Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory

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The Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT) is the main museum in the Northern Territory. It is based in The Gardens, Darwin, and was established in 1981. MAGNT is guided by its own board and supported by the MAGNT Foundation. It runs its own exhibitions as well as travelling exhibitions from across Australia. It is also home to the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Australia’s longest-running Indigenous art award.

The museum’s history starts with plans in 1964 to create a Darwin museum. The first director, Colin Jack-Hinton, began in 1970, and the Old Town Hall in Smith Street was its first home. Cyclone Tracy in 1974 caused major damage, and many items were stored in rented spaces around Darwin. On 1 July 2014, MAGNT became an independent statutory body. After self-government, a new museum was approved for Bullocky Point at Fannie Bay, with construction starting in 1979. It opened on 10 September 1981 as the Northern Territory Museum of Arts and Sciences, later adding a maritime history extension in 1992 and changing its name to MAGNT in 1993.

MAGNT also runs Fannie Bay Gaol, a historic jail, and manages the Defence of Darwin Experience at East Point (run by the Darwin Military Museum), which opened in 2012. It helps manage the Museum of Central Australia and Strehlow Research Centre at the Araluen Arts Precinct in Alice Springs. In 2015, plans were announced to refurbish the Chan Building in Darwin as a world-class visual arts museum managed by MAGNT, a project costing about $18.3 million and subject to cost and approval concerns.

The NT art collection held by MAGNT includes more than 30,000 items. Notable exhibits include the famed crocodile “Sweetheart.” From May to October 2020, MAGNT hosted a major solo exhibition by Nyapanyapa Yunupingu, “the moment eternal: Nyapanyapa Yunupiŋu,” featuring more than 60 works and marking the first solo show by an Aboriginal Australian artist at MAGNT.