum dedicated to Indigenous art. And when you take a closer look at the one institution in the world which is a dedicated contemporary Aboriginal art museum – the AAMU in Utrecht, Holland, of all places “ there’s certainly a case to be made for something similar in Australia. For, arguably, AAMU is the most exciting place in the world to be, for aficionados.
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