FED:Capon made gallery a treasured instutition

AAP General News (Australia)
08-03-2011
FED:Capon made gallery a treasured instutition

SYDNEY, Aug 3 AAP - Outgoing director Edmund Capon has been hailed for making the Art
Gallery of NSW one of Australia's most treasured institutions.

But the 70-year-old insists the cultural icon's future will be "more glorious that its past".

Announcing his retirement on Wednesday after 33 years at the helm, Mr Capon refused
to speculate on who would fill his shoes.

"The gallery has had a fairly illustrious past but I'm absolutely sure of one thing:
that it's future is much more glorious than its past," he told reporters at the Margaret
Olley 20th Century Gallery.

Mr Capon, who will retire at the end of the year, has been credited with making the
gallery more accessible and more popular.

When he was appointed to the position in 1978 by then-premier Neville Wran there were
around 300,000 admissions to the gallery each year.

This number has grown to 1.3 million by 2010/11.

Asked what his crowning achievement had been, Mr Capon replied: "It is still to come,
we are building up to a crescendo."

And with his usual mix of frankness and charm, he deflected questions about his successor.

"The trustees will handle that, it has nothing to do with me," Mr Capon said.

"In business they always worry about succession, in the arts we don't give a toss."

The president of the board of trustees at the gallery, Mr Steven Lowy, credited Mr
Capon with a "relentless pursuit of quality" and said he had made the gallery a treasured
institution.

"He has made the life of the gallery something that the community feels part of," Mr Lowy said.

"Quite simply, the Art Gallery of NSW is one of the most treasured institutions in
Australia... and Edmund deserves most of the credit for that."

Mr Lowy said that his time as director included a "laundry list of achievements that
could never possibly be described".

NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell was also at the gallery to pay tribute to Mr Capon, saying
he had established the gallery as a player in the international scene.

"Edmund is as iconic as the gallery he has directed - and as wonderfully irreverent
as so many of the artists he has championed," Mr O'Farrell said.

"During his tenure he's served nine premiers and transformed the gallery from a dusty,
tired old building that no one wanted to visit into this highly appealing, iconic place
where people want to be, want to donate to and want to be associated.

"On behalf of the people of NSW, I thank you for it."

An international search is now underway for Mr Capon's replacement.

AAP lcf/ra/tr/it

KEYWORD: CAPON 2ND UPDATE (PIX AVAILABLE)

� 2011 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.