Established at the foundation of UTS in 1988, the UTS Art Collection contains over 850 works of art in a diverse range of media including prints and drawings, paintings, site-specific installations and sculptures, and a growing collection of digital and new-media works.
About the Collection
UTS values and nurtures artistic expression and aims to foster an understanding of society and culture through the acquisition, care and interpretation of contemporary art.
View highlights from the UTS Art Collection
History
The UTS Art Collection’s foundations were laid through the Colleges and Institutes that merged to create UTS in 1988, including the NSW Institute of Technology (NSWIT), the Design School of Sydney College of the Arts, and The Institute of Technical and Adult Teacher Education (ITATE). In 1990, UTS expanded again with the amalgamation of the Ku-ring-gai College of Advanced Education, located at Lindfield. Each of these colleges had their own art collections, which formed the foundation of the current UTS Art Collection.
As the UTS campus has evolved, the UTS Art Collection has grown with it, playing an important role in creating dynamic, interconnected and thought-provoking environments for learning and research. When the first University Curator was appointed at UTS in 1993, the Collection held approximately 300 artworks, primarily paintings and works on paper. Since that time, under the direction of Curators Susan Peacock (1993 - 1996), Tony Geddes (1997 - 1999), Felicity Sheehan (2000 - 2004), Tania Creighton (2005 - 2020), and Stella Rosa McDonald (2020 - ) the Collection has grown to include over 850 artworks by more than 500 artists.
Art on Campus
Artworks from the collection are on display in every building of the University to provide a university experience that is intellectually vibrant, forward-thinking and socially engaging. Artworks from the UTS Art Collection are regularly curated into exhibitions and thematic displays on and off campus, and for special projects such as the Broadway Screen in UTS Central. A selection of artworks on permanent display and on the Broadway Screen can be explored via the Art On Campus website.
Collection Development
Development and care of the UTS Art Collection is guided by the UTS Art Collection Policy. Works of art are purchased, donated, or commissioned with the aim to extend or enhance the existing collection, across four key areas:
- 20th and 21st century Australian art;
- contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art;
- contemporary Australian artists’ responses to and engagement with technology and society, and
- artworks by artists represented in the UTS Gallery exhibition program or by artists associated with UTS through teaching or research.
Donations
The benevolence of donors has ensured the UTS Art Collection’s continued growth and significance. Individual and corporate donations have supported the acquisition of large-scale sculptures and other significant works for their continued enjoyment by the community.
Donations of art to the University of Technology Sydney are subject to the same considerations as purchased or commissioned works, and must meet the collection’s acquisition criteria and be approved by the Curator before proceeding. Acceptance of gifted artworks into the UTS Art Collection is based on quality, significance, and relevance to the collection as well as practical concerns such as on-going conservation needs.
The UTS Gallery & Art Collection is registered as a recipient for the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program.
Banner image: Still from Rarranhdharr - Late Dry Season, 2019, Patrina Munungurr and Ishmael Marika (The Mulka Project), UTS Art Collection, commissioned 2019
Recent Acquisitions
Kent Morris
Barkindji Blue Sky - Ancestral Connections, 2021
HD Video
14 minutes 45 seconds
UTS Art Collection, commissioned 2021
Accession number: 2021.002
© Kent Morris. Photo Jacquie Manning
The work of Barkindji artist Kent Morris reveals the continuing presence and patterns of Aboriginal history, culture and knowledge in the contemporary Australian landscape, despite ongoing colonial interventions in the physical and political environments. This video commission by Kent Morris refers to the Barkindji Ancestral constellation story of the two kiinki’ngulu sisters, who appear as two white cockatoos (Corellas) in the sky, representing the clouds of Magellan. This story connects Barkindji people to ancestors and the cosmos in a cultural continuum of shared knowledge that reinforces spiritual cohesion and connection. Barkindji Blue Sky - Ancestral Connections can be viewed on the UTS Broadway Screen. In 2022, two additional photographic works from the original Barkindji Blue Sky - Ancestral Connections series were acquired for the Collection and are currently displayed in the UTS Chancellery.
Hannah Brontë
POWA WAVE, 2022
HD Video with sound
5 minutes 49 seconds
UTS Art Collection, commissioned 2022
Accession number: 2022.003
© Hannah Brontë. Photo Jacquie Manning
Hannah Brontë is the sixth artist to be commissioned for the UTS Broadway screen, a program of site-specific digital art commissions by leading Australian artists located in UTS Central (Building 2).
There are now 2.7 million surfers nationally and yet being a Queer surfer is still considered dangerous and taboo. Being a woman in the surf, let alone a Queer woman, takes a sport so freeing and transcendent and makes it a radical act of defiance. POWA WAVE is a Queer romance that follows two lovers in the waves. They joyfully and powerfully walk on water, connected to each other and the ocean. Water supports them completely, letting them be weightless and held in their love and wild Queer joy. The lovers wear sweet suits, costumes that adorn Queer bodies to make the world gentler. The sweet suits are love letters to the camp history of wearable art and are decorated with the incantation ‘me and my love are safe in the waves’. POWA WAVE is the freedom to repaint the world with the beauty and complexity of people in love. You are close enough to smell the salt. - Hannah Brontë
