Brook Turner, Culture shock: shunned by key backers, MCA charts new era, The Australian Financial Review, 4 October 2025
Critics say the contemporary art museum is becoming an enclave for the cognoscenti, a strategy that nearly sent it broke in the 1990s. Its leaders are unapologetic.
Next March, for the first time in a quarter of a century, Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art won’t be among the venues for the city’s signature Biennale of contemporary art. According to media reports, its absence from the 2026 edition, titled Rememory, is due to artistic director Hoor Al-Qasimi’s focus on western Sydney. In fact, AFR Weekend can reveal, it came down to a single dealbreaker: the decision by the MCA to reintroduce entry fees.