This year Australia's cultural institutions have responded with great resilience to the public access challenges posed by bushfires and COVID-19. Despite many setbacks, leading museums and galleries have presented exhibitions of significant international arts and culture, as both in-person and online offerings. This has allowed Australians to continue to enjoy diverse and enriching cultural experiences.
The Australian Government's Protection of Cultural Objects on Loan (PCOL) scheme supports major exhibitions. The scheme provides legal protections for objects on loan from overseas lenders for temporary public display in Australia. Lenders are reassured that the borrowing institutions approved under the scheme meet best-practice standards in the management of exhibitions and loans. Twelve Australian institutions are currently approved to offer PCOL protections, and regularly attract high-quality international loans.
Institutions can also apply to offset the high costs of insuring international exhibitions through the Australian Government International Exhibitions Insurance (AGIEI) program. The program makes available approximately $2.4 million each year.
In 2019-20 the PCOL scheme protected objects imported for thirteen exhibitions at six venues across Australia, attracting a total of close to 1.5 million visitors. The AGIEI program supported two of these exhibitions: Matisse & Picasso at the National Gallery of Australia and Keith Haring | Jean-Michel Basquiat: Crossing Lines at the National Gallery of Victoria.
In the past year, significant exhibitions with loans protected by PCOL included:
Keith Haring/Jean-Michel Basquiat: Crossing Lines at National Gallery of Victoria (NGV)
Keith Haring | Jean-Michel Basquiat: Crossing Lines was on show at the NGV from 1 December 2019 to 15 March 2020. The exhibition surveyed the careers of two of the most influential American contemporary artists of the late 20th century, Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat. It featured works from private collections and major international cultural institutions such as the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat, and the Keith Haring Foundation.
