2019 ACUADS CONFERENCE: Engagement

31 October – 1 November 2019

Melbourne

The 2019 ACUADS Conference will focus on the meaning of engagement for contemporary art and design schools: across disciplines, nationalities and cultures; but also with industries, communities and the world at large. The conference will be co-hosted by the School of Art and School of Design, RMIT University, and the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne.

The conference steering committee are delighted to announce the first two keynote speakers who will present at the conference:

Jennifer Higgie, editor-at-large of frieze magazine
Jennifer Higgie is an Australian writer, art critic and editor-at-large of frieze magazine, based in London, UK. She is currently working on a book on women’s self-portraits, titled The Mirror & the Palette, which will be published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in 2021, and on various film scripts. She is also the author and illustrator of the children’s book There’s Not One; the novel Bedlam; and the editor of The Artist’s Joke. She is the writer and presenter of Bow Down, the new frieze podcast about women in art history, and the editor of the annual art-historical journal frieze masters. In 2008, she was a judge of the Turner Prize; in 2017, she was on the selection committee for the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale; and she curated the Arts Council Collection (England) exhibition One Day Something Happens, which toured to five galleries across the UK and Ireland between 2015–17.

Esther Anatolitis, Executive Director of NAVA
Esther Anatolitis fosters local, regional, national and international perspectives on contemporary arts issues as one of Australia’s leading advocates for the arts. Her practice rigorously integrates professional and artistic modes of working to create collaborations, projects and workplaces that promote a critical reflection on practice. With a strong background in visual arts, design, architecture and media, Esther has held leadership roles across all artforms, and since 2017 has been Executive Director of NAVA. She is Deputy Chair of Contemporary Arts Precincts and has served numerous board, policy, advisory and juror roles. Esther is a former curator of Architecture+Philosophy, Digital Publics and Independent Convergence. She has presented artist workshops all over Australia and has taught into the studio program at RMIT Architecture + Urban Design, as well as in philosophy at UNSW and the University of Sydney. A writer and critic, Esther’s work is regularly published and collected at estheranatolitis.net.

Registration for the conference is now open

Note: early bird closes on Monday 7 October 2019.