46 47 ARTLINES 3 | 2025 The Neilson Foundation Established in 2007 by prominent Australian investor and philanthropist Kerr Neilson and his family, the Neilson Foundation launched with a mission to champion innovative initiatives across two key areas: improving accessibility to the arts, with the aim of diversifying Australia’s cultural milieu; and supporting organisations that assist individuals and communities facing extreme disadvantage, including vulnerable youth, migrants, families experiencing domestic violence, and people living with mental health conditions. As the Foundation evolved, led by Kerr and daughters Paris and Beau, their support for the arts focused on building capacity to propel long-term organisational transformation. In recognition of their incredible generosity to arts organisations across Australia, the Foundation was awarded the Creative Partnerships Philanthropy Leadership Award in 2022, alongside QAGOMA Trustee and Foundation Committee member Paul Taylor. Since 2015, the Neilson Foundation’s support has been instrumental in enhancing the Gallery’s capacity to acquire and present artworks, exhibitions and programming of national and international importance. Significantly, more than half of the total funds have been applied to projects profiling First Nations art and artists, making the Neilson Foundation QAGOMA’s leading private benefactor of First Nations programs. The Foundation’s generosity is most visible at the Gallery of Modern Art, where Waanyi artist Judy Watson’s large bronze butterfly fishing net tow row 2016 welcomes visitors in the forecourt. Each evening at dusk, North American artist James Turrell’s Night Life 2018 transforms GOMA into a monumental light installation of hypnotic shifting hues, while by the river, the newly unveiled THE NEILSON FOUNDATION TRANSFORMING THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE This year marks a decade of support for QAGOMA from the Neilson Foundation, which has been instrumental in enhancing the Gallery’s Collection, exhibitions and programming, writes Caitlin Morgan. Since 2015, their generosity has enabled QAGOMA to present works of art in contexts of national and international importance, and significantly enriched Queensland’s cultural landscape. Opposite, from top Waanyi artist Judy Watson with tow row 2016 (Commissioned 2016 to mark the tenth anniversary of the opening of the Gallery of Modern Art. This project has been realised with generous support from the Queensland Government, the Neilson Foundation and Cathryn Mittelheuser AM through the QAGOMA Foundation), GOMA, December 2016 / Photograph: Mark Sherwood; and an installation view of ‘Air’ featuring Tomás Saraceno’s Drift: A cosmic web of thermodynamic rhythms 2022 (Purchased 2022 with funds from the Neilson Foundation through the QAGOMA Foundation), GOMA, April 2023 / Photograph: Joe Ruckli Above A view of the south and east faces of the Gallery of Modern Art, showing James Turrell’s Night Life 2018 (Commissioned 2017 to mark the 10th anniversary of the opening of the Gallery of Modern Art. This project has been realised with generous support from the Queensland Government; Paul, Sue and Kate Taylor; the Neilson Foundation; and the QAGOMA Foundation Appeal), GOMA, 2018 / Photograph: Florian Holzherr interactive play sculpture The BIG HOSE, a collaboration between Girramay/Yidinyji/Kuku Yalanji artist Tony Albert (Brisbane) and Nell (Sydney), brings joy to visitors of all ages. Beyond major public art commissions, the Neilson Foundation has also supported the acquisition of significant artworks including Gordon Bennett’s early triptych Bloodlines 1993, which featured in the exhibition ‘Unfinished Business: The Art of Gordon Bennett’ in 2020–21 and will be on display from late September for ‘Inscribing a Life’ in the Marica Sourris and James C. Sourris AM Galleries at GOMA. Visitors to ‘Air’ will remember the ethereal canopy of silver spheres by Berlin-based Argentinian artist Tomás Saraceno, titled Drift: A cosmic web of thermodynamic rhythms 2022, which gently oscillated overhead in the Long Gallery.
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