Archive and Collection

The Student Collection is comprised of a range of media reflecting art practice of the 20^th and 21^st century and is the largest proportion of the NAS Collection. 

Works have been created by students enrolled at NAS at the time of the items’ creation and under the guidance of training and have either donated to NAS or acquired specifically by NAS. Items in this Collection also incorporate works made by teachers as part of demonstrations and training for students. The context for this Collection is as a teaching resource.

Within the Student Collection, the largest component are works on paper. Student drawings and finished artworks on paper also include posters, photographs, etchings, woodblocks, silkscreens, lithographs and watercolours on paper. Artworks of the buildings and people around the campus are also collected.

Student paintings include works on canvas, cardboard, Masonite and wood. These are predominantly used by the National Art School for research and exhibitions, and consists of portraits, landscape, life painting, still-life, abstraction and other genres.

The Student Collection also includes a wide range of media including ceramics, moving image, sculpture, and mixed media.

The Art Collection currently comprises finished works by past and present teachers, and visiting artists as well as artwork collected throughout the history of the institution. This collection includes work of a variety of media including paintings, drawings, prints, photographic media, moving image, sculpture and ceramics.

The Collection has now been expanded and enhanced to illustrate the development of Australian art and artists from their student work to major examples of their mature work. With so many of Australia’s most prominent artists having trained at the National Art School, the NAS Collection has become an invaluable resource for research and education. 

The Archive Collection is divided thematically into two broad categories, namely Darlinghurst Gaol and the National Art School, which includes all its former iterations such as Sydney Technical College, East Sydney Technical College and TAFE. This includes drawings, documents, manuscripts, posters, historic photographs, archival objects, maps, plans, negatives, film and ephemera.

From 1822, when the perimeter walls of Darlinghurst Gaol were begun, to 1914 when the gaol inmates were moved to Long Bay, this unique group of sandstone buildings housed some of the most notorious criminals in Australia’s history.

The site occupied by Darlinghurst Gaol had been a significant one to the Indigenous population of Australia for thousands of years before white settlement. With the arrival of the British fleet in 1788, Sydney was established as a penal colony, and by 1822 the local inhabitants had largely been dispossessed of their land.

In the early 1820s it was decided to build a large gaol in a prominent position on the highest point in Sydney, so it could be seen as a constant reminder that Sydney was a penal settlement. 30,000 tons of local sandstone were used to build the massive walls of the gaol, built over two years and completed in 1824. Convicts overseen by skilled stonemasons recorded their quota by carving their personal marks or dargs into each stone they cut, and many of these can still be seen today on the perimeter walls.

Due to lack of funds, work was abandoned on the prison for another twelve years. The designs for the gaol were a collaboration between Colonial Architect Mortimer Lewis and engineer George Barney and were completed in 1836. Built partly by prisoners, and partly by free labour ticket-of-leave tradesmen, the gaol symbolised a colonial ​‘coming of age’ in the minds of many. But it was a brutal place in the early days of the gaol, with the lash, solitary confinement, the gag and the straightjacket all used as ways of subduing unruly inmates.

Over the 73 years it was in operation, Darlinghurst Gaol hosted some significant prisoners, including Bulletin editor JF Archibald, later premier of NSW George Dibbs, and poet Henry Lawson, who spent 159 days in Darlinghurst for drunkenness and non-payment of alimony. Lawson recorded his gaol experience in at least seven poems, including in his haunting 1908 poem ​‘One Hundred and Three’, in which he describes his cell as ​‘a stone coffin’, and christened the gaol ​‘Starvinghurst’.

The gaol was also the site of 76 executions, 13 of which were held in public on a gallows outside the main gate in Forbes Street. Here the son of an aristocrat and convicted murderer John Knatchbull, was hanged in 1844 in front of a crowd of 10,000 people. Later more private executions were held on the permanent gallows built in E wing. The notorious bushranger Captain Moonlite was hanged here in 1880; Aboriginal outlaw Jimmy Governor in 1901; and the last woman to hang in NSW, Louisa Collins, in 1889.

The gaol closed in 1914, and during the First World War, the site was again used for incarceration, this time as a military detention camp for German and Irish internees. In 1921, massive renovations were undertaken to convert the gaol site to an annex of Sydney Technical College.

How many works are in the Collection?

There are  over 8,000 artworks and objects in the NAS Archive and Collection.

Do you have a list of past NAS Collection Exhibitions?

Visit the Past Exhibitions page on our website.

Do you keep records of former students and staff?

Enquiries from researchers or biographers regarding former students and staff at any point in the NAS’s history are welcome, but please be advised that in many cases we can provide only limited personal information, and, in the case of alumni, sometimes no more than confirmation of department and year of graduation.

We do not hold records of students who graduated prior to 2000. Please contact TAFE NSW or State Records NSW.

Most records which are over 30 years old are available for public consultation. Records which are less than 30 years old can be accessed with the permission of the Head of the relevant department of the School. There is restricted access to some series of student records until they are 75 years old in order to maintain personal confidentiality.

Do you keep records of former Darlinghurst Gaol inmates?

NSW Government’s State Archives & Records Authority holds prisoner records in the Photographic Description Books [Darlinghurst Gaol].

The records in this set date from 12/08/1871 – 13/07/1914. All records can be accessed through the NSW State Archives website. Ref: NRS-2138. The records are held at the Western Sydney Records Centre.

Other Darlinghurst Gaol records relating to earlier prisoners (1841−1870) also exist at State Records, but these do not have photographs and have not been digitised.

Where can I find information about Darlinghurst Gaol?

We hold many items from the Darlinghurst Gaol period in the NAS Archive and Collection. 

The State Archives & Records Authority of New South Wales also holds many records as well as the State Library of New South Wales – see more online.

There are also items relating to Darlinghurst Gaol in the Collection of Sydney Living Museums with some items on display at the Justice and Police Museum, Sydney.

Can I visit Darlinghurst Gaol?

We currently aren’t offering tours of the Darlinghurst Gaol. The grounds are open to the public, with the cafe, library and art shop open during business hours. The gallery is also open when showing exhibitions. Please do not enter any buildings without prior approval or authorized personnel.

Where can I find information about East Sydney Technical College (ESTC)?

There were multiple departments at ESTC, if you are interested in departments other than the art department, please contact TAFE NSW.

If you would like to find out more information about the art department, please contact us.

Do you keep oral histories from site?

We have a number of oral histories recorded and are transcribing more each year. If you are interested in finding out about Oral Histories, please contact us.

How can I donate artwork to NAS Collection?

NAS Archive and Collection collects material in relation to its collections policy.

The Acquisitions and Collections Committee meets quarterly to access all proposed acquisitions that fall within our Acquisitions criteria. All offers of donated works by NAS alumni and staff will be considered, as well as items for the NAS Archive, for example historic photographs of the site, items or documents relating to the gaol or the art school. Please consider the size of the work being offered as this does impact our ability to accept the work.

If you have an item that you wish to donate, please contact us.

Can I donate funds to enable NAS Collection to purchase artwork?

If you would like to donate funds to help us acquire new works, please contact Hannah Dickson, Fundraising and Development Manager at hannah.​dickson@​nas.​edu.​au or on (02) 9339 8638.

Can I donate funds to enable NAS Collection to conserve artwork?

Many older works in the NAS Archive and Collection are in poor condition and require conservation. We aim to conserve one or two objects each year. If you would like to support this process, please contact Hannah Dickson, Fundraising and Development Manager at hannah.​dickson@​nas.​edu.​au or on (02) 9339 8638.

Items that fit this policy can be considered for donation under the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program. For more information, please visit their website.

Can you give me advice about values of an artwork I own by a former student/​​member of staff?

We are unable to give formal valuations of artworks by former students or staff. Please find a range of valuers listed on the Museums and Galleries NSW website.

Do you loan works out for exhibition?

The National Art School has a unique collection of over 4,500 artworks held on site which is available for research, loan and exhibition purposes.

Objects from the Collection are available for loan, provided that the borrowing institution conforms with the borrowing requirements.

If you would like to borrow a work from the Collection, please write to National Art School CEO/​​Director Dr Kristen Sharp.

Do you have an image library?

We have high resolution, reproduction quality images of works in the Collection – please contact us.

Volunteering in the NAS Archive and Collection

Occasionally we have opportunities for volunteering in the NAS Archive and Collection. If you are interested in applying, please contact us and include a brief summary of your experience and interest, and include a current CV.

Volunteering and internship opportunities also exist in the NAS Gallery. Please visit our Working at NAS page for more details.