Membership impact

Your membership has incredible reach

Members are the backbone of the National Gallery’s vibrant and creative community, which extends right across Australia.

As a member, your support helps us achieve our vision of inspiring all Australians through closer engagement with art and by ensuring the national collection is accessible to everyone.

In 2023, we welcomed more than half a million visitors to the Gallery, with over 2 million people accessing a rich diversity of content digitally. The support of our national community of members helped make this possible.

Your support allows us to care for and conserve the national collection, which comprises more than 155,000 objects by 15,000-plus artists, and includes the world’s largest collection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art.

Members also play an integral role in expanding the national collection, with nine important acquisitions made possible over the past 15 years thanks to the generosity of members through the Members Acquisition Fund.

These include significant works by major Australian artists Arthur Streeton (1867-1943), Hilda Rix Nicholas (1884-1961), Jeffrey Smart (1921-2013) and Margaret Olley (1923-2011), along with a delightful work on paper by Henri de Tolouse-Lautrec (1864-1901), the doyen of Parisian nightlife in the late 19th century.

Most recently, the Members Acquisition Fund helped with the purchase of the nine-panel photographic work Landstory 2018 by contemporary Australian artist Danie Mellor (born 1971).

Members also help us to foster curiosity and creativity in young people. In 2023, over 55,000 schoolchildren from every state and territory visited the National Gallery onsite or through a digital program to engage with art in inclusive and accessible learning contexts that connect to the Australian Curriculum.