A specially designed artists' flag is raised on the West Gate Bridge to celebrate the final weeks of Melbourne Now. Stewart Russell is curator of the flag project. Photo: Pat Scala
As symbols go, they don't come more emphatic than planting an enormous flag at the top of the West Gate Bridge. The National Gallery of Victoria did just that to mark the final weeks of its Melbourne Now exhibition, the largest in its history, which closes on Sunday.
One of a series of art works commissioned for the exhibition, the flag seems a very visible statement of intent for the institution, and the city, by NGV director Tony Ellwood, at least as far as contemporary art is concerned.
Not only did Melbourne Now - a free exhibition showcasing local contemporary art and artists - entice a huge number (more than 725,000 since November) of the city's residents to the gallery's two sites, NGV Australia at Federation Square and NGV International on St Kilda Road, but it also looks set to leave a legacy, in the form of a big boost to contemporary art, for Melbourne.
Ellwood this week announced a campaign for contemporary art by the gallery, including an international triennial starting from 2017 and a fund dedicated to commissioning and acquiring modern works, filling an obvious gap in the NGV's 70,000-piece collection. Acquisitions of contemporary art have ramped up since Ellwood arrived more than 18 months ago from the Queensland Art Gallery-Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane, where he attracted more visitors in one year than his southern rivals managed.
The latest includes a piece from the exhibition RGB Mobile, 2013, by Anne-Marie May, the most talked about piece from the show on social media. And striking international works to be added in coming months to the NGV's $3.7 billion collection - famed for its antiquities, old masters and curatorial rigour - including pieces by Italian multimedia artist Paola Pivi, whose fluorescent feathered bears should soon be seen lolling around the gallery.
''It's an opportunity for us in our lifetime to really see us take this collection to a whole new height, in the same way that we have done with our historic collections,'' Ellwood says of the campaign, which includes devoting the NGV's summer programming each year to contemporary art.
''The triennial is about an exhibition outcome but driven internally to maintain an eye on collection building.
''We don't have a major endowment dedicated to contemporary art, so we're seeing works slip through our fingers. We want to be able to have a fund that enables us to acquire [more].''
Ellwood is adamant that Victoria needs a regular visual arts event on the scale of Melbourne Now. ''I think as an institution we have the confidence to do our own triennial. Melbourne Now is at that triennial scale, so now we know that we can do that …'' he said.
''I think for us that was really important, particularly in the last week of Melbourne Now. We've never had so many people inquiring about our future direction, from the public, from the community, the arts.
''We know anecdotally that artists have had inquiries they haven't had in the past; there's been talk of people being commissioned for exhibitions abroad. There's no question this has given our local arts community much greater leverage … and a much greater awareness in the general public.''
That's something artists whose work has been shown as part of Melbourne Now can attest to. Laith McGregor, who has two major works in the exhibition - a ping pong table at NGV International and large-scale drawings at NGV Australia - sees his latest commission, from Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA), as a direct result of his involvement in Melbourne Now.
For Ellwood, the sky is the limit for his gallery, the city and local artists. ''There's no reason why a city of our size shouldn't be able to sustain something like this … it could be truly transformative within the space of a generation, I really do mean that.''
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