The President of the National Gallery of Victoria’s Council of Trustees, Mr Allan Myers, today announced the reappointment of Dr Gerard Vaughan as Director for a further five year period from July 2009.
Dr Vaughan was originally appointed Director of the National Gallery of Victoria in 1999.
Allan Myers said he was delighted with the reappointment and thanked Dr Vaughan for his ten years of outstanding service to the Gallery.
“It is with great pleasure I announce that Dr Vaughan has agreed to serve as Director of the NGV for another term. Dr Vaughan has made an immense contribution to the life of the NGV and I look forward to working with him during another term as Director.”
Since becoming Director and CEO, Dr Vaughan has been responsible for the NGV’s redevelopment program involving two separate building complexes; The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia at Federation Square, and NGV International in St Kilda Road.
Following the re-launch, the NGV, under Dr Vaughan’s leadership, has undertaken an ambitious exhibitions schedule, including the highly successful Melbourne Winter Masterpieces series. He has also been responsible for launching a major endowment campaign, Masterpieces for Melbourne.
“Under Dr Vaughan’s highly respected leadership the Gallery has gone from strength to strength. His contribution to fundraising has been considerable; the corpus of the NGV endowment has more than tripled, a significant part of the redevelopment cost of NGV International was raised from non-State Government sources, and the collections have benefitted from the gift and purchase of many exceptional masterpieces. The NGV will celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2011 and the Council of Trustees believe Dr Vaughan is the best person to lead this important cultural institution into a challenging and exciting new era,” said Mr Myers.
Prior to joining the NGV, Dr Vaughan was Director of the British Museum Development Trust for five years. From 1989-1991, he served as Private Secretary to the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University, later becoming Deputy Director of Campaign for Oxford University.
For fifteen years from 1983 he was the London-based adviser to the NGV’s Felton Bequests’ Committee.
Dr Vaughan completed a Master’s thesis at Melbourne University on the French post-impressionist painter Maurice Denis. He then taught art history at Melbourne and Monash Universities before undertaking doctoral research at Oxford University in 1981 on aspects of neoclassical taste.
Among his many distinctions, Dr Vaughan is a former Chairman of the Council of Australian Art Museum Directors, an Honorary Professor of the University of Melbourne, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
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