National Heritage Trust: Documenting natural/cultural heritage [Ongoing 2007-]

National Heritage Trust

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The National Heritage Trust (NHT), Australia, is an on-going artwork established in 2007. The NHT issues certificates that reproduce photographs taken by John Reid of cultural and natural heritage. The Trust is formally registered but does not engage in an enterprise for tax purposes. Certificates are released in a range of denominations and made available to art projects, that address national heritage, to exchange on a dollar for dollar basis for Australian currency.

Trust certificates posted on this page include: Cockatoo Island NSW (2007); Adelong NSW (2008); Kimbriki/Sydney NSW (2009); Goulburn Valley Vic (2012); Crace ACT (2014); Koumi Japan /Canberra Australia (2017); Gdansk, Poland (2017); Asmaløy, Norway (2017); and Whitlam ACT (2024)

National Heritage Trust

Cockatoo Island, NSW (2007)

Selected certificates

Adelong, NSW (2008)

Kimbriki/Sydney, NSW (2009)

Goulburn Valley, Vic (2012)

Crace, ACT (2014)

National Heritage Trust

Art Rally, Koumi, Japan 2017

For the celebratory exhibition, Art Rally: Koumi, 2017, held at the Koumi-machi Kougen Museum of Art and on the occasion of the Museum’s 20th anniversary, John Reid produced 20 NHT certificates in Canberra, Australia (his home town), about its heritage listed art gallery, the Canberra Museum and Gallery and 24 NHT certificates in Koumi about the town’s iconic heritage asset – the Koumi-machi Kougen Museum of Art designed by esteemed Japanese architect, Tadao Ando. The certificates document architectural details of both buildings and the natural environment in which they sit.

The photographs incorporated in the certificates were taken with a mobile phone camera. Visitors to the Art Rally: Koumi exhibition were invited to rally in and around the Museum to find where the photographs of that building were taken. During Art Rally Koumi, the suite of 44 NHT certificates were made available for sale at postcard size, the proceeds of which would benefit educational art programs for children in Nagano Prefecture.