Tate Adams was a key figure in the professionalisation of printmaking in Australia. Soon after emigrating from Northern Ireland, he became a member of the Melbourne Technical College's significant first print collective (established 1952) in the centre of Naarm / Melbourne's CBD. When that institution evolved into the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Adams established the Diploma of Printmaking at in the early 1960s. In 1966, he established the Crossley Gallery, a small but influential venue designed to equally to promote contemporary Australian and Japanese printmakers.
