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Dr Holly Arden

Fellow

  • Bio/Profile
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  • Director, Townsville City Galleries (incl Perc Tucker Regional Gallery and Pinnacles Gallery) since November 2023.

    Past roles.
    2022 University of Qld Art Museum. Interim Director. Leading Australia’s largest university art museum, I held responsibility for creative, visitor-facing, operational and financial functions of the Art Museum and UQ's high-profile art collection of 4500 works. I was proud to be part of shaping and delivering on the Art Museum's purpose: to expand possibilities for creative inquiry;
    2018-22 UQ Art Museum. Associate Director. Led a team of curators, educators and communicators to devise an innovative program of exhibitions and events, achieving a doubling of the Art Museum's audiences between 2016-2019. Responsible for developing successful strategic, creative and research partnerships across UQ, as well as nationally and internationally.
    2017-21 UQ School of Communication and Arts. Affiliate Lecturer delivering the third-year/Masters course 'Visual Arts Curating and Writing'.
    2016-18 UQ Art Museum. Senior Education Manager. Responsible for advocating for the role of university art museums as hubs of learning, creative research and industry training; contributing to UQ's vision of 'knowledge leadership for a better world'. As steward of the $4 million Kinnane UQ Art Endowment Fund, I established UQ Art Museum's paid internship program (up to 5 students per year engage in specialist industry training). Travelled throughout regional Queensland in 2016-17 to develop professional skills-based partnerships with regional and rural gallery colleagues and UQ students.
    2010-14 Convenor, Lecturer, Tutor in Art History, Theory and Design at Monash and RMIT University
    2009-10 Creative Projects Producer, Federation Square, Melbourne
    2008-09 Blindside (Melbourne). Board Member
    2007-08 Curator (jointly with Museum of Brisbane and Urban Renewal Brisbane) of “Inhabit” laneways and small spaces (Brisbane City Council’s “Vibrant Laneways” arts programs, the first iteration of the Lord Mayor's public art initiative for laneways and small spaces in Brisbane's CBD)
    2005-08 Curatorial & Collections Officer, Griffith University.
    2005-07 Founding Co-editor Machine Visual Arts magazine
    2003-05 Curatorial Assistant, Contemporary Australian Art Queensland Art Gallery