Who We Are
The Tapestry Foundation Australia is a private philanthropic organisation dedicated to the advancement of tapestry in Australia.
Our Trustees and Patrons
The Tapestry Foundation Australia is managed by a Board of Trustees, all of whom have a deep commitment to both the Foundation and the promotion of tapestry in Australia.
Guiding the management of funds and the advancement of the Foundation’s programs and commissions, the Trustee’s activities are directed by the Trust Deed which specifies the purposes for which the funds can be applied.
Our Trustees
-
S. David Pitt
CHAIRMAN AND TRUSTEE
David Pitt is a Founding Partner of Stirling Moore and has worked as an Accountant since 1977. He became an Advisor to the Tapestry Foundation of Australia in 1993 and continued in this role until 2016. He was Treasurer from 1993 until 2010 and became a Trustee in 2016. From 1993 to 2006 David was on Board of the Australian Tapestry Workshop, while also being its chair from 2000 to 2006.
His other not-for-profit contributions have been to McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park 1997-2015, m.a.d. Woman Foundation 2012-2015, The Hugh Williamson Foundation 2012-2021 as an Advisor and Trustee, and The Keith and Elizabeth Murdoch Foundation from 2020. In addition, he has worked for many other not-for-profit organisations in a professional role including Melbourne International Festival, NICA, Australian Print Workshop, St Martins Youth Arts, Tarrawarra Museum of Art, the Australian Art Orchestra and the Lyceum Club.
-
Anne Robertson
TRUSTEE
Anne Robertson has been a Trustee of the Tapestry Foundation Australia since June 2008 and brings to this role life experiences in business, the arts, and private philanthropy.
Anne has instigated and supported the commissioning of numerous tapestries which are now on display around the world, through the Embassy Series, the Sir John Monash Centre in Villers-Bretonneux in France, and in Victorian Hospitals, including the Royal Woman’s and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.
-
Peter John Walsh
TRUSTEE
Peter Walsh is a Solicitor and Trustee of a number of Charitable Trusts. Peter has been a long-term supporter of the Australian Tapestry Workshop and responsible for a number of significant commissions.
-
Janet Calvert-Jones AO
EMERITUS TRUSTEE
Janet Calvert-Jones has been a long-standing supporter of tapestry in Australia through her private philanthropy and her role in the Tapestry Foundation of Australia.
From 1968-1995 she was Chairman of the Advisory Council for Children with Impaired Hearing, and from 1986 has been the Founding Director of The Murdoch Institute for Research into Birth Defects, Royal Children’s Hospital (now known as MCRI).
From 1988-1992, Janet was Member of the Council, University of Melbourne, from 1989-2010 the Chairman of The Herald and Weekly Times Limited and from 1995-2005 she was Foundation Committee for the State Library of Victoria.
From 2001-2020 Janet was Trustee of the Tapestry Foundation of Australia and Chairman of the Foundation 2003-2020.
-
Ian Renard AM
TRUSTEE
Ian was the 19th Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, from February 2005 to January 2009. He holds a Master of Laws and Bachelor of Arts from that university, is an alumnus of Ormond College and was a resident tutor at Newman College for four years.
Ian is a former partner of the law firm Allens Arthur Robinson. He has served as the chairman of the Melbourne Theatre Company, the State Library of Victoria, and the RE Ross Trust, and was a director of a number of listed companies including CSL Limited, Broken Hill North Limited, Newcrest Mining Limited and Ausnet Services Limited.
-
Tania Brougham
TRUSTEE
Tania is a dedicated supporter of the arts with a long history of supporting Australian cultural institutions. A Trustee of the Tapestry Foundation Australia since 2024, Tania served as President of the National Gallery of Victoria Women’s Association from 2021-2023 and has been a member since 2002.
Her commitment to the arts extends to educational settings as well, notably through her involvement with the Arts Advisory Committee at Melbourne Grammar School and her previous role on the Melbourne Girls Grammar Council (2011-2020). Tania also holds directorships with the Merton Hall Foundation, various family companies, and actively contributes to the Melbourne Girls Grammar School Development and Engagement Committee.
-
Brigid Robertson
TRUSTEE
Brigid Robertson has worked in Financial Services for more than 25 years and is a Senior Investment Advisor at Morgans Financial in Melbourne. She was appointed to the Tapestry Foundation of Australia in 2024. Brigid also has extensive experience in the Health Services Sector, the Pastoral Industry and in Tourism and Events.
She is a graduate and current member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a past Director of Australian Open Gardens, the Geelong Grammar Foundation and the Royal Women’s Hospital Foundation.
Our Patrons
-
Dame Elisabeth Murdoch AC DBE
1909-2012
It was Dame Elisabeth and Lady Delacombe’s approach to Sir Rupert Hamer that saw the establishment of the Australian Tapestry Workshop in 1976.
In addition to her many other generous contributions, Dame Elisabeth was a significant patron of the Australian Tapestry Workshop from its inception. She was an inaugural Trustee of the Victorian Tapestry Foundation from 1990 until 1995. When this morphed into the Tapestry Foundation of Victoria she became a Trustee of the new Foundation, a role she continued in until 2003 when she became its first Emeritus Trustee.
-
Sidney Baillieu Myer AC
1926-2022
Baillieu Myer became an inaugural Trustee of the Tapestry Foundation Australia in 1995 and continued in this role until 2010.
A strong supporter of the Arts through his personal philanthropy and that of the Myer Foundation, he continued to support the Tapestry Workshop until his death in 2022.
Photo: David Geraghty
-
James Arnold Hancock OBE
1923-2018
Arnold Hancock was Chairman of the Board of the Australian Tapestry Workshop from 1989-1993. Together with Dame Elisabeth Murdoch he was both an inaugural Trustee of the Victorian Tapestry Foundation and its replacement organisation the Tapestry Foundation of Victoria serving from 1990 until his retirement in 2008.
Arnold brought a long-term vision into play for both the Workshop and the Foundation and his wisdom has guided both organisations through their formative years.
Our History
The Tapestry Foundation Australia was originally known as the Victorian Tapestry Foundation when it was founded in November 1990, as an initiative of the then Chairman of the Australian Tapestry Workshop board, Mr Arnold Hancock. The initial trustees were Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, Arnold Hancock and Jack Kennedy with Fiona Caro and Lenton Parr as advisors. At this time, the primary aim was to make the Australian Tapestry Workshop sustainable on a long-term basis, especially maintaining the skills of the weavers.
In May 1995, the Tapestry Foundation of Victoria was created, into which the residual funds in the Victoria Tapestry Foundation were transferred. Its Trustees were Arnold Hancock, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, Jack Kennedy and Baillieu Myer. In July 2011, the Tapestry Foundation of Victoria formally changed its name to the Tapestry Foundation of Australia in keeping with the Victorian Tapestry Workshop’s renaming as the Australian Tapestry Workshop.
The Foundation was established with funds provided by Dame Elisabeth Murdoch and added to over the years by various donors and members of the Murdoch family. Additional funds were provided by the Myer Family and were initially used to fund the Chairman’s Scholarship, later the Sidney Myer Scholarship, which in recent times has been used to fund trainees for the Australian Tapestry Workshop. At a later date, additional funds were provided by the Myer Foundation to be applied to whatever charity Arnold Hancock chose. Mr Hancock selected the Tapestry Foundation of Australia and in his memory the Hancock Fellowship was set up. This fellowship supports visits by international artists, weavers and academics who contribute to the advancement of tapestry in Australia.
A major contribution of the Foundation, the acquisition of the building at 258-266 Park Street provided an ongoing home for the Australian Tapestry Workshop in 1998. When acquired, the building was in significant disrepair and with the assistance of Williams Boag Architects plans were drawn up for its conversion into the Workshop, which launched in 2000. Since that time the Foundation has managed and maintained the building, deriving income from its tenants.
Above: Emily Floyd Declaration of the Rights of the Child 2018 (detail)
Janet Calvert-Jones replaced her mother, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, as a Trustee in 2003 and remained Chairman until 2020 when she handed this role to S. David Pitt. David, together with Janet Calvert-Jones, Anne Robertson and Peter Walsh are the Trustees of the Foundation today. In the lifetime of the Foundation Ms Elizabeth Proust, Mr Ian Evans, Mr Carrillo Gantner and Ms Samantha Baillieu have also served as Trustees. The contributions of today’s Trustees and that of their predecessors have built the Foundation to enable it to continue its role today.
In recent years the Foundation has commissioned tapestries to hang in Australian embassies around the world. These have been based on artwork by Indigenous artists and showcase both Australia’s Indigenous heritage as well as the weaving skills of the Australian Tapestry Workshop.
The Foundation has long been involved in placing tapestries in public hospitals across Victoria. These are known as the Delacombe series, celebrating Lady Delacombe, the first Patron of the Australian Tapestry Workshop. More recently the Foundation has formed a partnership with the State Government of Victoria to continue this program and to this point the first of three co-funded commissions has been completed for new hospitals being built in the State.
Future directions see the Tapestry Foundation Australia enabling a broader approach to the commissioning and promotion of tapestry in Australia.
