{"id":358155,"date":"2025-12-19T11:02:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T11:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/358155\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:02:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T11:02:18","slug":"national-gallery-of-australia-wins-219-million-funding-to-fix-roof-and-infrastructure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/358155\/","title":{"rendered":"National Gallery of Australia wins $219 million funding to fix roof and infrastructure"},"content":{"rendered":"

The National Gallery of Australia is set to finally retire its mop buckets following a historic $219 million investment from the Albanese government.<\/p>\n

The grant comes from the government\u2019s mid-year surplus and represents the largest single capital allocation since the gallery opened in 1982. It will allow the home of Jackson Pollock\u2019s Blue poles<\/a> to replace its roof, alongside windows and skylights, to make the building weatherproof.<\/p>\n

To be rolled out over five years, the investment brings the total budget for NGA upgrades to $320 million, combining the new announcement with $101 million already committed and budgeted for essential works that are to begin in January.<\/p>\n

\"In<\/p>\n

In 2023, gallery staff were forced to use towels and buckets to prevent water damage in the building.<\/p>\n

The NGA houses Australia\u2019s most valuable art collection, valued at $7.4 billion. Its archives contain 155,594 works, including the world\u2019s most significant collection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art.<\/p>\n

The building\u2019s deteriorating condition was brought to light by a series of reports<\/a> by this masthead in 2023, which spurred a broader $535 million federal pledge to upgrade the nation\u2019s cultural institutions.<\/p>\n

While the NGA appointed a builder in March for an initial $25.5 million waterproofing project, that phase only covered \u201chigh-priority\u201d areas. It left a significant backlog of failing infrastructure and ageing mechanical systems unaddressed.<\/p>\n

ACT independent senator David Pocock has repeatedly called on the federal government to fully fund the necessary repairs.<\/p>\n

The new funding allows the gallery to move beyond patchwork fixes. The NGA can now execute a comprehensive business case for an array of works including replacement of skylights, windows and roofing, and upgrades to lifts and escalators, air-conditioning and humidity controls and other mechanical and fire safety systems, director Nick Mitzevich said.<\/p>\n

Despite the massive scale of the works, Mitzevich confirmed the National Gallery will remain open to the public throughout the five-year renovation process with major restrictions to the footprint of its public displays beginning in 2027-28.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The National Gallery of Australia is set to finally retire its mop buckets following a historic $219 million…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-358155","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}