ACT Government supports art blockbuster with $500,000

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The ACT Labor Government is providing $500,000 to support the National Gallery of Australia’s Renaissance exhibition which will boost Canberra’s tourism industry.

The new exhibition is the first to receive funding under the ACT Labor Government’s Special Event Fund, aimed at ensuring we can better take advantage of opportunities such as this exhibition to increase interstate and international visitor numbers to Canberra.

Announced today by Federal Minister for the Arts, Simon Crean, the Renaissance exhibition will feature 70 Renaissance masterpieces and is expected to attract up to 200,000 visitors.

The NGA expects this exclusive showing to attract about 75 per cent of its visitors from interstate and contribute more than $50 million to the ACT economy.

The exhibition will feature early and late Renaissance paintings by some of the most distinguished names in European art, such as Raphael, Botticelli, Titian and Bellini, and include many works never before been seen in Australia.

The Renaissance exhibition comes from the Accademia Carrara, Bergamo, Italy and will run from 9 December 2011 to 9 April 2012.

The Renaissance exhibition follows the highly successful partnership between the ACT Labor Government and the NGA that brought Masterpieces from Paris to Canberra in 2009.