Background Image

Australian Public Galleries Snapshot (June 2020)

Australia’s public galleries are an intrinsic part of our social fabric, engaging audiences with art, ideas and culture. – Australian Public Galleries Snapshot

 

Australian Public Galleries Snapshot is the first major Snapshot of Australia’s public gallery sector. It has been informed by the best available, nationally consistent information collected over a twelve-month period in 2017 and 2018.

Over 48% of 408 Australian public galleries are captured in this Snapshot.

 

Key finding from the research

  • Staff: Public galleries employ almost 900 full-time equivalent staff in Australia. 
  • Visitors: Annually, 16.5 million people visit public galleries and state, territory & national public gallery institutions. 
  • Volunteers: Volunteers play a vital role in the running of public galleries Overall, there are 6 times more volunteer staff than paid staff in Australia. More than 5,100 volunteers donate their time and expertise to small-to-medium public galleries. Quantified, the value of this volunteer labour is $15.9 million.
  • Investment: Local Government is the largest investor in public galleries (51% of the 197 public galleries captured in the Snapshot are owned or operated by Local Government) followed by commercial or self-generated income, State Government and philanthropic.  

 

Download the report

Australian Public Galleries Snapsho

 

About the research

The Australian Public Galleries Snapshot is a research initiative prepared by Museums & Galleries Queensland and Public Galleries Association of Victoria on behalf of the National Public Galleries Alliance. The Alliance is a network of Australian state and territory public gallery peak body and industry organisations working collaboratively to advance the sector.