Museum of Modern Art Australia

Through the CAS John met Sidney Nolan, to whom the Reeds gave friendship and financial support, and from 1941, housing him until their estrangement in 1947 at their property, the former Bulleen dairy farm 'Heide' that they had purchased in 1934.

They revived the Melbourne branch of CAS and its Gallery of Contemporary Art early in the 1950s, and their association with artists and writers—the Heidi Circle—expanded to include Charles Blackman, Barrett Reid, Laurence Hope and Mirka Mora.

In mid-1958 with the assistance of patrons Justice John Vincent Barry, Warwick Fairfax, Kym Bonython[6] and Gerard Noall, and businessman, restaurateur, art dealer and close friend Georges Mora, and using mostly their own capital along with a fund-raising subscription drive,[7] the Reeds transformed the CAS gallery, where Mora's wife Mirka had exhibited in August the year before[8] and in May 1958,[9] into the 'Museum of Modern Art (and Design) of Australia' (MOMAA), modelled on MoMA in New York, with John as its director, and Phillip Jones his assistant.

[14]163 works of art that the Reeds had collected themselves over 30 years, figurative, abstract, expressionist and realist, formed the basis of the Museum and was drawn upon for some of the exhibitions held there, many of which were landmark.

[18] The Sydney Pop Art trio the 'Annandale Realists', Mike Brown, Colin Lanceley and Ross Crothall show of 13 February – 1 March 1962 was accompanied by a catalogue essay by Elwyn Lynn.

[8][19] While the trio were in the city Georges Mora commissioned from them a mural, the largest surviving example of the Australian Pop Movement, in his Balzac Restaurant, painted as individual panels in exchange for meals and accommodation.

The exhibition showcased Melbourne Woman Painters: with Joy Hester, Phyl Waterhouse, Lina Bryans, Guelda Pyke, Valerie Albiston, Ann Taylor, Dawn Sime, Dorothy Braund, Barbara Brash, Erica McGilchrist, Yvonne Cohen, Mirka Mora, Yvette Anderson, Christine Miller and Elena Kepalaite.