Maud Page has been appointed to the position of Deputy Director and Director of Collections at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), a role formerly held by Suhanya Raffel who recently commenced work as Director, M+ in Hong Kong. Page is well known to, and highly regarded by, the Australian and international arts community and comes to the AGNSW from the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) where she has been the Deputy Director, Collection and Exhibitions since 2012. Page will commence at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in January 2017.
Page’s tenure at QAGOMA which commenced in 2002 included the delivery of APT8 in 2015-16 with attendances of 605,000 and an economic contribution to Queensland of $21 million. Page also developed the Gallery’s first Indigenous Engagement Strategy and initiated the first Indigenous Advisory Group for APT8.
AGNSW director Dr Michael Brand said Page would both complement and add to the Gallery executive’s diverse range of skills and expertise, “As well as being a clear strategic thinker, Maud has extensive curatorial experience across historical and contemporary art. Most recently she curated a major retrospective of New Zealand artist Michael Parekowhai and oversaw the realisation of the Cai Guo-Qiang ‘Falling Back to Earth’ exhibition including a major commission.”
“Maud has also conceptualised and managed large arts projects such as the Asia Pacific Triennial. She has worked on the delivery of cultural infrastructure dating back to the djamu Gallery at Customs House, an initiative of the Australian Museum in 1998, and most recently the Gallery of Modern Art, the Queensland Art Gallery’s second building that opened in 2006,” Brand said.
Page said she is excited to be joining the Art Gallery of New South Wales as it prepares for what could be the most exciting art museum expansion project in Australia for many years, “We are in a period of unprecedented change in our sector. With this change comes great opportunity for arts institutions to ensure they are responsive and actively engaged in social change.
“The future demands we engage with diverse communities with purpose and meaning. Internationally, the future is about being both global in outlook and leading through our regional uniqueness,” Page added.
Aaron Seeto will be Director of Indonesia’s Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara (Museum MACAN). Seeto will join the museum from the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) in Brisbane, where he currently serves as Curatorial Manager of Asian and Pacific Art. He will bring over 15 years of experience dedicated to advancing the goals of contemporary arts organizations, and championing artists from the Asia-Pacific region. Seeto will lead MACAN – the country’s first museum dedicated to international contemporary art— through the next phase of its development, including its grand opening in Jakarta in March 2017.
Museum MACAN also announces today that the inaugural exhibition will bring together approximately 90 significant works drawn from museum founder Haryanto Adikoesoemo’s private collection of over 800 modern and contemporary artworks, collected over the past 25 years. Co-curated by Charles Esche and Agung Hujatnika, the exhibition will explore the collection through a disrupted chronology from the 19th century until today. It will include key works representing various art styles across Indonesia, as well as important works of modern art from North America, China, Japan, Korea, and Europe, and a series of contemporary installations and new commissions by Indonesian and international artists.
MACAN Interior Rendering
Image by MET Studio Design