Australia’s National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) in Melbourne has received a A$100m ($74m) donation to construct a new building that is expected to become the largest contemporary art museum in Australia.
The museum will be called The Fox: NGV Contemporary after the trucking magnate Lindsay Fox who, along with his wife Paula Fox (a member of the NGV Foundation's board), made the donation, the largest gift ever made to an Australian museum by a private living donor.
The 30,000 sq. m museum on the Melbourne southbank will be designed by the Sydney-based architecture firm Angelo Candalepas and include around 13,000 sq. m of exhibition space, as well as a rooftop terrace, conservation labs and an education centre. It is slated to open in 2028.
The donation is supplemented in part by a A$1.7bn ($1.3bn) grant made in 2020 by the government of the state of Victoria that aims to bolster the arts precinct in Melbourne.
Tony Ellwood, the director of the NGV, says the “awe-inspiring” gift is “a testament to [the Foxes'] strong sense of civic pride and their belief in the accessibility of the arts to all members of our community”.
Lindsay and Paula Fox are longtime supporters. The gift is the “culmination of many years of passionate support for the NGV, its acquisitions and its wider programme”, Paula said in a statement. “We hope our donation will inspire others in supporting this programme to make this an icon for the future.”
