Born

7 November 1922
San Francisco, California, United States

Occupation

Writer and Philanthropist

Alternative Names

• Myer, Neilma (maiden name)
• Sidney, Neilma (pseudonym)

Summary

Neilma Gantner, along with her son Carillo and brother Baillieu Myer, established The Gantner Myer Collection of Australian Aboriginal Art. Assembled over a four-year period by curator Jennifer Isaacs, the collection was unvieled in San Francisco in September 1999.

Neilma is the eldest daughter of Sidney and Merlyn (née Baillieu) Myer. Like her three siblings, she was born in San Francisco, California, but raised in Melbourne. Neilma completed her teritary education at the Universities of Melbourne and Stanford. In 1941 she married Vallejo Gantner (later divorced) and they were to have two sons (one deceased).

Neilma Gantner was a member of the Executive of International Social Service, and of the Myer Foundation and the Sidney Myer Fund. She worked as a novelist, poet and short story writer under the pseudonym of Neilma Sidney, and founded the Four Winds Cultural Festival (Bermagui, New South Wales).

Sources used to compile this entry: http://www.abc.net.au/message/blackarts/visual/spirit_country.htm - accessed 17012003, Who's Who, 2002 and Australian Women Writer by Debra Adelaide.