Mona - Museum of Old and New Art

The fabulous, new MONA, Museum of Old and New Art, is just across the river from Cleburne - five minutes drive away. MONA is Tasmania's new, world-class exciting cultural development.

Serious and world-class, MONA has been created by David Walsh, Hobart businessman, gambler, art collector and philanthropist, to display his collection of modern art.

MONA, designed by architect Nondo Katsalidis - www.fkaustralia.com, displays the work of international artists including Damien Hirsch, Fiona Hall, Wassily Kandinsky, Fernando Botero, Su-En Wong, Paul McCarthy and Susan Rothenberg, and Australian artists Sydney Nolan, Brett Whitely, Russell Drysdale and Peter Booth. Entry is free!

MONA is an extraordinary phenomenon, architecturally and artistically in the same league as the Guggenheim in Bilboa, Spain. It is an expression of David Walsh’s personal philosophy and aesthetics. State galleries must meet certain criteria and commercial galleries sell art but MONA, free of both constraints, displays art that you are unlikely to see elsewhere: art confronts, provokes, mystifies and excites. In David Walsh’s own words the theme of his collection is “Sex and death”.

MONA FOMA – the Festival of Music Art – is staged annually in Hobart at various sites including Moorilla during January. Curated by Brian Ritchie, of the Violent Femmes and funded by David Walsh, it presents musicians acclaimed for their musical radicalism. Many of the events are free.
www.mofo.net.au

Links

Fender Katsalidis Architects
www.fkaustralia.com

MONA
www.mona.net.au

An interview with David Walsh originally published in The Age:
www.moorilla.com.au/mona/collector.php

An interview with David Walsh:
www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2009/01/13/2465111.htm

A story about MONA:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/up-close-and-uncomfortable/story-e6frg8n6-1111117306151