The Devonport City Council’s Permanent Collection is rich and diverse, comprising textiles, ceramics, glass, sculpture, paintings and works on paper by iconic Tasmanian and Australian artists. The Collection has its beginnings in works collected by Jean Thomas for The Little Gallery, which opened in 1966 with an exhibition of works by Tasmanian artist Christopher Pyett. After several decades of growth and change, Devonport Regional Gallery’s Art Collection Policy was developed to ensure a collection that is cohesive, focused and significant within Tasmania. Subsequently, the Collection has become a unique, vibrant and accumulative record of professional artistic activity within Tasmania.
Since the policy was adopted in 2011, the Gallery has continued to collect notable works by key Tasmanian practitioners including Pat Brassington, Tim Burns, Matt Calvert, Hermie Cornelisse, Simon Cuthbert, Lisa Garland, Julie Gough, Lola Greeno, Patrick Grieve, Neil Haddon, David Hawley, Jonathan Kimberley, Colin Langridge, Michael Muruste, Rosemary O’Rourke, Sally Rees, Troy Ruffels, Mary Scott, Michael Schlitz, Fiona Tabart, Richard Wastell, Alan Young, Amanda Davies, David Hawley and Raymond Arnold. The acquisition of these works has ensured that, when viewed with existing works, the Collection continues to evolve as a vibrant and comprehensive record of Tasmanian visual culture.
In addition to these contemporary Tasmanian works, the gallery also holds the well-known Robinson Collection of photographic negatives, the Moon Collection of nineteenth century textiles and decorative arts, and a large number of paintings by renowned North-West coast artist Owen Lade. Other notable works include that of David Boyd, John Olsen, Clifton Pugh, Lloyd Rees, George Lambert, John Coburn, Edith Holmes, Dorothy Stoner, Bea Maddock, Gwyn Hanssen Piggott, Christopher Pyett, Grahame King, Ray Arnold, Les Blakebrough and Philip Wolfhagen.