National Gallery of Australia Research Library, Art research library in Canberra, Australia
The National Gallery of Australia Research Library is a specialist library in Canberra that holds art books, exhibition catalogs, periodicals, and archival materials focused on Australian and Indigenous art. The collection also includes over one million ephemera items, supported by reading rooms and specialist research staff.
The library was founded before the gallery itself opened, making it one of the earliest institutions of its kind in Australia. Its growth was shaped by key librarians, including Margaret Shaw, who led it from 1978 until her retirement in 2004.
The library focuses on Australian and Indigenous art, giving visitors direct access to materials about local artistic traditions. Through a partnership with Wikimedia, it works to make the contributions of women artists more visible in the public record.
The library is best suited for visitors who want to look into Australian art history in depth. It is worth checking in advance how to access specific collections and which materials may need to be requested ahead of time.
The collection holds the James Gleeson Oral History Collection, a UNESCO-recognized archive of 98 interviews with Australian artists and professionals recorded in the late 1970s. These recordings offer a direct window into the thoughts and experiences of artists from that period.
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