Newsletter | President’s Report | December 2022
2022 has been another difficult year for many people with the devastation caused by extreme flooding events in many parts of the country. Unfortunately floods are still continuing in some parts of the country, which is another troubling sign that the impacts of climate change are undeniable. I hope members have not been caught up in these weather events and express my sympathies to anyone who has been adversely affected.
While it has been a difficult couple of years, AAANZ has emerged in a strong position with increased membership and a program that connects members, acknowledges their contributions to scholarship and debate, and fosters a new generation of academics and writers through initiatives such as the Early Career Publishing Program.
I would like to acknowledge the hard work of so many people to ensure AAANZ provides a broad range of activities each year. For such a small organisation we punch well above our weight delivering an annual conference, two issues of a referred journal, an annual program of prizes including the Art Writing and Publishing Awards (AWAPAs) and the PhD Prize, in addition to a Research Grant Program available to early career, institutional, independent and Indigenous Australian, Aotearoa Māori and Pasifika art historians. This year we also launched a new initiative with the Early Career Publishing Program with publishing house Taylor & Francis. I would like to personally thank Rebecca Renshaw (Business Manager) and everyone who has contributed to the success of AAANZ over the past year. Many of these activities are undertaken by people who volunteer their time to the Association and without their dedication we would not be able to achieve as much as we do.
As a member organisation we are dependent on the support of our members to continue to present such an expansive program and I thank you all for your ongoing involvement. Your membership fees go towards enabling us to deliver these initiatives each year and is very important to ensure the ongoing sustainability of the Association.
There has also been a lot going on behind the scenes this year to streamline our processes. Much of this work is not visible to members but we have now adopted Airtable to automate and better manage our membership database. It also means that for the first time AAANZ can manage conference registrations which will enable us to keep in better communication with delegates into the future. Thank you to Katrina Grant and Rebecca Renshaw for all the work that has gone into setting this up. Given the recent situation with a number of cyberattacks on businesses, I want to take this opportunity to assure members that we take data security seriously and have high level security systems in place.
On the advocacy front AAANZ supported the recent campaign to protest at the closure of SymbioticA. The University of Western Australia is proposing closing the centre which has been a world leader in bringing together artists and scientists. A decision is yet to be made so members can still lend their voice to the online campaign and sign the petition: Petition · Save SymbioticA · Change.org.
This year the annual conference was organised by the Centre for Visual Art, University of Melbourne and Monash University, Art Design & Architecture. The panel sessions were online while the two keynote addresses by Professor Erika Wolf and Richard Bell could be attended either in-person or online. Thank you to sponsors the Australian Institute of Art History for their support of the keynote speakers and to the National Gallery of Victoria and Monash University Museum of Art for venue support. Thank you also to the Geelong Gallery and Colin Holden Charitable Trust for sponsoring two panel sessions. The conference had 331 registrations and a strong international reach with participants from the UK, Netherlands, Taiwan, Mexico, US and Singapore. Thank you to the Conference Convenors: Professor Su Baker, Professor Luke Morgan and Associate Professor Anthony White, together with the Conference Organising Committee: Professor Rex Butler, Dr Peta Clancy, Dr Ngarino Ellis, Tristen Harwood, Dr Tessa Laird and Dr Sean Lowry for developing such a stimulating and insightful conference. And thank you to the Conference Administrators: Jeremy Eaton, Dr Suzie Fraser and particularly Chloe Ho. Recordings of the conference will be available for delegates until 15 March 2023. Next year the conference will be held from 6 to 8 December 2023 on the Gold Coast at Griffith University’s Southport campus. It will be the first in-person conference since 2019 and is likely to include some online events.
A major initiative AAANZ instigated this year was the publishing program for early career researchers. This has been developed by AAANZ in association with publishing house Taylor & Francis. The program seeks to address the difficulties early career researchers encounter when trying to publish a doctorate thesis and is intended to support and promote writing in the discipline. 19 proposals were received this year and Brenda L Croft and Victoria Souliman were selected to work with the series editors to develop proposals. Thanks to the Selection Committee: Professor Helen Ennis, Dr Chari Larsson and Series Editors: Professor Rex Butler and Associate Professor Anthony White. I would particularly like to thank Rex who has driven this initiative and Anthony for assistance developing the program.
Submissions to the Art Writing and Publishing Awards were up again this year. There was a significant increase in submissions across all categories and a total of 86 entries were received. I’d like to give a big thanks to all our judges for the difficult task of selecting the winning publications. The high calibre of submissions this year was made evident in the record number of ties, with an unprecedented five categories awarded to joint winners. I would particularly like to thank the sponsors who make the Awards possible including: Art Monthly; the Australian Institute for Art History, University of Melbourne; Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū; Monash Art Design & Architecture, Monash University; Power Institute, Foundation for Art and Visual Culture, University of Sydney; University Art Museums Australia and Professor Terry Smith, FAHA, CIHA. Their generous support ensures AAANZ is able to recognise outstanding contributions to the field of art writing and research. Winners of the various categories are listed on our website and together with the judges’ comments will be published in the March issue of Art Monthly.
Following a review of the PhD Prize last year it was decided to judge the prize solely on the merits of the final submitted thesis or exegesis. This format proved popular and entries were significantly up this year. 23 submissions were received and of these four were selected to be read in full. Congratulations to Kirsty Baker who was selected as the 2022 PhD Prize recipient. Thank you to the judges Dr Katrina Grant, Dr Ray Spiteri and Dr Kate Warren and sponsors of the prize Taylor & Francis for their continued support.
AAANZ again partnered with the Australian Institute of Art History (AIAH) to administer the Research Grants. Four grants of $5,000 each were made available for projects that advance knowledge and research in art history. This year the grant round attracted 16 applicants and congratulations to: Wes Hill, Katrina Grant, Matthieu Gallois and Anita Gower who will each receive a grant to help fund their research. Thank you to the selection panel: Dr Louise Box, Dr Melanie Cooper and Dr Susan Lowish for their time and the expertise and discernment they brought to the selection process. I thank the AIAH and their donors for their continued support of this program.
Thank you to the editorial committee at the Centre of Visual Arts (CoVA) at the University of Melbourne who have been responsible for publishing the Australia & New Zealand Journal of Art since 2019. The editorial committee has now moved to the University of New South Wales under Editor in Chief Dr Verónica Tello. The new ANZJA Editorial Committee comprises Anastasia Murney, Dr Diana Baker Smith, Professor Jennifer Biddle, Dr Bianca Hester, Dr Astrid Lorange and José da Silva.
I’d particularly like to thank outgoing Editor in Chief Professor Ian McLean and Editorial Coordinator Jeremy Eaton together with the ANZJA Committee hosted by Professor Su Baker, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Director of CoVA and members Ryan Johnston, Director, Buxton Contemporary; Vikki McInnes, Victorian College of the Arts; Associate Professor Christopher Marshall, University of Melbourne; Associate Professor Claire Roberts, University of Melbourne and Associate Professor Anthony White, University of Melbourne for the insightful and thought provoking issues that have been published in recent years. As a refereed publication, the journal provides an important platform for engagement and connection with the latest research and thinking of scholars working in the field.
This year the arts sector lost another giant with the death in October of Angus Trumble, former Director of the National Portrait Gallery. Angus was a preeminent art historian and scholar of international renown who authored two books and co-authored another with Associate Professor Andrea Wolk Rager. He studied art history at the University of Melbourne, graduating in 1986 and then undertook an internship at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice before completing a Masters Degree at the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome and the University of Melbourne. He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship for study at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University in 1994 and later worked as curator of paintings and sculpture at the Yale Centre for British Art before taking on the role at the Portrait Gallery in Canberra. We join his family, friends and the wider community in mourning his passing.
In closing I would like to thank the Executive Committee for their support throughout the year. In particular Dr Katrina Grant, Marketing and Communications Coordinator and Korin Lesh, Treasurer. A couple of members of the Executive stood down this year: Dr Sally Quin who has been our Western Australia representative since 2015 and Yamatji academic Dr Stephen Gilchrist who has been one of our Indigenous Australian Representatives over the past five years. I’d like to thank both of them for their wise counsel and their time and commitment to AAANZ. And welcome to new members to the Executive: Dr Diana Baker Smith (NSW Representative); Dr Jessyca Hutchens (WA Representative) and Dr Ali Gumillya Baker (Indigenous Australian Representative).
I wish all members a safe and relaxing Christmas and hope that 2023 can bring a reprieve from the difficult days of recent times.
Wendy Garden
AAANZ President
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