Conference Organisers
The 2022 AAANZ Conference ‘DEMONSTRATIONS’ is co-hosted by the Centre of Visual Arts, University of Melbourne and the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, Monash University.
Conference Convenors
- Professor Su Baker, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Community and Cultural Partnerships and Director, Centre of Visual Arts.
- Professor Luke Morgan, Director of Art History & Theory in the Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture, Monash University
- Associate Professor Anthony White, School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne
Conference Committee
- Professor Rex Butler, Professor of Art History & Theory Program, School of Art, Design and Architecture, Monash University
- Dr Sean Lowry, Senior Lecturer In Art (Critical & Theoretical), Victorian College of the Arts
- Dr Tessa Laird, Lecturer In Art (Critical And Theoretical Studies), Victorian College of the Arts
- Dr Peta Clancy, Senior Lecturer, School of Art, Design and Architecture, Monash University
- Associate Professor Ngarino Ellis, Art History, School of Humanities, Faculty of Arts, The University of Auckland
- Tristen Harwood
Conference Administrators
- Jeremy Eaton, Publications and Editorial Manager, Centre of Visual Art, University of Melbourne
- Chloe Ho, Centre of Visual Art, University of Melbourne
- Dr Suzie Fraser, Coordinator, Centre of Visual Art, University of Melbourne
About the Conference
The Art Association of Australia and New Zealand Conference is a conference for art professionals—art historians, curators and artists. It takes place in December each year, and typically includes between 200 and 300 participants, including keynotes, panel convenors, speakers and audience members.
The conference takes place under the auspices of the AAANZ, and thus serves those from Australia, New Zealand the Pacific Region. The Conference is one of the key ways that the AAANZ seeks to further its mission, which is “to promote, provide for, foster, and encourage study and research into art […] by sustaining standards of criticism and scholarship in art.” (The Rules of the AANANZ.)
Each year, the conference takes place in a different city, with a different set of convenors, alternating between Australia and New Zealand.
Indigenous Sovereignty
One of the most important underlying elements of the conference each year is the ongoing sovereignty of the First Peoples on whose land the conference takes place.
The conference provides the opportunity to create an inclusive platform for all art professionals to critically reflect on the history of European settlement and the ramifications on how this history impacts each of us, and the institutions where we work. The conference also provides a space for non-Indigenous art professionals to learn from Indigenous colleagues, and the longer histories of Indigenous survival, resistance, and flourishing cultural practices.
A key aspect of Indigenous sovereignty is the right of Indigenous peoples to maintain, control, protect, and develop their Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP). ICIP includes all aspects of Indigenous peoples’ cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions.
Panel convenors and speakers using or discussing ICIP in the Conference are expected to follow due process in terms of communication, consultation, and consent, as well as attribution with the appropriate Indigenous custodians of the material presented.
Guidelines for Panel Convenors
While the conference convenors determine the overarching theme of the conference and provide suggestions for panels, it is the Panel Convenors who determine the topic and scope of their panel, and the speakers that will populate it. It is incumbent upon Panel Convenors to ensure inclusivity of historically underrepresented groups including First Nations Peoples, trans, nonbinary, gender diverse, neurodiverse, and disabled speakers.
Panel Convenors are asked to consider the following questions when finalising panels:
- What are the histories of inclusion and exclusion that have shaped your panel topic?
Should this be addressed in the panel abstract or one of the papers?
- Which voices have typically shaped your panel topic, and who has been excluded from this conversation? How might these voices be better included in your panel?
We encourage Panel Convenors to actively seek out proposals from First Nations Peoples, people of colour, and speakers from LGBTQIA+, neurodiverse, and disabled communities, which may require reaching out to people, networks, and organisations outside major art institutions and universities.