It is too easy to accept that institutions, once established. have always been there!
On 12 October 1982 the nation's new cultural flagship on the shores of Lake, Burley Griffin, Canberra, opened to the public.
The collection seemed to have been born in full form.
In the short period between the late 1960s, when the National Gallery project received the go-ahead from government, and its opening in 1982 the national collection of art took shape. Twenty years on, this book of essays tells how the various collections which make up the national collection came into being and the ways in which these collections continue to evolve.
Time enough to be able to tap first-hand accounts and to source yaluable documentation before it disappears into archival oblivion.
Authors include the Gallery's three directors and another three, young men when the Gallery opened, who are now gallery directors themselves; others, close to the circumstances of the beginnings of the collections, provide insightful commentary.
The stories included in Building the Collection are as varied and full of interest as the collections themselves.