The Bowness Family Foundation works with organisations to enrich the culture, education and potential of our community by providing access and opportunity.
Founded in 2008 by Bill Bowness AO, together with his daughters Natasha Bowness and Kelly Wyborn, the Foundation has three core areas of focus: arts and culture, education, and disability. In addition, we have worked for many years with a number of key strategic partners to create long-term benefits for the community.
Areas of focus
Partnerships
Over time we have developed a number of partnerships with major institutions that have helped strengthen their long-term capacity to benefit our community. Through these relationships we have supported innovative and strategically significant projects that have built organisational capacity and created opportunities for both organisations and individuals.
A BBF gift helped establish Australia’s first Telerehabilitation Clinic for speech pathology and other allied health services. Support has also enabled the establishment of the Queensland Aphasia Rehabilitation Centre (QARC) to optimise the lives of people affected by stroke and with complex communication and rehabilitation needs. Since 2014 the Bowness Family Foundation Young Achievers’ Scholarship has provided disadvantaged young people with access to higher education to enable them to achieve their tertiary aspirations.
BFF’s gift to Zoos Victoria helped establish the Zoos Victoria Endowment, a fund to grow the capacity to fight extinction, nurture animals, provide learning experiences and develop world leading zoo staff. Earnings from the endowment have been used to support Dream Night. This is a special event for children with a disability and their families, where Melbourne Zoo is open solely for them to experience the zoo away from barriers that can stop families from normally visiting. Additional support has created an Access and Inclusion Coordination position, coordinating and implementing initiatives to ensure all locations are fully accessible and inclusive.
BFF’s long association and partnership with the NGV has been focused on elevating photography and its role in the NGV collection. Support provided includes the establishment of the Bowness Family Endowment Fund for Photography, which is solely focused on developing and strengthening the NGVs international photography collection, enabling it to acquire more than 50 works by leading international artists since 2008 and to digitising the collection. The Endowment’s current focus is on addressing the underrepresentation of international women artists in the collection and acquiring their works during the next few years. Works acquired through the endowment have featured regularly in the NGV Triennial and other support has included a donation of a significant body of Bill Henson works which featured in a major solo exhibition.
The Bowness family have been devotees and subscribers of The Australian Ballet for more than 35 years. Through this long association a close relationship with the Company has been formed and during this time the Bowness Family Foundation has supported the Annual Giving program, dancer development and the redevelopments of the Primrose Potter Ballet Centre and the Production Centre in Altona. In 2020, the Bowness Family Foundation Endowment for Artistic Development was established to support world class coaching opportunities for current and future generations of dancers.
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