While a chapter of Elizabeth Ann Macgregor’s past was driving a bus for the Scottish Arts Council to introduce contemporary art to regional audiences, a more recent chapter has seen her driving the future of Australia’s most celebrated contemporary art museum.
The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) turns thirty this week. And while today it is an institution that enjoys international respect, it wasn’t always so. When Macgregor joined the gallery in 1999 it was financially challenged, attendances were waning and many either viewed contemporary art as elitist, or with a kind of contempt.
