Gerard Vaughan announced as new Director of the National Gallery of Australia

Professor Gerard Vaughan AMMinister for the Arts, Senator The Hon George Brandis QC has announced that following an international search, Professor Gerard Vaughan AM has been appointed as the new Director of the National Gallery of Australia.

Professor Vaughan is a recognised international scholar and has had a distinguished career in the museum and galleries sector, and an outstanding record of leadership, stakeholder engagement, fundraising and cultural diplomacy.

Professor Vaughan has extensive knowledge of the arts sector gained in his thirteen years as Director of the National Gallery of Victoria, as Director of the British Museum Development Trust and in roles at Oxford University and with the Felton Bequest.

Currently, he is a Professorial Fellow at the Australian Institute of Art History at the University of Melbourne, on the Board of the University of Melbourne Humanities Foundation and has previously served as a member of the Council of Australian Art Museum Directors.

Professor Vaughan was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2011 for services to the arts and was awarded the Légion d’honneur in 2013.

“I welcome Professor Vaughan’s vision and enthusiasm for the Gallery, which includes further strengthening the Gallery’s role as a leader in scholarship and research, forging stronger diplomatic ties in the South East Asia and Pacific region, and increasing access to the nation’s major art collection,” said Senator Brandis.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank former director Dr Ron Radford AM who retired on 30 September. Dr Radford has been a great and illustrious contributor to the artistic life of this nation, and on behalf of the government and the people of Australia I would like to acknowledge and thank him.”

Dr Radford leaves an impressive legacy for the National Gallery including a significant extension of the Gallery’s building and a substantial expansion of the national art collection to include major acquisitions such as Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri’s major painting Warlugulong 1977, Frederick McCubbin’s Violet and Gold, and the largest and most important Australian surrealist collection ever assembled comprising 285 works. His program of international blockbuster exhibitions including Masterpieces from Paris will be remembered by hundreds of thousands of visitors from across the country.

Professor Vaughan has been appointed for a period of three years and will take up his new role on 10 November 2014. For more information, visit: www.nga.gov.au for details.

Image: Professor Gerard Vaughan AM