The Art Keepers

The Art Keepers challenges stereotypes about who art is for, and questions its place within Australian culture. Art has the power to bring people and whole communities together through shared experience, questioning the world we live in and what it means to be human. We explore this by featuring relatable characters who have grown to love art purely by being regularly exposed to it in their workplace – such as security guards and tradespeople who often come from outer suburban, regional, working class and migrant backgrounds. We aim to investigate – are our public art galleries truly accessible to everyone?

The Art Keepers is thought provoking and habit changing – opening up previously excluded audiences to engage with the arts through relatable characters and without the formal art jargon. This is not a traditional arts documentary, but a series of character-driven stories where art is the vehicle to tackle a broader cultural issue in Australia – accessibility to the arts – by sharing what our major pubic art galleries can offer to everyone.

The Art Keepers aims to make art and major art galleries more accessible and relatable for all Australians. For arts-engaged audiences, the series offers a fresh perspective – shifting away from the usual lens of artists, curators and historians – we instead feature the overlooked voices of those who protect and care for art every day. For audiences who don’t typically engage with the arts, we’ll create connection and representation through engaging relatable characters (tradespeople, security guards and gardeners) whose stories reflect everyday Australian life.

At a wider organisational level – we hope that this series will foster dialogue between different parts of Australian culture. By partnering with three of the largest public art galleries in Australia, we aim to inspire to engagement with both new and existing audiences through a different creative approach. Ultimately, we want to celebrate the power of art for understanding and empathy.

Our key access to these communities is via our three participating major art galleries, the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of NSW and Heide Museum of Modern Art – which are central to our audience distribution strategy. Each will support the release of The Art Keepers through their Instagram and YouTube channels, newsletters and websites – ensuring the series reaches their extensive, arts engaged communities. We’ll also approach media partners for editorial coverage and interviews, strengthening our connection to the creative sector and broader Australian audiences.

Our call to action is to encourage engagement with the arts across a broad spectrum of Australian culture. Public art institutions, which are mainly funded through taxpayers via federal and state governments, are meant to be in the service of the whole population – so they do have the responsibility to connect to as wide a demographic as possible.

Research from A New Approach (Australia’s national arts and culture think tank) found that arts and culture when used in both clinical and wellbeing settings, delivers positive health and wellbeing impacts. The relationship between engagement with arts and culture, and benefits to health is indirect but strong – as evidenced by various credible international and national research sources.

With The Art Keepers. we aim to show how everyday Australians can engage in the arts in a deep and meaningful way, and how accessible the art truly can be.