Flinders University art museum becomes one of Australia's largest uni collections via study acquisitions from 1966

English prints (work shown by David Lucas), Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, post-object and documentation, and Australian political posters are the four main areas of Flinders University Museum of Art.
Images courtesy Flinders University Museum of Art

Flinders University Museum of Art grew to more than 8,000 works – one of Australia’s largest university art collections.

Preserving and developing Flinders University’s historical and contemporary art collections, the art museum was formally established in 1978 by the university council to house growing acquisitions made by its fine arts department from the first year of undergraduate teaching in 1966.

First opened in 1997 in Grote Street, Adelaide, before moving to the state library of South Australia on North Terrace, Adelaide, in 2003, the university’s city gallery was a major contributor to the South Australia’s art scene until it closed in 2018. The next year, a dedicated gallery with the art museum was started at the university’s Bedford Park campus, presented diverse and inclusive projects.

The collection covered four main areas: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, European prints, post-object and documentation, and Australian political posters. Smaller collections comprise colonial and 20th century Australian art; indigenous works from Papua New Guinea, North America and Africa; and Japanese Ukiyo-e woodblock prints.

The European print collection was started in 1966 by fine art senior lecturer Robert Smith, initially for study. Among its 15th and 20th centuries prints were a page from the Nuremberg Chronicle 1493. The collection illustrated European art from the Renaissance to modernism, with artists including Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt van Rijn, William Hogarth, Francisco de Goya, Honoré Daumier, Käthe Kollwitz, John Constable, J.M.W. Turner, Marc Chagall and Pablo Picasso.

The museum’s holdings were strengthened by support from many individuals. Long-standing patrons emeritus professor J.V.S. Megaw and Dr M. Ruth Megaw were instrumental in helping to build collections, particularly in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art. Significant donations also were received from collectors including Stephanie and Julian Grose, Marion Elizabeth Wharmby, Margaret S Bain, Rodney Gooch, Christopher Hodges and Helen Eager, Edward Booth and Felicity Wright. Artists were made noteworthy gifts included Lidia Groblicka, Tim Burns, Danie Mellor, Brenda Croft, Felix Hess, Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula, Domenico de Clario, Mandy Martin, Bruce Petty, Imants Tillers and Jacqueline Hick.