Patrons

Pat Corrigan AM:

Pat Corrigan is a successful businessman in the freight forwarding industry with a passion for contemporary art. He is an avid art collector, and was a patron for twelve years of the NAVA Visual and Craft Artists' Grant Scheme, which subsidised artists' exhibition costs. Matching funding for this scheme was provided by the Visual Arts/Craft Board of the Australia Council and continues to the present with generous donations by Mrs Janet Holmes  à Court.

In addition to being a patron of NAVA for over a decade, Pat Corrigan has worked tirelessly as an advocate for contemporary art through his contribution as Chairman of both the Gold Coast City Art Gallery and its Foundation, and as a Partner with the New England Regional Art Gallery The James Hardie Library of Australian Fine Arts, owned by the State Library of Queensland, has also benefited from Pat’s dedication to the arts and his regular donations to the collection since 1988 have enabled the preservation of culturally significant records.

In 1995, Pat also donated his highly prized collection of Australian book plates to the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Pat’s invaluable contribution to Australian culture was formally acknowledged in 2000, in his being made a Member in the Order of Australia "for service to the visual arts, particularly as a philanthropist to regional galleries and through a grant scheme for artists".

Janet Holmes à Court AC:

Janet Holmes à Court is a businesswoman and arts philanthropist. She is Chairman of the John Holland Group, one of Australia's leading construction and engineering companies and Chair of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, the Australian Children’s Television Foundation and the Australian Urban Design Research Centre (AUDRC).  She is a Board Director of Vision 2020 Australia, Board Member of the Rio Tinto WA Future Fund, the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM), the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO), the Australian Major Performing Arts Group (AMPAG) and Chamber of Arts and Culture WA. She is a science graduate from the University of Western Australia and taught science for a number of years before working more closely with family business matters.

Mrs Holmes à Court  has won numerous awards recognising her contribution to the community and to business, including a Companion of the Order of Australia. In 2011, she was awarded the Australian Achievement in Architecture National President’s Prize for her contribution to the Australian presence at the Venice Architecture Biennale of 2010 and i n 2008, was awarded the 2008 United Way Philanthropist of the Year Award in recognition of her support to the arts, conservation, peace and local community groups. In 2007, she was awarded a Companion of the Order of Australia in recognition of her service to business, particularly as a leader in the construction, wine and cattle industries, to the advancement of Western Australia's musical and theatre culture, to the visual arts, and to the community. In January 2001, she was awarded a Centenary Medal of the Order of Australia for her service to the arts as Chair of the WA Symphony Orchestra and Black Swan Theatre Company. In the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 1995 she was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for services to Business, the Arts and the Community.

Professor David Throsby:

Professor David Throsby was the foundation chair of NAVA, a position which he held for 15 years. He has been a patron of NAVA since 1998. Professor Throsby is internationally known for his work in the economics of the arts and culture. His book The Economics of the Performing Arts, co-authored with Glenn Withers, first published in 1979 and reissued in 1993, has become a standard reference work in the field.

In addition to the performing arts, his research and writing has covered the economic role of artists, the economics of public intervention in arts markets, cultural development, cultural policy, heritage issues, and sustainability of cultural processes. He has also written extensively on the theory of public goods and the economics of higher education. His most recent book, Economics and Culture, was published in 2001 by Cambridge University Press. David Throsby has been Professor of Economics at Macquarie University in Sydney since 1974. He has been a consultant to the World Bank, the OECD, FAO and UNESCO as well as many government organisations and private firms. In 1990-1992 he chaired three of the Prime Minister’s Working Groups on Ecologically Sustainable Development.

Until recently David Throsby was chair of the NSW Government’s Arts Advisory Council and has held numerous other positions on Boards and Committees, including President of the NSW Branches of the Australian Agricultural Economics Society and the Economic Society of Australia, President of the Association for Cultural Economics International.

He has served on the Boards of the Australian Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Copyright Agency Limited and Viscopy. He is also currently a member of the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Cultural Economics, the International Journal of Cultural Policy and the Pacific Economic Bulletin.

David Throsby has wide interests in the performing and visual arts. He wrote a regular column on classical music in the Sydney Morning Herald in the early 1980s, and a monthly column in Art Monthly Australia. He has written several plays, one of which (The Number-Rooster) was produced at the Royal Court theatre, London, in 1975. He is currently working on a play about Berlioz.