Initiated by Founding Governor, Franco Belgiorno-Nettis and supported by Founding Patrons, Transfield Holdings, the first Biennale of Sydney (BoS) was held in 1973 as part of the opening celebrations of the Sydney Opera House. Since then the BoS has become Australia’s major international contemporary arts festival, bringing artists from around the world to challenge Australian audiences.
The Biennale is a non-profit organisation presenting Australia’s largest and most exciting contemporary visual arts event. Held every two years, the BoS is a three-month exhibition, with an accompanying program of artist talks, forums, guided tours and family days – all free to the public.
2014’s Biennale of Sydney: You Imagine What You Desire, the 19th incarnation of the iconic event, presented the work of 92 artists from 31 countries. More than 623,000 visited the partner venues, including nearly 125,000 from overseas, the highest international visitation numbers recorded in the Biennale’s 41-year history.
Transfield Holdings was Founding Partner of the BoS from 1973 until 2014. In that time Franco Belgiorno-Nettis and his sons Guido and Luca all held the position of Chairman, the latter stepping down in 2014.