Harold Mitchell Foundation & Musee du Quai Branly

The Harold Mitchell Foundation was formed in June 2000 with an initial $10 million donation from Australia’s leading media buyer. With a long term interest in the arts and health the Foundation has allowed Harold and Beverley Mitchell to focus their community investment.

Harold Mitchell AO says "We all have the capacity to give. I hope that increasing numbers of Australians will give something back to the community - each according to their means."

A major donation of $500,000 from the foundation in 2006 assisted Australia’s Indigenous art to be elevated to permanent prominence at a major new French cultural institution, the Musee du quai Branly. Sitting on the banks of the River Seine near the Eiffel Tower, the museum now hosts commissioned artwork by eight Indigenous artists which is incorporated into the fabric of the new building.

Support for the art commissions began with a conversation between Ian Roberts, the Foundation's Executive Director  and Australia Council 's then CEO, Jennifer Bott.  The Foundation donated the grant to the Australia Council Donations Fund, which enables tax deductibility for donations to Australia Council initiated arts projects.
 
The donation also funded a floor brochure to explain Australian Indigenous art to museum patrons and direct them to merchandise from which the artists receive royalties, and a Harold Mitchell Young Indigenous Curators Fellowship which allows Indigenous curators to travel to and take up a residency at the Paris Museum.

In the past the Foundation has funded the purchase of artworks for the National Gallery of Australia, the establishment of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art and supported young artists.