The program supports contemporary Australian artists by purchasing their artworks and renting them to public and private sector clients.
Through leasing works to individuals, companies and governments (at all levels), Artbank lives up to its policy principle of promoting broad access to Australian contemporary art.
As of 2020[update], it has over 11,000 works[4] by more than 3,500 Australian culturally diverse artists,[5] including paintings, sculpture, video art, photographs,[3] and ceramics.
[2] Prominent artists represented in the collection are Jeffrey Smart, Julie Dowling, John Olsen, Bill Henson, Gwyn Hanssen-Pigott, Robert Klippel, Emily Kame Kngwarreye,[2] Bronwyn Oliver, William Robinson, Kitty Kantilla, Rover Thomas, Patricia Piccinini, Tracey Moffatt and Del Kathryn Barton.
[6] Artbank has collection stores in Sydney, Melbourne (opened 1996 in Armadale;[1] moved to a converted warehouse[7] in Collingwood in 2018[5]) and Perth, Australia.