Tuesday, February 28, 2012

NEWS: Ellwood returns to NGV

Tony Ellwood, who left his post as a deputy director at NGV to take up the directorship of both the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art in 2007, will leave the sunshine state to return for the top gig at NGV.

Despite having said he wouldn't be leaving twin-state galleries QAG and GOMA, it'll be confirmed by Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu tomorrow morning. In his time Ellwood had raised the galleries to be nations most popular.

When comparing the figures, the NGV received almost a million less visitors, 800,000 to be exact, then its northern contemporaries, making it something of a 'renovators dream' for Ellwood. The NGV has also lost some favour with the public for not keeping up with contemporary art, and this was most noticable last year when the NGV did not renew Contemporary art curator Alex Bakers contract who was billed as "a breath of fresh air" for the gallery.