Major donations fuel expansions for museums in Melbourne and Tampa

The National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne has received a $74 million donation from Lindsay and Paula Fox to fund a new contemporary art building. This is the largest gift from a living donor to an Australian cultural institution. The 4,000-square-meter structure, designed by Angelo Candelapas and Associates, will include a 12-meter-high circular hall and is expected to open in 2028. It will be named The Fox: NGV Contemporary and will become Australia's largest contemporary art museum. The donation supplements $1.7 billion from the Victorian state government for the Southbank arts precinct and $20 million from the Ian Potter Foundation in 2020. Meanwhile, the Tampa Museum of Art in Florida received $25 million from Dick Corbett, head of Concorde Companies, for its Centennial Capital Campaign for Renovation and Expansion. The museum, which celebrated its centennial in 2020, called it the largest private gift to a public museum in the state. The expansion will nearly double the museum's size from 6,500 to over 11,000 square meters, with exhibition space tripled, and is set for completion in 2024.