Dr. Diane Mossenson - From acupuncture to Aboriginal art

The combination of acupuncture, muscular skeletal medicine and Aboriginal art might have been a world first.
But it wasn't to be.

Dr Diane Mossenson, co-founder of Indigenart with husband Dan, decided that medicine had to give way to her growing, and ultimately consuming, passion for Aboriginal art. 'At the time of establishing Indigenart in 1993, there was no West Australian gallery exclusively dedicated to serious Aboriginal art that wasn't also an outlet for tourist mementos and gifts,' she said. 'Yet, here were these brilliant artists producing wonderful paintings, sculptures and artefacts inspired by their environment, history and culture. In many cases they were, perhaps for the first time, creating and presenting work to the outside world that stemmed directly from their deeply spiritual beliefs,' she recalls.

'I was inspired. The work embraced a wide range of media - paintings, ceramics, weaving, sculptures and jewellery'. 'The vision was to exhibit and represent only the finest authentic Aboriginal art. Thus began hugely rewarding relationships with more than twenty different Aboriginal communities including hundreds of central desert and Arnhem Land artists.' 'Then, I discovered that some artists were producing sophisticated, contemporary work born out of their perceptions of the world as they saw it today,' she said. 'It was no less stunning than some of their more traditional work.'

In addition to its highly acclaimed collection and programme of exhibitions, Indigenart-Mossenson Galleries soon developed a national and international reputation in the art world and amongst serious collectors for its resources integrity. Headquartered at its Hay Street Gallery in Subiaco, Perth, Indigenart has also established galleries in Fremantle, Western Australia, and Carlton and Collingwood in Victoria. Diane manages the business operation on a day to day basis with her daughter Naomi.

The Mossensons have been responsible for a number of significant art industry initiatives over the years. In 2006 they facilitated the incorporation and running of Manambarra Aboriginal Artists Inc which was an Aboriginal run privately funded art centre based in Derby created for senior Kimberley Aboriginal people wishing to engage in artistic endeavour .Within a few years, several of the Manambarra artists were widely exhibited and collected in Australia and exhibited overseas.

In 2010 the Mossensons created and registered the Mossenson Art Foundation, a public charity with deductible gift recipient status. Included amongst the Foundation’s objectives are publishing art books and preserving culture.

In 2012 and subsequent to the closure of numerous long standing galleries which had exhibited the work of many of Perth’s leading senior and mid career artists. Diane Mossenson conceived the establishment of an artist run initiative to represent artists who had lost their representative galleries. After approaching artists to guage interest for such an initiative the Mossensons assisted in the formation of Art Collective WA Inc and provided exhibiting space in their Hay St Subiaco gallery for some years until the Collective established its own gallery space.The Mossenson’s are acknowledged in the rules of the association as the Founding Members of the Art Collective WA Inc.