Have you ever wondered how a gallery decides to give a new artist their first show, or which gallery is right for you? For an artist developing their practice, working with galleries can be something of an enigma. It can be hard to know how to proceed, with different galleries and curators suited to different artists, their work, at different points in their career.

Having insight into what different galleries can provide, and how they work with artists is key to finding the right gallery for you. The right partnership can play a big role in promoting your work, and your career development. This seminar aims to provide an understanding of some of the different types of galleries across the commercial sector, public galleries, ARIs and online galleries. Our panellists include Sebastian Goldspink (2022 Adelaide Biennial, Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf), Alice Castello (FELTspace & Nexus Arts), Caitlin Eyre (JamFactory) and Gillian Brown (Samstag Museum). This panel of industry experts will demystify this topic and answer your questions, and will be facilitated by Patrice Sharkey, Artistic Director, ACE Open.

Time: 2pm – 3:30pm at Allan Scott Auditorium, Hawke Building, UniSA.

Visit ACE Open before the seminar for a chance to view the 2022 Helpmann Academy Graduate Exhibition, open to the public from 11am to 4pm, Thursday 17 February until Saturday 19 March.

About the Panellists

Gillian Brown

Gillian Brown is Curator at the University of South Australia's Samstag Museum of Art, where she has managed and curated numerous large-scale projects by Australian and international contemporary with artists such as Lisa Reihana, David Claerbout, Louise Haselton, Fiona Tan and Jesse Jones. Prior to this, she held roles across the nonprofit and commercial arts sectors in Melbourne. A contributor to public discussions and judging panels, Gillian was co-editor (2014-2019) of the critical arts writing platform fine print, and continues to write regularly about contemporary art.

Alice Castello

Alice Castello is an arts worker, living and working on Kaurna land. She is the Gallery Manager and Administrator at Nexus Arts, a contemporary arts organisation engaging with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, and culturally and linguistically diverse, artists and communities. Her involvement with the South Australian arts sector includes working in numerous volunteer roles at a broad range of arts organisations across Adelaide. She has also been a Co-Director at FELTspace, an artist-run organisation supporting emerging and experimental South Australian artists, since 2019.

Caitlin Eyre

Caitlin Eyre is Curator and Exhibitions Manager at JamFactory in Adelaide leading the Exhibitions Team in developing and delivering exhibitions and public programs for JamFactory’s gallery spaces in Adelaide and Seppeltsfield, as well as the national touring program.

Caitlin has also served as the Exhibitions and Community Arts Coordinator at the Pepper Street Arts Centre, undertaken curatorial internships at the National Gallery of Australia (Canberra) and Galleri Heike Arndt (Berlin), as well as an editorial arts writing internship at Berlin Art Link (Berlin). In addition to her curatorial practice, Caitlin is a freelance arts writer and has written texts for a number of exhibitions, publications and online platforms.

Sebastian Goldspink

Sebastian Goldspink is a Sydney-based independent curator. In 2011, he created the artist run space ALASKA projects as a platform for exhibiting contemporary art in unused or disused spaces. Since its inception, ALASKA has showcased over 500 artists across 150 exhibitions. A proud descendant of the Burramattagal people of Western Sydney, Goldspink has curated exhibitions nationally throughout Australia and internationally in London, Christchurch, Los Angeles and New Orleans.

Goldspink has held professional appointments at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Art Month Sydney, National Art School, College of Fine Arts, UNSW and Dlux Media Arts. He has consulted and collaborated with institutions including Museum of Old and New Art, Performance Space, Sydney Symphony, HOTA Gold Coast, Art Bank and Kaldor Public Art Projects. He writes regularly for a wide variety of publications and is a regular speaker on art and culture.

Goldspink is currently engaged as Gallery Coordinator for the Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf.

Patrice Sharkey

Patrice Sharkey is a curator, writer and arts leader who lives on Kaurna land in Adelaide. She is currently the Artistic Director of ACE Open, South Australia's flagship contemporary art space, and was previously the Director of West Space in Melbourne (2015-2018). Patrice's work experience also spans the university and commercial sectors, including roles as Assistant Curator at Monash University Museum of Art and Gallery Assistant at Sutton Gallery.
She is currently Deputy Chair of the National Association of the Visual Arts (NAVA).

This event is managed in line with the current COVID-19 restrictions and guidelines. Our top priority is to help keep our community safe.

We respectfully acknowledge the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first inhabitants of the nation. We recognise the Kaurna Meyunna as the sovereign custodians of the lands in which this event takes place in Tarntanyangga, Adelaide.

Images (L-R): Patrice Sharkey (photo by Sia Duff), Alice Castello (photo by Morgan Sette), Sebastian Goldspink, Caitlin Eyre, Gillian Brown