Melbourne Art Foundation Announces the Inaugural Recipients of the Art Acquisition Support Fund
As a not-for-profit organisation, Melbourne Art Foundation is dedicated to the support of living artists and bringing together artists, galleries, collectors and visitors. Through its programs and initiatives, the Foundation works to build audiences for contemporary art and strengthen the market for Australian art locally and internationally.
In 2026, Melbourne Art Foundation delivered its most ambitious commissions and grants program to date at Melbourne Art Fair, introducing a number of new and expanded initiatives, including the Melbourne Art Foundation Art Acquisition Support Fund.
This new program is focused on facilitating the acquisition of work into institutional collections from participating galleries. Melbourne Art Foundation awarded AUD$5,000 to Artbank to further enhance their existing art acquisition program and AUD$15,000 to Tweed Regional Gallery Foundation. In addition to the funding support provided by MAF, both organisations made additional acquisitions at the Fair.
Ingrid Hedgcock, Director of Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley Art Centre said ”The Tweed Regional Gallery and our Foundation are thrilled to have been selected as the inaugural recipients of the Melbourne Art Foundation Art Acquisition Support Fund. It presents a significant opportunity to grow our community asset – the Tweed Regional Gallery collection in the vibrant and dynamic context of the Melbourne Art Fair. The Fund, with matched support from the Tweed Regional Gallery Foundation, has enabled the acquisition of Naabámi (thou shall/will see): Barangaroo (army of me), Miah I by Brenda L Croft from Niagara Galleries. This significant acquisition expands the Gallery’s collecting profile of Australian portraiture and places MAF firmly on the radar of regional collecting institutions. We are grateful for this opportunity to expand our conversations and connections via our collection and to work with MAF”.
In addition to the matched Support Fund the Tweed Regional Gallery Foundation was able to fund the purchase of additional works for the Tweed Regional Gallery collection by Tony Albert (Sullivan+Strumpf), Damien Shen (MARS Gallery), Rosemary Laing (Ames Yavuz) and Mikala Dwyer (Gertrude Contemporary). This is made possible by the Estate of Kenneth Fizzell and Eugene McGrath through the Tweed Regional Gallery Foundation Ltd.
Tweed Regional Gallery team pictured beside: Rosemary Laing (Ames Yavuz), flight research #6 2000, Chromogenic photograph, 90 x 159cm. Gift of the Estate of Kenneth Fizzell and Eugene McGrath through the Tweed Regional Gallery Foundation Ltd., 2026 Tweed Regional Gallery collection.
Zoe Rodriguez, Director of Artbank said “Artbank was thrilled to partner with Melbourne Art Foundation to purchase new artwork to join the Artbank collection. This generous donation by the Melbourne Art Foundation allowed Artbank to amplify our support of practising Australian artists and the Australian arts economy”. She continued, “We are pleased to announce the acquisition of Rounds, 2026, by Melbourne artist Aaron C. Carter from CAVES Gallery at Melbourne Art Fair 2026”
This work will join the Artbank collection and continue to be shared with the Australian public via the art leasing program.
The Artbank team alongside Storm Gold at CAVES’ Booth, Melbourne Art Fair 2026. Photo: Casper Plum.
In addition to Rounds and outside of the MAF Art Acquisition Support Fund, Artbank made a number of additional acquisitions to their collection, building on their ongoing support of Melbourne Art Fair and the contemporary arts sector. The acquisitions included works by Alex Walker (VOID_Melbourne), Gene A’Hern (Cassandra Bird), Madeleine Peters (Animal House Fine Arts), Mairan Tubbs (STATION), Mikala Dwyer (1301SW/STARKWHITE), Ruth O’Leary (Mary Cherry Contemporary) and Simon Zoric (LON Gallery).
Melbourne Art Fair is owned and produced by the Melbourne Art Foundation, a systemically significant non-profit Australian arts organisation that leads the way in building audiences and markets for the work of Australia’s living artists. Since 2003, the Foundation has distributed over AUD $1.5M in artist fees and grants and facilitated an estimated AUD $96.4M in contemporary art sales through the Fair. Melbourne Art Fair has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body, and Creative Victoria.
