David Walsh is a collector of archaeology and contemporary art. In 2011, he opened the Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) near Hobart in Tasmania, Australia. Within a decade, the museum transformed the island’s profile and brought thousands of visitors. During this time, Walsh has continued to add to the museum and to invent new performances and attractions that can be found within the space. The museum also hosts temporary exhibitions.
The architecture of the museum is labyrinth-like and it contains a collection of artworks that is at times provocative. Walsh himself has previously described it as a “subversive adult Disneyland”. Alongside its permanent collection and exhibitions, the museum also features The Source Restaurant, the Moorilla Winery, and Moo Brew Beer, as well as hosting events and music festivals.
Walsh began with a small museum of antiquities, in an original Italian courtyard house located on the site of the Moorilla vineyard, where he also ran a winery alongside a restaurant business and accommodation. He wanted to expand on this and create a new museum to reflect his growing interest in contemporary art. Mark Wilsdon, the former co-CEO of Mona, spoke to blooloop in 2019 about the museum’s creation:
“[Walsh] was predominantly collecting antiquities: coins, artefacts of that nature, and had them on show here in the converted house free to the public, “says Wilsdon. However, it was on a fairly small scale. Those of us who were working here then were sort of excited, but we didn’t really understand the magnitude of what he had in mind until we saw the plans and understood how large an undertaking it was, and how significant, architecturally and culturally, it was going to be.
“So, we embarked on Mona, which opened on January 21, 2011. Having grown up in Hobart, Tasmania, I really did feel that Hobart changed on that day.”