Since SALA’s inception in 1998 as the brainchild of art dealer and gallerist Paul Greenaway OAM, the festival has had an arm’s length relationship with South Australia’s flagship art museum, the Art Gallery of South Australia. This is not surprising as SALA is an inclusive, open access, feel-good event, that embraces all comers irrespective of their level of accomplishment. In contrast, AGSA sets the bar far higher, aiming in its charter “to collect and display works of art of outstanding aesthetic quality, art-historical importance and regional significance”.

Ron Radford AM was AGSA’s director at that time of SALA’s inauguration and he endorsed the fledgling festival to the extent of hosting the festival’s launch in the Gallery’s courtyard and authorising its then-public programs manager

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