NGA Art Talks

In the late 1970s, before the National Gallery of Australia opened its doors, the surrealist artist and writer James Gleeson set out across Australia with a microphone and a mission: to build an oral history archive that captured the stories behind key works of art in the national collection, told by the artists themselves.

This month, the National Gallery launches NGA Art Talks: The Gleeson Tapes, a podcast series revisiting key conversations from the James Gleeson Oral History Collection.

In this episode Gleeson visits Grace Crowley, one of the leading figures in modern art in Australia. We meet Crowley in her late 80s, and as the tape starts rolling, she takes us from her childhood memories in regional Australia, to France, where she received on-the-ground training in modern European art. Crowley also shares an endearing portrait of her relationships with the artists Anne Dangar, with whom she made the leap from Sydney to Paris in 1926, and Ralph Balson, who was her close collaborator until his death in 1964.

Just seven months after Gleeson’s visit, Crowley passed away at the age of 88, making this recording a poignant and final testimony from one of Australia’s greatest modernists.

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In the late 1970s, before the National Gallery of Australia opened its doors, the surrealist artist and writer James Gleeson set out across Australia with a microphone and a mission: to build an oral history archive that captured the stories behind key works of art in the national collection, told by the artists themselves.

This month, the National Gallery launches NGA Art Talks: The Gleeson Tapes, a podcast series revisiting key conversations from the James Gleeson Oral History Collection.

To reintroduce listeners to Gleeson and his work, Professor Lisa Slade, Hugh Ramsay Chair in Australian Art History at the University of Melbourne and guest presenter of The Gleeson Tapes, speaks with Dr. Jeremy Eaton, an artist, writer and curator based in Naarm/Melbourne who has spent years studying the life and work of James Gleeson.

Subscribe via your favourite podcast app or listen online.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join Quincy Houghton, Deputy Director for Exhibitions and International Initiatives at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, as we revisit this year’s Betty Churcher AO Memorial Oration, recorded live at the National Gallery for International Women’s Day in March 2026.

Since 2022 this major annual event has honoured the legacy of Betty Churcher AO (1931–2015), a trailblazing Australian arts administrator and the first and only woman to lead the National Gallery.

In this talk Houghton draws on her three decades of experience shaping exhibitions at two of the world’s greatest museums – the J. Paul Getty Museum and The Met – while reflecting on her own personal journey and the evolving role of art galleries around the world at large.
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In this episode of NGA Art Talks, hear highlights from the opening weekend of the 5th National Indigenous Art Triennial: After the Rain. Recorded outdoors in front of a live audience, Kamilaroi man and award-winning television and podcast host Matty Mills leads two panels exploring themes of Family and Legacy.

These conversations featured Vincent Namatjira, Western Aranda people; Vanessa Inkamala, Western Aranda people, and Carita Coulthard, Luritja/Pitjantjara/Western Aranda peoples, from Iltja Ntjarra Art Centre; Thea Anamara Perkins, Arrernte/Kalkadoon peoples; Alair Pambegan, Wik-Mungkan people; Naminapu Maymuru-White and Bithar Maymuru, Maŋgalili people; and After the Rain curator Tony Albert, Girramay/Yidinji/Kuku-Yalanji peoples.

The 5th National Indigenous Art Triennial: After the Rain is on display at the National Gallery until 27 April 2026.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of NGA Art Talks, hear highlights from the opening weekend of the 5th National Indigenous Art Triennial: After the Rain. Recorded outdoors in front of a live audience, Kamilaroi man and award-winning television and podcast host Matty Mills leads two panels exploring themes of Cleansing and Transformation.

These conversations featured Jimmy John Thaiday, Kuz/Peiudu peoples; Erin McDonald, Mandandanji people, and Troy Casey, Kamilaroi people, from Blaklash; Dylan Mooney, Yuwi people, Zenadth Kes/Torres Strait and South Sea Islander; Aretha Brown, Gumbaynggirr people; and Warraba Weatherall, Kamilaroi people.

The 5th National Indigenous Art Triennial: After the Rain is on display at the National Gallery until 27 April 2026.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.