| Our Story

In 1952 Felix and Huguette Adès migrated to Australia from Egypt. Felix went into business with his brothers and brothers-in-law and spent thirty years growing the business. Upon selling the business, Felix invested the proceeds, and with professional guidance and an innately risk-averse and prudent approach grew his financial assets. During this time, he and Huguette were committed philanthropists, donating to many charitable causes. Following Felix’s death in 2007, his children, David, and Lesley, discussed the idea of extending their parents’ philanthropy, ultimately resulting in the establishment of The Adès Family Foundation (‘the Foundation’) in 2019.

Although Australia has a rich and dynamic arts sector that has contributed enormously to Australian culture, as well as economically, funding for the arts in Australia has long been precarious, with ever more arts bodies competing for diminishing State and Federal funding.

David and Lesley have both had long involvements in the creative arts, David as poet and writer, and Lesley as artist. They have witnessed first-hand the ongoing erosion of funding support for the arts, the demise of many arts organisations, and others attempting to promote the arts and doing much with very little financial support. They have witnessed the massive undervaluing of the arts sector by governments of all persuasions and at all levels, only compounded by the covid pandemic. They have seen the pressure on artists to attempt to produce art in an environment where their endeavours are not adequately valued or supported and where they often had to live at subsistence levels. If this is true for mainstream artists, how much more precarious the pursuit of art by those on the periphery?

With the blessing of Huguette Adès, the Foundation was established to endeavour in some small way to make a difference to the arts sector, particularly those at the periphery.