art+place Curatorial Panel

Role and membership

The Queensland Government established a Queensland Public Art Fund (‘the Fund’) on 1 July 2007 which is a centralised fund of $12m for expenditure on public art from 2007 to 2010.

The Fund is administered by Arts Queensland and aims to commission high-quality, innovative public art across Queensland.  The Minister for Education, Training and Minister for the Arts appointed the high-level art+place Curatorial Panel as an Advisory Committee to Government on the Fund.

Role

The art+place Curatorial Panel (‘the Panel’) is the Queensland Government’s peak advisory body for public art.

The Panel will advise Government on all aspects of its public art policy and program delivery including public art commissioned under the Queensland Public Art Fund.

The Panel’s key role will be to work with Arts Queensland’s Government Curator to:

• set strategic priorities for the Fund for approval by the Minister for the Arts
• ensure the timely and efficient delivery of high quality projects under the Fund
• assess applications from Queensland Government Departments and other applicants (such as Local Government, the arts industry and private sector organisations) to the Fund
• provide advice on the Queensland Government collection of public art, ArtWorks Queensland, as required.

Membership

The Panel will comprise five expert members drawn from both within and external to Government including a senior curator from the Queensland Art Gallery.

Panel members, including the Chair, are appointed by the Minister for the Arts as a Ministerial Advisory Committee.

The Panel’s balance of expertise will be drawn from the following sectors:

• public art
• arts and cultural development including public festivals and events
• built environment design professionals (i.e. architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning and design, building construction, engineering)
• education and training

The Panel can invite additional expertise to advise on the Panel’s deliberations as required.

Membership 2007-2010

The inaugural members of the art+place Curatorial Panel were appointed for a three-year term from 6 December 2007.

• Ms Virginia Rigney (Curatorial Panel Chair)
• Ms Julie Ewington
• Adjunct Professor Timothy Hill
• Mr John Mongard
• Mr Michael Papageorgiou.

Inaugural Panel members’ biographical details

Ms Virginia Rigney, B Arts (Hons), Grad Dip Museum Studies, Master of Arts Curator, Gold Coast City Art Gallery

(Curatorial Panel Chair)

Ms Rigney has extensive experience as a curator at international and Australian galleries and museums, including Scotland’s Glasgow Museum, the National Museum of Scotland and the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. She has also worked as an arts writer and project officer at the New South Wales State Ministry for the Arts. She holds Masters in Preliminary Fine Art History with First Class Honours from the University of Sydney.

Ms Julie Ewington, B Arts (Hons)

Head of Australian Art, Queensland Art Gallery /Gallery of Modern Art

Ms Ewington is a writer, curator and broadcaster. She is Head of Australian Art at Queensland Art Gallery/GoMA and has previously held the roles of Senior Curator, Museum Education, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, and Curator, Canberra School of Art Gallery. She has taught art history at Australian universities and in 1999-2000 was a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University. Ms Ewington is an integral member of the Queensland Art Gallery’s Asia-Pacific Triennial (APT) Curatorium.

Adjunct Professor Timothy Hill, B DesSt QLD, B Arch QLD, ARAIA

School of Geography, Planning and Architecture, University of Queensland

Director, Donovan Hill Architects

A commemorative 100th issue of Architecture Review (Australia) claimed Hill was one of the “influential figures in Australian architecture”. Recently completed projects include the redevelopment of the State Library of Queensland, Queensland University of Technology’s Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation Centre and conversion of one of inner Brisbane’s remaining wool store buildings to 120 apartments. He also holds a Masters of Architecture from RMIT.

Mr John Mongard, B App. Sc, Grad Dip Land Arch, AAILA

Principal, John Mongard Landscape Architects 

Mr Mongard has collaborated on more than 22 public art and design projects over the past 10 years. He specialises in planning and implementing complex public space projects which highlight local culture and broad community interactions. For the past seven years, Mr Mongard has worked in North Queensland, undertaking projects in Atherton, Tolga, Tinaroo, Innisfail and other smaller regional areas.

Mr Michael Papageorgiou, B Arts (Hons), Masters Urban Planning

Divisional Manager City Planning and Sustainability Brisbane City Council

Mr Papageorgiou was the Gold Coast City Council’s Manager of Strategic and Environmental Planning for eight years and is chair of the South East Queensland Regional Organisation of Councils (SEQROC) Planning Working Group which provides advice to the SEQROC Councils on the development of the new SEQ Regional Plan and the SEQ Scenic Amenity Project, a two-year project undertaken jointly by SEQROC and the State Government. He holds a Master of Urban Planning from Melbourne University.