Essay Club 1: Madeline Brewer on the Social and Collaborative Turns
25 March 2026
6pm
To kick off Essay Club, join Madeline Brewer as she dissects Claire Bishop’s ‘The Social Turn’ (2006) and Maria Lind’s ‘The Collaborative Turn’ (2007), examining artists’ longstanding interest in collectivity and collaboration. Together, we’ll unpick these texts to ask: Why do artists want or need to connect with the public through art? Is meaningful social engagement possible? Is the art gallery an appropriate venue? How and when is ‘community’ manufactured? Is collaboration always ‘good’?
Brewer will also discuss her career path to working as Manager of Public Programs and Education at the IMA and her curatorial experience, and will share examples of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ collaborative projects she has worked on. She will also give an overview of Essay Club—key dates for the rest of the year and what to expect.
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Reading group, meets salon, meets networking drinks. Join us at the IMA for Essay Club. Whether you’re a university student, emerging arts worker, artist, or someone who thinks critically about culture, there’s space at the table. Each session, our well-read friends from the neighbourhood will select a text that’s shaping their ideas, conversations, and approaches to contemporary art practice. We dig into the ideas together, with a focus on how global conversations might translate locally.
Essay Club hosts for 2026 include Nicholas Aloisio-Shearer (Institute of Modern Art), Holly Anderson (artist), Madeline Brewer (Institute of Modern Art), Elena Dias-Jayasinha (Museum of Brisbane), Holly Eddington (Milani Gallery), Jocelyn Flynn (UQ Art Museum), Tay Haggarty (Outer Space), Llewellyn Millhouse (Wreckers Artspace), and Holly Riding (State Library of Queensland).
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Madeline Brewer is a curator and program producer. She is the IMA’s Manager Public Programs and Education. Prior to joining us, she directed The Condensery in Toogoolawah, where her projects included group shows The Way Things Grow (2025) and Volatile Terrain (2025), plus shows of Sancintya Mohini Simpson, Miguel Aquilizan and Jessica Dorizac, Hiromi Tango, Tay Haggarty, and Jonathan McBurnie. She has held positions at National Gallery of Australia and National Museum of Australia in Kamberri/Canberra and Rockhampton Museum of Art. She has a Bachelor of Art History and Curatorship from the Australian National University, Kamberri/Canberra.
