CANBERRA.- Dr Ron Radford AM will retire as Director of the National Gallery of Australia on 30 September 2014, at the expiration of his third term in that office.

Ron Radford was appointed Director of the National Gallery of Australia in January 2005 for a term of five years. He was reappointed for a term of three years, expiring in January 2012, when he was reappointed until 30 September 2014. Now in his tenth year, Ron had planned this to be his last year at the Gallery.

Ron Radford has enjoyed a distinguished career as a curator and director of several leading Australian public art museums. During his tenure as Director of the National Gallery of Australia, the extension of the Gallery buildings to create the indigenous galleries and Gandel Hall was successfully undertaken, there has been a transformation of the Australian, South Asian and Southeast Asian collections and a reviving of the Pacific arts collection, and a programme for hiring and training indigenous curators has been established. He has also initiated many successful blockbuster and other exhibitions.

Ron is a gregarious and warm man, who is much admired and held in great affection by staff and benefactors of the National Gallery of Australia. He will be missed by the Council of the National Gallery of Australia, who wish to record their gratitude for his exceptional performance of his duties as Director and who also wish him a happy and fulfilling retirement.