Tag: News

Art History in NZ under threat

Concerning news from two art history departments in New Zealand about threats to jobs and resources. Threats to jobs at VUW and threates to the fine arts library at Auckland. Submissions are encouraged on both issues – the high profile, and effective, campaign to keep art history taught in schools in the UK shows the importance of lending our voices to support our discipline. SAVE Art History at Victoria University of Wellington As reported by AAANZ Art History at Victoria University of Wellington is under threat. A recent ‘Change Proposal’ means that the department is facing the imminent loss of a Senior Lecturer, along with its Administrator – with further staff cuts threatened in a year’s time. The programme at Victoria provides historical, social, cultural, political and aesthetic frameworks fincludes teaching specialisms focused on historical and contemporary New Zealand and…

News | Award for NGV Curator Dr Ted Gott

Great news that NGV curator Ted Goot got a gong from ICOM recently. Well deserved! ICOM Award winners A glittering event at the Museums Galleries Australia National Conference dinner at the Melbourne Museum last night included the presentation of the 2018 ICOM Australia Awards and the International Museum Day student essay prize. Dr Ted Gott received the Individual Award for his significant contribution to Australia’s cultural life nationally and internationally including highly acclaimed exhibitions, research, publications, mentoring of developing curators and ongoing commitment to the profession. From the testimonial: The Award acknowledges Ted’s significant contribution to Australia’s cultural life nationally and internationally including highly acclaimed exhibitions, research, publications, mentoring of developing curators and ongoing commitment to the profession. Ted would have to be considered Australia’s pre-eminent curator in international art. His experience, attention to detail, knowledge of art and history,…

News | New Buxton Contemporary Director and Inaugural Exhibition Announced

The new Buxton Contemporary at the University of Melbourne’s College of the Arts will open on the 9th March, with the opening celebrations designed to coincide with the beginning of the 2018 university academic year. The inaugural exhibition, The Shape of Things to Come has been curated by Melissa Keys. It will feature works by more than 20 artists from the Buxton collection, and explores the various roles and agencies of the artist through culture, society and politics—as visionaries, storytellers, dissenters and alchemists. Included will be major works by Ricky Swallow, Emily Floyd, Hany Armanious and Mikala Dwyer among many others. Future programming will use the Michael Buxton Collection as a springboard to captivate and educate audiences on trends in contemporary art and connect current Australian contemporary practice to international developments. The University of Melbourne has announced that Ryan Johnston…

News | NETS Victoria Board of Management announce Adam Harding as new Chair

News from NETS Victoria Board of Management announcing the appointment of Adam Harding to the position of Chair. Adam Harding has been the Director of Horsham Regional Art Gallery (HRAG) since 2009 and oversaw their recent redevelopment.  He has continued Horsham’s commitment to community engagement while reinterpreting the Gallery’s collection to focus on their three main areas of collecting; artworks and images of Horsham and the Wimmera, the Mack Jost Collection of Australian Art, and its nationally significant collection of Australian photography.  Harding has been focusing on investigating modes of exhibition development and presentation that places HRAG and the Wimmera as a site of production and collaboration. “Hosting a NETS Victoria touring exhibition has always been a highlight for me, even back in the day when I was a curatorial assistant in Warrnambool, having the NETS Victoria install team on…

News | Esther Anatolitis announced as new Executive Director of NAVA

Photo of Esther Anatolitis

News from NAVA that their new Executive Director is Esther Anatloitis. From NAVA James Emmett, Chair of the NAVA Board, today announces Esther Anatolitis as the organisation’s next Executive Director. “It is with enthusiasm and pride for NAVA that I welcome Esther as the new Executive Director. Esther’s experience, profile and intellect makes her ideal to lead NAVA through its next chapter. At a personal level, I am very excited to start working with Esther soon. I particularly want to thank our acting co-directors, Brianna Munting and Penelope Benton, for their ongoing excellent management of NAVA during this transitional period. They are tremendous assets to the organisation.” “I am delighted that Esther will be joining NAVA,” said Senator Mitch Fifield, Minister for Communications and the Arts, “and look forward to continuing the very good working relationship we developed during her…

News | Closure of Castlemaine Art Gallery

Sad and shocking news that the Castlemaine Art Museum is to close while the museum undertakes ‘a full review of operations and develop a blueprint for the future‘. The plan is to reopen in two years, in time for the 2019 Castlemaine Festival, but there seems to be some doubt as to whether this will happen. In the meantime six staff are out-of-work and the residents of Castlemaine (and beyond) have lost an important venue of cultural activity. The gallery is a member of Victoria’s Regional Art Gallery network, but it is not a government organisation and nor is it operated by the local council (though it does receive both local and state government funding). There are suggestions that without some level of government intervention and funding the museum may not have a future. Let’s hope a solution can be found,…

Two senior figures of the Australian gallery world receive top honours

Judith Ryan with Warna Jukurrpa (snake dreaming) by PeterJapanangka Blacksmith. Photo via theage.com.au

Two senior figures of the Australian gallery world received top honours in the recent 2017 Queen’s Birthday announcements. Judith Ryan, Senior Curator of Indigenous Art at the National Gallery of Victoria was made a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to the visual arts, particularly to the museums and galleries sector, as a curator of Indigenous exhibitions, and as an author. Dr Anna Gray, former head of Australian art at the National Gallery of Australia was made a Member of the Order of Australia for significant services to the visual arts, as a curator, scholar and historian, to Australian artists and to the promotion of cultural heritage.

News | Zara Stanhope appointed as new Head of Asian and Pacific Art at QAGOMA

The Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) Director Chris Saines has announced that renowned curator Zara Stanhope (most recently Principal Curator and Head of Programmes, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki) as the Gallery’s Curatorial Manager of Asian and Pacific Art. From QAGOMA ‘We are delighted to welcome Zara, who has over 20 years’ experience in curatorial and collection management in lead roles in art institutions in Australia and New Zealand,’ Mr Saines said. ‘Along with an expansive curatorial practice focusing on Australian, New Zealand and Pacific art, she will bring to the Gallery a great depth of strategic thinking, management experience and strong local and international networks. ‘As head of the Gallery’s dynamic Asian and Pacific art team, Zara will have responsibility for QAGOMA’s flagship exhibition series, The Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, and its world…

News | Wiradjuri artist, Amala Groom joins the board of NAVA

Wiradjuri artist, Amala Groom, has been elected unopposed as the first Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Visual Arts Representative Director on the board of the NAVA. From NAVA Amala Groom is a New South Wales based conceptual artist whose practice is informed by, and reflects, Aboriginal methodologies, epistemologies and ways of being. Her work, as a form of passionate activism, delivers insightful commentary on contemporary society, politics and race relations. Groom said today, “It is both an honour and a privilege to have been nominated to hold the first dedicated Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Director’s position on the NAVA Board. I bring to the role both my personal expertise as a practitioner and my background in Aboriginal political and legal advocacy. My voice is one of the many thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander visual artists, curators, writers,…

News | Dr Christian Thompson announced as the recipient of inaugural Mordant Family VR Commission

ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image) has announced that the recipient of the inaugural $80,000 Mordant Family VR Commission is Dr Christian Thompson, one of Australia’s leading visual artists. The commission, created in partnership with Catriona and Simon Mordant AM, the City of Melbourne and ACMI, builds on ACMI’s existing commissioning initiatives, and heralds a new era of artist support at ACMI for emerging platforms. The Mordant Family VR Commission will allow Thompsons’ practice to extend into the exciting medium of VR for the first time. Thompson is a contemporary artist whose work explores notions of identity, cultural hybridity, and history; often referring to the relationships between these concepts and the environment. Formally trained as a sculptor, Thompson’s multidisciplinary practice engages mediums such as photography, video, sculpture, performance, and sound. His work focuses on the exploration of identity, sexuality,…

News | Ian McLean appointed to the Hugh Ramsay Chair of Australia Art History

More big news in art history appointments from the University of Melbourne with Ian McLean announced as the inaugural Hugh Ramsay Chair of Australian Art History, based in the Art History Program at the University of Melbourne.   Ian has published extensively on Australian art and particularly on Indigenous art. His books include Indigenous Archives: The Making and Unmaking of Aboriginal Art, with Darren Jorgensen (2017); Rattling Spears: A History of Indigenous Australian Art(2016); Double Desire: Transculturation and Indigenous art (2014); How Aborigines Invented the Idea of Contemporary Art (2011); White Aborigines Identity Politics in Australian Art (1998); and The Art of Gordon Bennett, with a chapter by Gordon Bennett (1996). He is a superb addition to the Art History Program, to Indigenous Studies, and to our School as a whole.   The Hugh Ramsay Chair of Australian Art History is an endowed Chair, based in…

News | NGV to receive funding boost in upcoming Victorian Budget

Martin Foley has announced major funding boost for the National Gallery of Victoria to build on its growth in recent years, saying that ‘Melbourne is renowned as the nation’s arts and cultural capital – and that’s in no small part because of the NGV.’ From the government press release Australia’s most popular gallery – and now one of the world’s most visited – is set to continue its success thanks to a funding boost in the Victorian Budget 2017/18. Minister for Creative Industries Martin Foley today announced that the Andrews Labor Government will invest $28.7 million over two years to support the NGV to build on its incredible growth of recent years. Five years ago, NGV hosted 28 exhibitions per year – in 2016 that number rose to 49. This growth has encouraged more visits than ever, rising from just…

News | Jennifer Milam appointed new Head of the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne

Jennifer Milam

News from the University of Melbourne that art historian Professor Jennifer Milam has been appointed as the new Head of the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne. She will take up the position from 1 January 2018. Jennifer is currently an ARC Future Fellow and Professor of Art History and Eighteenth-Century Studies at the University of Sydney. She has published articles on art, gardens and aesthetic ideas during the Enlightenment in journals such as The Art Bulletin, Studies in the History of Gardens and Designed Landscapes, Art History, Burlington Magazine, Eighteenth-Century Studies and Eighteenth-Century Fiction. Her books include studies of Rococo art and architecture, the French painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard, and a co-edited volume on women artists and patrons in eighteenth-century Europe. Her previous roles at the University of Sydney include Chair of Department of Art History and…

News | TarraWarra Museum of Art appoints Emily Cormack as Curator for Biennial in 2018

Emily Cormack has been appointed to curate the TarraWarra Museum of Art Biennial 2018 (10 August – 4 November 2020). TarraWarra Director, Victoria Lynn, said the appointment of Cormack as sole curator for the TarraWarra Biennial 2018 was an exciting step for the Museum, and visitors can expect a great show. “Emily curated Primavera at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney last year to wide acclaim, and we look forward to her unique vision for the TarraWarra Biennial 2018,” Ms Lynn said. Based in Melbourne, Cormack has extensive experience in both curating and managing contemporary art exhibitions.  She has previously curated major exhibitions for Gertrude Contemporary; Warrnambool Art Gallery; Latrobe Regional Gallery, Morwell;  Benalla Art Gallery; and the Adam Art Gallery, Wellington, and co-curated shows for Artsonje Center Seoul, St. Paul’s St Gallery, Auckland and National University Museum (NUS),…

News | Denton Corker Marshall wins new SAM architecture competition

Yesterday the Greater Shepparton City Council announced that Denton Corker Marshall has won the architetural competition to build the new Shepparton Art Museum. From SAM The architectural competition for a new SAM (Shepparton Art Museum) and building jury recommendation was endorsed at the Ordinary Council Meeting on Tuesday 18 April following a comprehensive design competition spanning several months. The seven member expert jury report noted that the Denton Corker Marshall proposal was unanimously selected as the winning proposal for the Stage 2 Concept Design Competition after a robust and rigorous assessment of the five design concepts against the agreed criteria. The Denton Corker Marshall proposal stood out because it combined a powerful and relevant conceptual idea – well-resolved and compelling in its sculptural expression and detail – with a highly adaptable, functional, safe and efficient solution, according to the report. The…