Abbotsford Convent Foundation Appeal

The Abbotsford Convent Foundation, the custodian of the Abbotsford Convent, is seeking your support to make the Abbotsford Convent all it can be for now and future generations. The Abbotsford Convent is fast emerging as a premier arts and cultural precinct set on a significant heritage site in Melbourne. It is a welcoming and lively destination that is free to enter and pleasingly, the public has responded well to the site with the Convent currently enjoying over 600,000 annual visits.

The Abbotsford Convent Foundation seeks to attract creative people and organisations to enliven the Abbotsford Convent and welcome a broad community to connect with and be inspired by creative pursuits, the physical spaces, the natural environment and each other.

As the Convent does not receive recurrent government funding, projects to improve the site very much rely on the generosity of the public, who have so far helped the Abbotsford Convent Foundation restore over 10,000 square metres of buildings and acres of gardens for community use.

If you are interested in learning more about the exciting projects needing support at the Convent, please contact Andrew Evans at the Abbotsford Convent Foundation on 03 9415 3600 or aevans@abbotsfordconvent.com.au. All donations over $2 to the Abbotsford Convent Foundation Arts Trust are tax deductible.

With your help, the Convent will continue to grow as a dynamic hub of arts, culture, community and learning. It is people like you, who believe in this precious community asset and grasp its full potential, who can enable its success.

How the funds will be used

Priority works include installing site wide directional and interpretive signage, works to make the heritage landscape accessible to people with all abilities, improvements to the site's environmental sustainability and garden and landscaping projects.

Over 40% of the Abbotsford Convent's buildings still lay dormant. As part of the next five year plan, the Abbotsford Convent Foundation will restore the Sacred Heart buildings, the Industrial School and the former Magdalene Laundries so that they can be used for exciting arts and cultural uses - housing public arts classrooms, artist studios, galleries, performance spaces, social enterprises, cultural organisations, artisan workshops and more. Whilst recent works on these spaces have seen the installation of fire sprinklers and the windows restored, over 5100 square metres of interior spaces still need major works to make them legally inhabitable. The Abbotsford Convent Foundation plan to restore these spaces by stage.

As an arts and cultural precinct, opportunities abound to support specific arts projects either through supporting the c3 Contemporary Arts Space, specific arts or sculpture projects, performance pieces and learning programs. Please contact the Abbotsford Convent Foundation to learn more about the exciting arts and cultural projects in the pipeline.

• Give a one-off donation online
• Give a regular donation online
• Donate by mail
To donate by mail, please download a printable donation form and send through the post to:
PO Box 417
ABBOTSFORD VIC 3067
• Leave a bequest
To leave a bequest in your will, please read the wills and bequests page for Abbotsford Convent Foundation Arts Trust.