Join us for another exciting The Art of Curation Masterclass with Prof. Lynette Russell visiting from Monash University in Melbourne!

When Art and History meet (and it's not art-history)
In this talk I will consider the myriad ways that historians can use art as an archive and resource and the way that art curators contribute to historical discourse. I will explore the interdisciplinary connections, synergies, and tensions in three case studies. Firstly, I will consider the mammoth exhibition that the National Gallery of Victoria hosted in 2018 Colony. Secondly, I will examine the production of ghost net sculptures made from discarded and lost fishing nets and consider how historians might regard these singular objects. Finally, my talk includes a plea for all Indigenous histories to explore the interdisciplinary world of material culture, including museum collections, rock art, and even souvenir art.

Professor Lynette Russell AM is a Sir John Monash Distinguished Professor at Monash University. She is an award-winning historian and Indigenous studies, scholar. She is a descendant of the Wotjabaluk people of western Victoria. Currently a Kathleen Fitzpatrick Laureate Fellow at Monash University, she is also Deputy Director of the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence in Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures. She has a PhD in history from the University of Melbourne and has taught and researched in the area of historical and anthropological studies for over thirty years.

Professor Russell’s most recent books include: Voice: A Time to Listen (with Melissa Castan); Innovation: Knowledge and Ingenuity (with Ian J. McNiven); The Routledge Companion to Global Indigenous Histories, (with Ann McGrath); A Trip to the Dominions: The event that changed Australian Science; and, Australia’s First Naturalists: Indigenous Peoples’ Assistance to Early Zoologist, (with Penny Olsen). Her new research focuses on the past 1,000 years of Australian history, in the project Global Encounters. This project examines the Dutch, French, Spanish, Makassan and Pacific visitors to “New Holland” over the past millennia.