Jackson Pollock’s Blue Poles might be the most famous, and valuable, art work owned by the federal government, but 50 years after that famous acquisition another art agency is using International Dog Day on Saturday to show off some of the thousands of works it has obtained over the past four decades.

Artbank, which was established by the Fraser government in 1980 with a mandate to buy quality works by contemporary artists, was designed as a way of supporting young artists while also delivering a return to make it largely self-funding.