Presenters 2011

PRESENTERS & AUTHORS

Biographies of the people presenting talks at the symposium and their co-authors. 

Effy Alexakis, documentary photographer

Documentary photographer, Effy Alexakis, and historian, Leonard Janiszewski have been researching the historical and contemporary presence of Australians from non-English speaking background since 1982. They are best known for their internationally recognised project and archive In Their Own Image: Greek-Australians, based at Macquarie University in Sydney, that encompasses visual, oral and literary material. Various national and international touring exhibitions have been produced, the most pronounced being In Their Own Image: Greek-Australians that was created in partnership with the State Library of NSW, and ‘Selling an American Dream: Australia’s Greek Café’, that was launched at the National Museum of Australian in 2008 and is currently touring.

Paul Bentley, Executive Officer, Museums Australia (NSW)

Paul has had extensive experience in local council and state government libraries and the Sydney Opera House, where he led library, archival, art collection, oral history, exhibition, event tracking, information system, museum and multimedia projects 1973-1997. He produced The Building of the Century exhibition for the Australian Bicentenary celebrations and presented a travelling version in European, American and Asian venues, including the Australian Embassy Paris and, in Washington DC, at the Kennedy Center Festival Australia. In 1992 and 1994, he undertook international study tours of museums for the NSW Minister for the Arts and the Sydney Opera House Trust. During the past decade, he has undertaken consulting projects for a range of clients, including the NSW Department of Housing, Flinders University, Catholic Education Office and Goethe Institute. In 1999, with Sydney businessman and philanthropist Phillip Wolanski, he set up the Wolanski Foundation to provide specialist free information services to the public and to assist cultural organisations, which have included the National Institute of Dramatic Art. He is a feature writer for Thomson Reuters’ journal Online Currents and has contributed to Australians: A Historical Library, Companion to Theatre in Australia, the Australian Dictionary of Biography, and the internationally-acclaimed CD ROM, StageStruck. His recent articles relating to museum strategy and advocacy include Turning Old Songs into A New Chorus, The Digital Economy Dance, Changing the Horseshoe on a Galloping Horse, Mastering Digital Lives and Putting a Value on Museums. He has served as executive officer of Museums Australia (NSW) since 2006.

Katharine Brisbane, AM, Chair and Executive Director, Currency House.

Katharine was co-founder in 1971 of Currency Press Pty Ltd, the performing arts publishers and its publisher for 30 years. In 2001 she founded Currency House Inc. as a non-profit association to assert the value of the performing arts in public life. She was a theatre critic for 21 years, notably national critic of the Australian 1967–74 during a time of radical change; and has published extensively on the history of Australian theatre, including Not Wrong, Just Different: Observations on the Rise of Contemporary Australian Theatre (2005) and on drama in The Cambridge History of Australian Literature (ed Peter Pierce, 2009). Over 40 years she has received many awards for service to the performing arts. She has honorary PhDs (UNSW and UWA).

Dr Dawn Casey, PSM FAHA Director, Powerhouse Museum

Dawn is Director of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (known as Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum). She was appointed in March 2008 and previously the Chief Executive Officer of the Western Australian Museum from 2005-2007 and Director of the National Museum of Australia from 1999 to 2003. 

Prior to joining the museum sector Dawn worked in a number of key Federal Government roles, including a period in the Office of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Her experience includes a major contribution to Indigenous policies and programs and Australia’s Cultural Heritage nationally. Her career includes the establishment of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation and initiation of the joint Commonwealth/State response to the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

She has represented Australia internationally including on the Development Board for Commonwealth Countries, the Global Environment Facility and on various United Nations Delegations.

She was appointed Chair of Indigenous Business Australia in June 2009.  She is currently an Adjunct Professor to the University of Technology Sydney, University of Queensland, Griffith University and Murdoch University and serves on a number of boards and committees. These include the University of Western Australia, three advisory bodies at the Australian National University and she chairs the Advisory Board for the Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation at the University of Melbourne.  Dr Casey is a member of the Queensland Design Council and a member of the Good Design Council - Advisory Committee for Good Design Australia and the Australian International Design Awards and an advisory group for the Humboldt Museum in Berlin.

Her awards for achievement include: Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA); Honorary Doctorate of Arts, Charles Sturt University; Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy, University of Queensland; Australia Day Public Service Medal (PSM); Centenary of Federation Medal; Centenary of the Australian Public Service Medal; Three Commonwealth Public Service Australia Day Medals (1985, 1988 and 1996); and The Clem Cummings Award for the Royal Australian Institute of Architects.

Professor Jane Chapman, Professor of Communications at Lincoln University and a visiting Fellow Wolfson College, Cambridge, and the Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge.

Kate Chidlow, conservator Powerhouse Museum

Kate is a trained textile conservator who has been working at the Powerhouse Museum for many years. She gained experience in regional work during the 1990's at Museums Australia (NSW). Since returning to the Powerhouse Museum in 1999, Kate has worked in the regional and community section of the Conservation Department. Some of the projects she has worked on are: regional workshops; site visits; writing information sheets; helping establish the Australian Dress Register; creating the Conservation web page and writing the Conservation Disaster Plan.

Alec Coles, OBE, CEO of Western Australian Museum

Alec Coles has been CEO of the Western Australian Museum for just a year. He arrived from the UK where he ran Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, not only England's largest regional museums service but a Regional Hub under the national Renaissance in the Regions museums program.

Rhonda Davis, Senior Curator, Macquarie University Art Gallery

Rhonda has curated numerous exhibitions including major shows such as Central Street Live, Berowra Visions: Margaret Preston & Beyond and Virtual Encounters: Paula Dawson’s Holograms. Rhonda's research into the Central Street Gallery is an ongoing project that will eventually culminate into a PHD thesis.

Aimee Deaves, Curator, Australian Tennis Museum

Aimee studied at Macquarie University where she obtained a Bachelor of Science in Palaeontology in 2007. While undertaking her Masters in Museum Studies she completed projects with The Age of Fishes Museum in Canowindra, Mosman High School Archives and the Australian Archery Hall of Fame and Museum focusing on education programs and policy development. In early 2008 she completed an internship at the Australian Tennis Museum focusing on the provenance of the costume collection and in November 2008 was hired as the Curator of the museum. In early 2010 she completed her Masters in Museum Studies at Macquarie University.

Alison Dellit, Acting Trove Manager, National Library of Australia

Alison worked on a variety of National Library data systems, including managing Australian Research Online, before joining the National Library’s Trove team in early 2010. She is passionate about making unique and valuable collections more visible and accessible.

Scott East, University of Western Sydney 

Scott is a working on a PhD at the Centre for Cultural Research, University of Western Sydney. His dissertation explores the relationship between museums and the future and is part of the Australian Research Council Linkage international grant Hot Science Global Citizens: the agency of the museum sector in climate change interventions. He is more broadly interested in non-representational approaches to the politics of display and social justice. He has presented his work to both academics and museum professionals and teaches art history at the College of Fine Arts, Sydney.

Deborah Ely, CEO Bandanon Trust

Susan Freeman, Director, Freeman Ryan Design

Susan is a director of Freeman Ryan Design, a multidisciplinary practice specialising in the museum and cultural tourism industry established in 1997 with Stephen Ryan. An architectural graduate, she was previously employed as design director by the Powerhouse Museum. Susan guest lectures in interpretive and exhibition design at UTS and UNSW in Sydney

Amareswar Galla, Professor of Museum Studies, University of Queensland

An alumnus of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, Professor Galla was Professor & Director of Sustainable Heritage Development programs, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, the Australian National University, Canberra, before becoming Australia’s first Professor of Museum Studies at the University of Queensland, Brisbane. He is now leading the establishment of the International Centre for the Inclusive Museum with ten universities and fifteen museums from across the world (www.onmuseums.com). He worked at the National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden, on Museums and Cultural Diversity Promotion in the Netherlands. He is a Guest Curator of International Projects with the Vietnam National Department of Cultural Heritage; and Director of the Pacific Asia Observatory for Cultural Diversity in Human Development in partnership with bodies including UNESCO. (www.pacificasiaobservatory.org) He is the first Australian elected as the President of the Asia Pacific Executive Board (1998-2004) – Chairperson of the Cross Cultural Task Force (2005-2011) – and Vice President of the International Executive Council (2004-2007) – of the International Council of Museums, Paris. A Senior Trustee of the Pacific Islands Museums Association, he is the Editor-in-Chief of three academic journals dealing with Sustainable Heritage Development: International Journal of the Inclusive Museum (www.museum-journal.com) Chicago/Melbourne; International Journal on Intangible Heritage (www.ijih.org) Seoul/Paris; International Journal on Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability (www.sustainability-journal.com) Chicago/Melbourne.

Liz Gillroy, Regional Museums Coordinator, The Glasshouse, Port Macquarie

Andrew Glassop, Manager, Western Plains Cultural Centre

Andrew has worked at the Western Plains Cultural Centre for almost three years, starting as the Education Officer before moving into management. With a long interest in alternative delivery methods for educational outcomes, and young children to teach him how to use the internet, a move towards online education was only natural. The WPCC has been video-conferencing for over 2 years, and has recently moved into YouTubing and podcasting, enlarging its potential audience reach, diversity, and impact. They hope!

Gina Hammond, Macquarie University
 
Gay Hendriksen, President, Parramatta Female Convict Factory Action Group

Gay has worked in the Museums and Galleries in the private and public sector for 23 years in various roles - as director, curator, and education officer.

Lyn Hicks, Museum Studies Program, Macquarie University

Lyn is currently a PhD Candidate in the Museum Studies program at Macquarie University, She has a First Class Honours degree in Social Science, a long professional history of consulting to major organisations and government, is personally ‘highly experienced’ as a volunteer and is passionate about museums.

Tamara Hynd, Coordinator Southern Highlands and Illawarra Chapter and Curator, Tongarra Museum, Shellharbour City Council 

Leonard Janiszewski, Curator, Macquarie University Art Gallery

Historian, Leonard Janiszewski, and documentary photographer, Effy Alexakis, have been researching the historical and contemporary presence of Australians from non-English speaking background since 1982. They are best known for their internationally recognised project and archive In Their Own Image: Greek-Australians, based at Macquarie University in Sydney, that encompasses visual, oral and literary material. Various national and international touring exhibitions have been produced, the most pronounced being In Their Own Image: Greek-Australians that was created in partnership with the State Library of NSW, and Selling an American Dream: Australia’s Greek Café, that was launched at the National Museum of Australian in 2008 and is currently touring.

Terri Janke, Solicitor Director of Terri Janke and Company Pty Ltd

Ms Terri Janke  was born in Cairns with family connections to both the Torres Strait Islands (Meriam) and Cape York Peninsula (Wuthathi). With her upbringing, travel and experiences, Terri recognises that Indigenous people all over the world share not only common life challenges; but opportunities in sharing their traditional knowledge, culture and extraordinary talents with the wider community to mutual benefit.

Terri Janke and Company is a leading international authority on Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property. The Sydney based law firm provides solutions for business, large organisations and government. The firm’s strengths are Intellectual Property (IP), Indigenous cultural heritage, arts and media, employment and mediation, business law and commercial agreements. The company’s core values are that people and processes are just as important as outcomes. Its goal is to build a culture of respect where knowledge and innovation work together. Terri started the firm in 2000, and the company is a 100% owned Indigenous company. Today the firm is a Registered Supplier with the Australian Indigenous Minority Supplier Council (AIMSC) and a Preferred Service Provider (PSP) of Indigenous Business Australia (IBA)

Peta Knott, Field Officer, Victorian Collections project, Museum Victoria

Peta has been working and volunteering in museums since she was 16 and is very happy that someone will pay her to visit many of the 700 collecting organisations in Victoria as part of the MA (Vic) online cataloguing project - Victorian Collections. As field officer for this project, she tours around metro and regional Victoria teaching enthusiastic volunteers of historical societies, community museums, RSLs and sporting clubs how to catalogue their collections online.

She completed a Masters of Maritime Archaeology where her thesis research took her to 30 museums around Australia so she could examine the representation of shipwrecks in museums. As Tasmanian Maritime Heritage Coordinator, Peta worked with 37 maritime organisations to preserve and promote the considerable amount of maritime heritage on the island state. Peta is a self confessed anchorologist and can often be found measuring these impressive examples of maritime history.

Michelle Maddison, Curator and Collections Manager, Museum of the Riverina, Wagga Wagga

Michelle is based at the Museum if the Riverina’s Botanic Gardens site where their permanent collection is displayed and housed. After gaining a Master of Arts at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Michelle worked in registration at the Australian National Maritime Museum and as curator on HM Bark Endeavour replica. Since 2005, Michelle has developed a number of stand-alone exhibitions including Made in Wagga, From All Four Corners: Stories of Migration to Wagga Wagga, Castro’s Claim: a Wagga Butcher’s Quest for the Tichborne Fortune, Dressed for the Occasion: a History of Textiles and The Curious Collection of Sylvia Seccombe and Racing for the King: the 1947 Wagga Billycart Derby. She is currently researching the story of post WWI and WWII soldier settlement in the Wagga local government area.

Laura Miles, Executive Director, Museums Australia (Vic)

Laura Miles is the Executive Director of Museums Australia (Victorian branch), working in a team of 12 to support over 700 museums across the state. Originally from the UK, a lifelong passion for museums dates back to winning a trip to the London Butterfly House aged 5, and as a teenager, spending every other Saturday avoiding homework in favourite London museums. Laura co-founded www.alphagalileo.org, the multilingual European arts and science news service, voted one of the “100 most useful websites” by The Guardian in 2006, and completed a MSc in Science Communication in 2005 with a dissertation on museum websites.  Laura became a Chartered Director in 2008 and a Cranlana alumna, www.cranlana.org.au, in 2010. She has contributed to publications including The Hands-On Guide To Science Communication (2007) and Museums In Australia (in press).

Steve Miller, Manager, Aboriginal Sector Development at M&G NSW 

Steve is developing and delivering a state-wide strategy for Keeping Places, Cultural Centres and Indigenous Knowledge Centres on behalf of Museums and Galleries NSW. Born in Sydney with family connections to Wiradjuri country in central NSW, he has worked in the cultural sector for the past 20 years as an advisor to the Australia Council, Arts NSW, Powerhouse Museum, Museum of Sydney and City of Sydney amongst others. He is currently chairperson of Gadigal Information Service Aboriginal Corporation, the arts/media hub based in Redfern and home to Koori Radio 93.7FM.

Penny Packham, Public Programs Officer, Australian Fossil and Mineral Museum, Bathurst

Penny has been the Public Programs at the Australian Fossil and Mineral Museum, home of the Somerville Collection in Bathurst, since the museum opened in 2004. In this role her main focus has been the development and delivery of the Museum’s diverse education program. In collaboration with children’s author and literacy consultant Paul Stafford she established the Dead Bones Society, an after-hours writing club for boys, targeting the development of boys literacy skills in Regional NSW. Unable to take a T.Rex on the road, she developed an outreach program called Scattered Bones to extend the winning formula of combining palaeontology and science to inspire creative writing in workshops across NSW. Over 13,000 school students have attended virtual classroom sessions over the past two years.

Karen Player, Coordinator, Museum in the Box, Australian Museum

Karen has worked at the Australian Museum for the last 12 years in education and interpretive roles. She has been coordinating the ‘Museum in a Box’ outreach program since January 2008. She has a background in environmental science and education as well as a strong commitment to the delivery of outreach programs throughout New South Wales. For the last 18 month she has coordinated the Video Conferencing programs for the Australian Museum. These have provided a great opportunity to combine Museum educators, school students and the physical objects in a class link up. Last year the Museum presented programs to 6500 students from 200 schools across the state.

Sarah-Jane Rennie, Manager, Sector Development, M&G NSW

Sarah-Jane is the Manager of Sector Development at M&G NSW. In this role she oversees development programs for the museum and gallery sector in NSW including the Museum Advisor program, the Volunteer Initiated Museum (VIM) grant program, the Standards program and sector research. Sarah-Jane coordinates a number of reference committees including the Museums Reference Committee and the Volunteer Reference Committee.

Prior to working with M&G NSW, Sarah-Jane worked as a conservator in museums, galleries and private settings. She has contributed to a variety of cultural publications and training packages on a range of topics including preventive conservation, significance assessment and the development of museums and galleries in heritage buildings. Sarah-Jane currently sits on the boards of ArtsTraining NSW and Accessible Arts.She has qualifications in  B.A. (Hons), B. App. Sci (Cons.Cult.Mat), M.A (Public History)

Michael Rolfe, CEO of Museums and Galleries NSW

On graduating from Alexander Mackie College of Advance Education (now COFA) in 1978, Michael embarked on a career as a secondary school art teacher and artist. As an artist he exhibited regularly and contributed to Sydney’s then burgeoning Artist Run Initiative scene. In 1988 he was appointed director of the Tamworth City Gallery, beginning a career in regional galleries that has spanned the past 22 years. Since 1999, as inaugural director of Sydney’s Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre, Michael has developed strong programming and extensive workshop activities that sees an average of 500 students per week and over 170,000 visitors per year participating across its range of activities and programs. Michael joined M&G NSW as CEO in November 2010.

Lee Scott, Manager, Museums Australia National Office

Dr Gene Sherman, AM, Chairman and Executive Director Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation

Gene is Chairman and Executive Director of Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation. She was formerly Director and Proprietor of Sherman Galleries, representing major artists across Australia and the Asia-Pacific region (1986–2007). She is a current Board member of the National Portrait Gallery, Art & Australia magazine and the Australia-Israel Cultural Exchange. Dr Sherman’s awards include the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2003), Doctorate of Letters honoris causa (University of Sydney, 2008) and Member of the Order of Australia (2010).

Andrew Simpson, Director, Museum Studies Program, Macquarie University

Bill Storer, National Secretary, Museums Australia

Bill spent 35 years as a primary school teacher around NSW from Gundagai to Wanaaring and served in the Army and Army Reserve for 38 years. While in the Army Reserve he became a museum registrar and has worked as a collection manager for 20 years. Through his activity in Museums Australia he has become immersed in the complexities of supporting community museums to achieve their goals. He is the President of Museums Australia Community Museums National Network and Secretary of Museums Australia National Council.

David Throsby, Professor of Economics, Macquarie University

David is internationally known for his work in the economics of arts and culture. He has been Professor of Economics at Macquarie University in Sydney since 1974. His books include The Economics of Cultural Policy (Cambridge University Press, 2010), and Economics and Culture (Cambridge University Press, 2001), and he was a co-editor and contributing author to Beyond Price: Value in Culture, Economics and the Arts, (Cambridge University Press, 2008), and Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture (Elsevier/ North-Holland, 2006). He has been a consultant to the World Bank, the OECD, FAO and UNESCO, as well as many government organisations and private firms. In 2008 Professor Throsby was selected to take part in the Prime Minister's Australia 2020 Summit as a participant on the Towards a Creative Australia panel. He is a past President of the Association for Cultural Economics International, was foundation chair of the National Association for the Visual Arts, and has served on the boards of the Australian Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art, Copyright Agency Ltd, and VISCOPY.

Carly Todhunter, University of Sydney

Carly is a current undergraduate student at the University of Sydney, with intentions to complete honours in 2012 in the field of historical archaeology. In 2010 she was the moveable heritage fellow for the Powerhouse Museum. Her project had her cataloguing the dairy collections of eight regional museums between Wollongong and Bega. Carly is also an intern at the Archaeological Computing Laboratory based at the University of Sydney, where she collates spatial data for the Dictionary of Sydney project.

Kathleen Von Witt, Director, Hawkesbury Regional Gallery & Museum and committee member Regional and Public Galleries NSW

Kathleen was appointed Director of the Hawkesbury Regional Gallery and the Hawkesbury Regional Museum in May 2007. She was appointed as Curator at the Hawkesbury in February 2005 (Hawkesbury Regional Gallery opened in June 2005, the Museum opened in May 2008). Prior to this appointment she worked as the Assistant Director of Tamworth Regional Gallery, working on the relocation to a new facility in 2004, and previously at the New England Regional Gallery, Armidale NSW. Kathleen is Treasurer Regional & Public Galleries NSW, Treasurer Art Craft Design National Network and Member MGNSW Visual Arts Reference Committee. She has a MA in Museum Studies from the University of Leicester, UK, and a BA Hons from the University of Adelaide and the University of Tasmania. She has worked at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Art Gallery of South Australia and Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.

Bronwen Wade-Leeuwen, Macquarie University

After studies at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore, Bronwen completed a degree at Sydney College of Fine Arts, where she majored in opera set design and Indigenous arts and culture. Subsequent work has included an artist-in-residence assignment in Taipei Artist Village, sponsored by Australian Foreign Affairs & Trade and the Australian China Council (2002-2005). In 2008, she was co-author of Cambridge Senior Visual Arts Teacher textbook (Cambridge University Press, Sydney). She is currently a candidate for a PhD degree at Macquarie University, where her studies have included research on creativity and the Oracle bone strokes in China, Taiwan and Singapore and creativity in pre-service teachers.

Lindie Ward, Curator of Design and Society, Powerhouse Museum

Lindie Ward is curator of Design and Society at the Powerhouse Museum specialising in Australian and European textiles and lace, responsible for the Lace Study Centre at the Powerhouse Museum. Graduating in Design from the University of the Arts, London she has worked as a designer in fashion and theatre in London, Montreal and Sydney. She has an honours degree in Philosophy from University College London. Lindie has worked on many exhibitions and publications at the Powerhouse Museum and as a consultant for other Australian museums, in particular the Historic Houses Trust of NSW. 

Professor Duncan Waterson, Department of Modern History, Macquarie University

Kylie Winkworth, museum and heritage consultant

Kylie is a museum and heritage consultant, an advocate for museums and collections, and an occasional trouble maker. Her work explores the relationships between people, places and collections. She has a particular interest in museum renewal and sustainability. Some of her projects involve working with community organisations to explore the significance of their collections and ways of sustaining museums in regional communities. Her publications include Significance 2.0, co-authored with Roslyn Russell. This is now used by many collecting organisations in Australia and overseas. 

Chris Winter, Innovation Division, Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Chris works for the ABC's Innovation Division, and has a long background in new media, digital TV, technology marketing and radio. His work has included projects to deploy ABC current and archive content on a number of platforms including off-deck mobile portals, Google Earth and Google Maps; and for its first two and a half years, managing ABC2. It now includes developing and nurturing new relationships with third party content providers (including archives, libraries and museums), technology research bodies (including NICTA, CSIRO, University of Sydney, and UTS), industry bodies, government agencies and media organisations (including DBCDE); and supporting the marketing activities of the division, including content syndication. He is a member of the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (AIMIA), the Music Council of Australia, and the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences; has contributed to the annual conferences of the Screen Producers Association of Australia since 1999 and been a XMediaLab participant since they began in 2003, most recently in Amsterdam in November 2009 and Sydney in June 2010. In 2004 Chris was the joint recipient of an Australian Recording Industry Association Award for Best Music DVD for his production work on Midnight Oil's Best of Both Worlds, and was presented with AIMIA's 2007 Outstanding Contribution Award. He is a board member of screen development body Metro Screen Ltd, joined the Australian Government's Information Technology Industry Innovation Council in May 2009, since May 2010 on the Queensland Government's ICT Ministerial Advisory Group and from July 2010 on the board of the Creative Industries Innovation Centre (part of Enterprise Connect).

Kreenah Yelds, Macquarie University

Kreenah is a Community Representative Committee Member of the Heritage Advisory Committee for Gosford City Council; a Representative Board Member of the Central Coast Conservatorium Inc on behalf of the University of Newcastle. Kreenah has previously undertaken duties as an Executive Committee Member of Fusion Arts Central Coast Inc, 2007-2010 and for Tourism NSW 1998-2002.