SYDNEY.- The first intake of postgraduate fine art students are reaping the benefits of the $8.7milllion redevelopment of the National Art School’s state-of-the-art Postgraduate Centre in Sydney’s Darlinghurst.

The National Art School’s Postgraduate Centre was funded by the New South Wales State Government through Arts NSW and the Department of Education and Communities, including $200,000 from the Ian Potter Foundation.

The new Postgraduate Centre will be officially celebrated at an evening reception at the National Art School on Thursday 6 August 2015.

NSW Minister for the Arts, Troy Grant commented on the significance of the new Postgraduate facility: “The new facility will allow the National Art School to continue its contribution to growing NSW and Australia’s arts community. Many of Australia’s most acclaimed artists have studied and taught at the National Art School, from Rayner Hoff, who designed and made the sculptures for the ANZAC Memorial in Hyde Park in the 1930s, to Fiona Hall, Australia’s representative artist at this year’s Venice Biennale.”

NSW Minister for Education, Adrian Piccoli also commented: “The new Postgraduate Centre, made possible by NSW Government funding, includes new studios, new workshops and a collection and archive facility. This further consolidates the National Art School’s position as a world leader in studio based teaching.”

The completed refurbished Postgraduate Centre also boasts a rich artistic heritage, having been the site where many of Australia’s foremost artists began their practice over the past 93 years.

The Postgraduate Centre provides expanded facilities for more than 80 Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) and Master of Fine Art Students and the School community at large, with 50 new studios, exhibition spaces, new sculpture workshops, seminar rooms and office spaces.

A key feature of the Postgraduate Centre is a new and improved facility for the Archive and Collections Centre funded by the Ian Potter Foundation and managed by National Art School Historian and Archivist Deborah Beck. The Centre is home to the National Art School’s significant art collection and archive of over 4000 items dating back to 1760, which includes works of art on paper, paintings, prints, sculptures, archival material as well as artefacts relating to history of the site as a gaol.