Eva Besen (nee Gandel) AO

MAC.ROB student, 1942-1945
PORTRAIT GALLERY INDUCTEE, 2023
Philanthropist

Eva Gandel was born in Melbourne in 1928. Her family emigrated from Russia in the early 1920s, escaping anti-semitism and the persecution of Jewish communities prevalent at that time. Eva had a stable childhood, attending Elwood Primary School and then Mac.Robertson Girls High School. She was a very successful student and matriculated from Mac.Rob with results that enabled her to enrol at the University of Melbourne. 

Eva attended the University of Melbourne for only one year before leaving to work in the family business, which had been founded by her mother, Fay Gandel: a small chain of three retail stores called Sussan. Eva met her husband, Marc Besen, a recent immigrant from Europe via Israel, in early 1950, and they married later that year. They decided to take a year off and travel the world. Eva returned pregnant with her first child, and went on to have three more children – three girls and a boy. Eva’s commitment to community was always at the forefront of her activities. She was heavily involved with her children’s schools while they were growing up, and as they grew older, she became more involved in the broader community. 

Eva was the founding co-convenor of “Friends of the Peter Mac” and served on the board of the Peter MacCallum Hospital from 1985-1995. In 1997, Eva was appointed a member of the Network Community Advisory Committee of the Inner and Eastern Health Care Network. A passionate supporter of the arts, Eva was also an active contributor to the NGV, the NGA (Canberra), and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

In 2002 Eva and her husband, Marc, established the world-renowned Tarrawarra Museum of Art, which was the first significant public visual arts museum to be established under the Cultural Gifts Program. In recognition of her lifetime of contributions, Eva was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2004; in 2011, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Monash University, as well as the prestigious Visual Arts Visionary Award from the Melbourne Arts Foundation. 

Most significantly, Eva is the adored grandmother of 13 grandchildren and treasured great-grandmother of eight great-grandchildren.