Author Archives: Katrina Grant

Petition | Call for a national inquiry into Arts Education and Training in Australia

March 2, 2026Advocacy

The National Advocates for Arts Education (NAAE) has a campaign and petition calling on the federal governments to address the decline in arts education at all levels, see below and read more on their website: https://naae.org.au/news/call-to-action Petition link: https://www.change.org/p/call-for-a-national-inquiry-into-arts-education-and-training-in-australia Based on recent research, the NAAE calls for urgent federal action. You can help alert your local member to this new evidence about the serious decline in arts education at all levels. In the meantime, NAAE has written to relevant Federal Ministers. Through its leadership in initiating research and sustained national advocacy, NAAE has worked for many years to document, highlight […]

Call for Papers | SAHANZ Conference and Journal

January 20, 2026Call for PapersCall for Papers, SAHANZ

The Society of Architectural Historians of Australia and New Zealand has calls for papers open for its 2026 conference, and two upcoming issue of its journal Fabrications. 2026 SAHANZ-AUHPH Conference: Absence: Call for Abstracts Abstracts for SAHANZ-AUHPH 2026, “Absence,” being hosted by the University of Melbourne from 7 to 9 December, are due in by Friday 27 February. Abstracts of 300 words are invited for 20-minute, 3000-4500 word conference papers that engage with the theme of absence as it relates to architectural history. Papers will be fully refereed for presentation, with the option to be published in the conference proceedings. […]

Call for Papers | 2026 SUNY New Paltz Undergraduate Art History Symposium

January 12, 2026Call for Papers

Abstracts deadline January 31st We are delighted to announce the eighth annual SUNY New Paltz Undergraduate Art History Symposium. This entirely virtual event will take place over Zoom from April 8-12, 2026. Undergraduate students are invited to submit abstracts for a 10-minute talk on any art historical topic of their choosing. We welcome research informed by any and all theories and methodologies and encourage interdisciplinary exploration. Submissions may include a version or part of an undergraduate thesis, an exceptional course paper, or independent research. Please send your title and abstract of no more than 300 words to Professor Keely Heuer […]

Vale | Dr Maudie Palmer AO

December 15, 2025News, Obituary

AAANZ was saddened to hear of the passing of Dr Maudie Palmer AO, a significant figure in the Australian art world. She was a founding director of both Heide Museum of Modern Art and the TarraWarra Museum of Art, and leaves an important legacy. You can read more about her contributions in tributes posted by Monash University and the TarraWarra Museum of Art.

‘Unruly Objects’ AAANZ Conference program available

December 1, 2025AAANZ Conference

AAANZ 2025 Conference ‘Unruly Objects’, December 3-5th We are looking forward to welcoming everyone to this year’s conference is hosted by The Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, The Berndt Museum, and the UWA School of Design, and supported by the Institute of Advanced Studies.The theme unruly objects looks at the uncontrollable, excessive, surplus and unruly qualities of objects that we attempt to study, curate, discipline and subject to discourse. Thinking beyond simply the agency of objects, we turn specifically to their rowdy, disruptive, and ungovernable aspects – whether they be leaking out of unwieldy collections, unexhibitable or unthinkable, fugitive or lost, […]

Congratulations to new Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities

November 20, 2025News

Congratulations to AAANZ members and colleagues in art history and art who have recently been appointed as new Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. You can see the full list here: https://humanities.org.au/power-of-the-humanities/30-new-fellows-elected-to-humanities-academy/ Professor Jennifer Biddle FAHA, UNSW A visual anthropologist of Aboriginal art, language, emotion and culture. Professor Mark Ledbury FAHA, the University of Sydney, A distinguished scholars of art and theatre studies who has deepened our understanding of 18th and 19th-century European painting and theatre. Associate Professor Christopher Roy Marshall FAHA, the University of Melbourne, A prolific researcher of Italian Baroque Art and contemporary museology who specialises in socio-economic questions of […]

ARC Grant success for Art History, Curatorial and Practice-led research

October 29, 2025NewsARC

Congratulations to a range of AAANZ members and colleagues in art history, curatorial, conservation studies and practice-led research who had success in the recent ARC grants program (and commisserations to all who missed out). Please let us know if we missed anyone: Dr David Rousell; Dr Eve Mayes; Dr Kelly Hussey-Smith; Professor Julianne Moss; Dr Gideon Boadu; Dr Merinda Kelly; Dr Simon Soon from the Art History program – University of Melbourne: Making histories: Young people as visual historians of changing cities . This project aims to address the growing gap between young people’s experiences of urban change and authorised […]

Open Letter to Hon. Erica Stanford, Minister of Education: Why Art History Matters

September 25, 2025AdvocacyAdvocacy

This letter was published on the website of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. See the original here. 19 September 2025 We write as representatives of Aotearoa New Zealand’s arts and cultural sector to express our shared concern about the suggested removal of Art History from the New Zealand Secondary School Curriculum. Art History develops critical 21st-century skills In a world increasingly dominated by images, Art History provides essential skills. It teaches analytical and critical reasoning, alongside strong written, visual and cultural literacy skills. It also builds awareness that images carry ideas and diverse perspectives. Art History is an interdisciplinary […]

Protesting the Removal of Art History from the New Zealand Secondary School Curriculum

September 25, 2025AdvocacyAdvocacy

AAANZ has added its voice to the protests against the proposed removal of art history from the New Zealand School Curriculum. The AAANZ President Katrina Grant and Aotearoa New Zealand representatives Raymond Spiteri, Linda Tyler and Caroline Vercoe have written to Minister Erica Stanford protesting this proposal: Letter regarding proposed removal of art history in NZ schools We write as representatives of the Art Association of Australia and New Zealand, an organisation that represents hundreds of professional art historians, curators, artists and writers across both Australia and New Zealand. As an organisation we are deeply concerned at the announcement that […]

Petition to Repeal Job-Ready Graduates Policy

July 28, 2025AdvocacyAdvocacy

The Australian Historical Association has started a petition calling for the repeal of the Job-Ready Graduates Policy. The petition is addressed to the Parliament of Australia and the AHA are asking for people to support it. From the petition: During the debate over the JRG bill, Labor Senators correctly noted that the peculiar targeting of the humanities and social sciences on the grounds of their graduates not being job-ready was also “wrong”. They noted that these disciplines “offer students robust generalist educations, with strong employment prospects upon completion … [T]he evidence is that, three years after completion, [arts] graduates are […]