RECONCILIATION WEEK 2022- BE BRAVE, MAKE CHANGE

This year, Reconciliation Week theme is Be Brave. Make Change.

As a leading Australian contemporary art gallery, we strive to evolve, to initiate positive industry change, and contribute to the awareness and appreciation of our country’s First Nations art and culture.

It is our belief that the Indigenous art market is an important and central vehicle to meaningful reconciliation.Indeed, it is perhaps the best vehicle to teach non-Indigenous Australia and the world about the significance of our unique heritage.

These are three changes we have made recently to our business as we strive to achieve our aims:

Sharing Success

In 2021, D’Lan Contemporary, launched The National Endowment for Indigenous Visual Arts (NEIVA) an independent trust fund designed to centralise and distribute proceeds from art sales back to Australian Indigenous artists and their working communities.

Earlier this year we announced our commitment to direct 30% of net profits to the National Endowment of Indigenous Visual Arts (NEIVA).

This financial year, we expect to contribute over $100K to this independent fund, which will be distributed in line with NEIVA’s strategy and on the recommendation of NEIVA’s independent Indigenous advisory board.

Our aim is to demonstrate that shared success need not compromise sustainability, and our hope is that NEIVA will be embraced by the broader art market.

Recently, Leonard Joel, following their adoption of ethical provenance standards across all Indigenous Art sales, agreed to allocate 2.5% of the hammer price from the auction of The Kelton Collection of Indigenous Art to NEIVA. They are the first auction house to contribute to the Fund.

We urge all our industry colleagues – galleries, dealers, and arts organisations – to join with us in our ongoing commitment to initiate long-lasting change in this important segment of the arts industry, and indeed, our culture.

Estate Management + Representation:

A future focus of business will be engaging with Art Centres, Artist Estates and beneficiaries with a view to enhancing the commercial and critical success of artists through market representation.

We believe there is significant scope to actively advocate on behalf of First Nation Artist Estates and will seek to expand our vision for shared success in this important segment of the art market.

Expanded D’C Team:

In order to successfully implement our ambitious growth plan, we recognise the importance of having the right people on board; people who share and can be part of our vision. We have developed a First Nations employment strategy and liaise with community partners such as Ganbina to promote new opportunities.

Earlier this year Chloe Jones, a Yorta Yorta woman, joined our business as Gallery Assistant. Chloe’s focus will be to engage with  our clients here and overseas and to enhance their gallery experience.

Diane de Mascarel also recently joined us in the role of Gallery Manager & Registrar. Diane brings a wealth of industry experience to the role and her focus will be to oversee the smooth running of the gallery, all exhibitions and partnerships, here and overseas.

We look forward to continuing to initiate and implement further positive change, with the hope that initiatives like NEIVA will become the permanent and workable industry standard which help drives sustainable growth across all facets.