What is it like to make art and run museums in regional communities that lack the art infrastructure of metropolitan centres? How do regional galleries manage the tension between being incubators for local practice and a distributions outlet for metropolitan product? What important art is being produced in the regions and is it different? And how might we transcend the regional/metropolitan opposition? Four prominent regional Queensland gallerists will discuss these and other questions. Chair Megan Williams (Director, UniSC Art Gallery, Sippy Downs) will be joined by Jonathan McBurnie (Director, Rockhampton Museum of Art), Kate O’Hara (Director, Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts, Townsville), and Madeline Brewer (Curator, The Condensery, Somerset).
Make it a day at the IMA:
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10–12pm — View our Quarter One exhibitions: Archie Moore: Comic Paintings, Platform 2025, and Skibidi Toilet
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12–1.30pm — Platform 2025: Artist Talks: Shannon Toth, Jarrod van der Ryken, and Keemon Williams
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2–3pm — Regional Realities: Panel Discussion
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Megan Williams is a curator and writer with twenty years of experience in leadership and programming across the university art museum sector. Since 2016, she has been the Director of UniSC Art Gallery, where, in 2020, she led a major redevelopment that re-positioned the Gallery as the leading public gallery in the Sunshine Coast region. Before joining UniSC, she worked at QUT in various curatorial and programming roles across QUT Art Museum, the William Robinson Gallery, the Creative Industries Precinct and The Cube.
Jonathan McBurnie is an artist, writer and curator and is regularly involved in a variety projects. He is currently working on his 24th solo exhibition, Omnishambles, for the Condensery. He is the Director of the Rockhampton Museum of Art, and has previously been Director and CEO of Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts, and Creative Director at Townsville City Galleries.
Madeline Brewer is a curator currently overseeing The Condensery, a regional contemporary art gallery on Dungibara Country in the Somerset region. Her curatorial focus often adopts a critical lens of place, including analysis of architectural, industrial and agricultural histories. Previously Madeline has worked in roles at Flying Arts Alliance Inc, Rockhampton Art Gallery, National Gallery of Australia and National Museum of Australia.
'Now You're Speakin' My Language: Screening and In Conversation'. Institute of Modern Art, 28 October 2023.
