State Collection
The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery is a combined museum, art gallery and state herbarium.
TMAG has the broadest collection mandate of any single institution in Australia. It promotes interaction with, and understanding of, the cultural and natural world for present and future generations.
It achieves this by collecting and conserving material evidence of Tasmania's cultural heritage and biodiversity. The focus of collecting is on historical, scientific and artistic items. TMAG's goal is to acquire works and objects to enhance the State collection.
The acquisition of items is guided by Collection Policies. These policies have been established by the Trustees of TMAG for every area of the institution.
In order to acquire items TMAG receives financial support from groups in the community, particularly the Friends of TMAG and the Art Foundation of Tasmania. Initially the Tasmanian Government matched the fund raising efforts of the Art Foundation on a dollar for dollar basis. More recently it has been on a one for two basis.
A condition of the Tasmanian Government's contribution to the Art Foundation is that 50 per-cent of its grant must be spent on contemporary Tasmanian visual arts and crafts.
Since 1978 TMAG has acquired major works of art under the auspices of the Commonwealth Government's Cultural Gifts Program. The taxation incentives offered by this initiative continue to play a significant role in benefaction.
ONLINE ACCESS TO THE STATE COLLECTION
The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery is in the process of
developing world-class access to our collection information. The TMAG has one of
the most diverse collections in Australia, and with this diversity, challenges
for digitisation are presented. The TMAG is committed to providing access to
this information, and whilst our on-line service is unavailable, requests for
assistance can be directed to
TMAGmail@tmag.tas.gov.au.