Sheila is proud to announce the launch of Into the Light 2023, the fifth annual tranche of this project to locate and acquire artworks by little known Australian women artists working professionally from 1870-1960. After their acquisition in 2023, the works and artists will now be researched and essays written by a cohort of early-stage curators, art historians and writers, mentored by Sheila’s Professional Partner (art history) Dr Juliette Peers. Simultaneously the artworks will undergo conservation treatment and in many cases reframing.
Following Sheila’s recent callout for researchers/writers for the 2023 tranche of Into the Light acquisitions, we are delighted to introduce you to the six successful recipients, who will each receive a $500 honorarium for their involvement and contribution.
Image: Section of artwork, Roses by Beatrice Colquhoun. 1908, oil on canvas, 30.5 x 36 cm. Into the Light Collection
Dr Elizabeth Burns-Dans is an early-career researcher with an MPhil and PhD in the history of art. Her PhD focused on early-sixteenth century Books of Hours and the artists who worked within the Parisian book industry during the early age of print technologies. Her particular research interest is in how we might use art to understand the lived experience of artists. Elizabeth is a Lecturer of History at Murdoch University.
Felicity is an early career arts worker and writer. She completed a Master of Museum Studies at the University of Queensland in 2024 and also holds a Bachelor of Creative Writing. She is a regular contributor to Lemonade: Letters to Art and is currently working as a Public Programming intern and Cultural Mediator at the University of Queensland Art Museum.
Gloria Strzelecki is Associate Curator, Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art at the Art Gallery of South Australia and has worked on many project including, most recently, Vincent Namatjira: Australia in colour, which toured to the National Gallery of Australia. She has previously held positions at Adelaide Central School of Art and at Carrick Hill, where she curated Kathleen Sauerbier: A Modern Pursuit and Jacqueline Hick: Born Wise.
Ingrid is the Vernon-Roberts Assistant Curator of Decorative Arts & Design at the Art Gallery of South Australia. When she isn’t assisting on projects such as the upcoming Radical Textiles exhibition, she’s working to catalogue and research AGSA’s historic dress collection. Ingrid has a Masters in Curatorial and Museum Studies from the University of Adelaide and has previously held positions at Country Arts SA, the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery (Launceston, Tasmania) and the Royal Collection Trust (Edinburgh, Scotland).
Steph Markerink is an arts writer and community engagement specialist with a Bachelor of Arts (2020) and a Master of Arts and Cultural Management (2022). Across her career in arts administration, Steph has worked for Brunswick Street Gallery, Arts Project Australia, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. In her spare time she manages the @aussie.women.artists Instagram page. Steph wrote on Tempe Manning for ITL 2021 and Heliodore Hawthorne for ITL 2022.
Bianca Arthur-Hull is an early career art historian and arts writer. She recently completed her MA in the History of Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, and gained her BA from the University of Melbourne in 2021. She has written for the Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne Design Week, Archives and Special Collections at the University of Melbourne, among others. Her recent research is being prepared for publication with the Courtauld’s Immediations Journal and The Burlington Magazine.
Into the Light 2023 Introductory Seminar
An introductory seminar was held in early September 2024, allowing the new researchers to hear from Juliette Peers about the artworks comprising the 2023 tranche, and from conservators Anne Gaulton and Julia Sharp. A highlight was Julia’s presentation on her conservation treatment of an important and hitherto unknown painting of a woman artist working in her studio, c 1880, by Eva Hopkins. Now little known, Hopkins was the first teacher of Clarice Beckett and her lifelong friend. Although the work has been subject to poor conservation, overpainting and physical puncturing in several places, Julia believes that by employing the radical mist-lining technique it can be brought back to much closer to original condition.
Into the Light is funded through a donor circle. If you’re interested in being involved, more details can be found here.
