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logo sticky
  • About
    • The Foundation
    • Why is Sheila needed?
    • Lady Sheila Cruthers
    • The Board
    • Professional Partners
    • Volunteers
  • Projects
    • Sheila Projects
    • Contemporary Women
      • The Michela and Adrian Fini Artist Fellowship
      • The Countess Report
      • Advocacy for Artists
    • Into the Light
    • Going Global
  • Collection
    • Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art
    • Indigenous Artists
  • Support
    • Support Sheila
    • Become a Major Donor
    • Donate
    • Join a Donor Circle
    • Leave a legacy
    • Become a Friend
  • News & Resources
    • Exhibitions and Events
    • News
    • Publications
    • Resources
  • Blog
  • Contact
logo main
  • About
    • The Foundation
    • Why is Sheila needed?
    • Lady Sheila Cruthers
    • The Board
    • Professional Partners
    • Volunteers
  • Projects
    • Sheila Projects
    • Contemporary Women
      • The Michela and Adrian Fini Artist Fellowship
      • The Countess Report
      • Advocacy for Artists
    • Into the Light
    • Going Global
  • Collection
    • Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art
    • Indigenous Artists
  • Support
    • Support Sheila
    • Become a Major Donor
    • Donate
    • Join a Donor Circle
    • Leave a legacy
    • Become a Friend
  • News & Resources
    • Exhibitions and Events
    • News
    • Publications
    • Resources
  • Blog
  • Contact
Blog
8 March 2025
International Women’s DaySheila Foundation

50 Years of IWD

Happy International Women’s Day! Today, on the 50th anniversary of International Women’s Day, Sheila celebrates the important and vital contribution Australia’s women artists

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By Sheila Foundation
News
7 March 2025
Media ReleasesSheila Foundation

John Cruthers appointed as Emeritus Director

John Cruthers appointed as Emeritus Director of the Sheila Foundation Board Former Sheila Foundation Chair and longstanding board member John Cruthers has been appointed Emeritus D

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By Sheila Foundation
Blog
15 October 2024
Sheila Foundation

Colleague Spotlight: Rodney James

Rodney James is a curator, art consultant and writer specialising in 19th and 20th century art writing and research, collection management, exhibitions, visual art projects and mus

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By Sheila Foundation
Blog
10 October 2024
Artist Stories

Artist Spotlight: Deborah Prior

Deborah Prior is an Adelaide-based artist who uses knitting, stitching and embroidery to transforms recycled textiles into art works, soft sculptures and installations that explore

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By Sheila Foundation
Blog News
6 October 2024
Into the LightSheila Foundation

Meet the Into the Light 2023 Researchers!

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 work

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By Sheila Foundation
Blog News
10 July 2024
Into the LightReviewsSheila Foundation

Into The Light 2023 Call Out

Into The Light tranche 5, 2023 expressions of interest are now open! We are on the look out for early stage and under-employed art historians, curators, researchers to join us in b

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By Sheila Foundation
News Publications
6 June 2024
The Countess Report

The Countess Report 2022

The Countess Report is a comprehensive report on gender representation in the Australian arts sector. It is compiled every four years and has become the most influential data set d

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By Sheila Foundation
Blog
8 May 2024
Artist StoriesInto the Light

Artist Spotlight: Gladys Laycock (1882-1959)

Why is a women’s art foundation acquiring a portrait of a Scotsman in a kilt?   Because it was painted by little known Sydney artist Gladys Laycock. From 1908, Gladys ma

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By Sheila Foundation
Blog
17 April 2024
Artist Stories

Colleague Spotlight: Lainie Edwards

As part of our ambition to share our passion for the work of Australian women artists, Sheila would like to introduce current projects by colleagues – curators, art historians, r

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By Sheila Foundation
News
5 December 2023
Michela and Adrian Fini Artist Fellowship

Sheila Fellowship Exhibition Opens in Darwin

Recipient of Sheila’s 2023 Michela and Adrian Fini Fellowship, Alana Hunt, recently opened her solo exhibition Surveilling a Crime Scene at the Northern Centre for Contemporary A

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By Sheila Foundation
Blog
5 December 2023
Artist StoriesCruthers Collection of Women's Art

Artist Spotlight: Virginia Ward

Virginia Ward focuses upon her face in her multifaceted sculptural work as seen above. Repurposing off cuts of wood used in the making of ukuleles, mandolins and guitars by luthier

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By Sheila Foundation
Blog
5 December 2023
Artist StoriesCruthers Collection of Women's ArtIndigenous Artists

Artist Spotlight: Rhonda Sharpe

Born in 1977, Rhonda Sharpe is an Luritja artist who works for the art centre Yarrenyty Arltere in Alice Springs. The centre has a focus on soft sculpture made with recycled blanke

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By Sheila Foundation
News
26 June 2023
Artist StoriesMedia ReleasesMichela and Adrian Fini Artist Fellowship

Sheila Foundation Announces the 2023 Michela and Adrian Fini Artist Fellowship

Artist Alana Hunt has been awarded the Foundation’s third Fini Fellowship, an opportunity that will allow her to create a body of new work for her forthcoming solo exhibition

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By Sheila Foundation
News
27 November 2022
Cruthers Collection of Women's Art

Angela Brennan Work Gifted to The Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art

In 2021 Angela Brennan’s painting Self portrait 1998 entered the Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art as a gift from the artist’s husband Will Barrett. Angela BrennanSelf portr

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By Sheila Foundation
News
23 November 2022
Media ReleasesSheila Foundation

Kelly Gellatly to Chair Sheila Fondation

Longstanding Sheila Foundation Chairperson John Cruthers this week announced the appointment of preeminent arts industry leader Kelly Gellatly as his replacement as head of the org

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By Sheila Foundation
Blog
19 May 2022
Reviews

Book Review: Celebrating women who defied the odds

Writer Nina Levy from See Saw Magazine has written a thoughtful review on ‘Odd Roads to be walking: 156 Women Who Shaped Australian Art’. Providing a well-rounded critique

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By Sheila Foundation
Blog
21 April 2022
Artist StoriesCruthers Collection of Women's Art

Artist Spotlight: Gemma Ben-Ary

A recent acquisition by Perth-based artist Gemma Ben-Ary is included in the current exhibition From the Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, Per

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By Sheila Foundation
Exhibitions and Events
2 April 2022

The Sheila Network Inaugural Event

25 July 2019

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By Sheila Foundation
News
13 March 2022
Artist StoriesMedia ReleasesMichela and Adrian Fini Artist Fellowship

Sheila Foundation announces second Michela and Adrian Fini Artist Fellowship

Sheila Foundation – A Foundation for Women in Visual Art has announced the awarding of the 2022 Michela and Adrian Fini Artist Fellowship. Brisbane-based artist Natalya Hughes ha

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By Sheila Foundation
0 Comments
Blog
8 July 2021

Affirmative Actions: The Activist Essay and the Cruthers Collection

By Julia Anderson, Sidonie Hall-Jordan, Sunday Jemmott, Michael Louttit, Samantha Wallis and Louise R Mayhew  In 2019, students at the Queensland College of Art (QCA), Griffith Un

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By Sheila Foundation
0 Comments
News
14 April 2021
Media ReleasesSheila Foundation

Kelly Gellatly joins Sheila Foundation board

Foundation chair John Cruthers is delighted to announce that highly regarded arts industry professional Kelly Gellatly has joined the board of directors. Kelly has over 25 years’

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By Sheila Foundation
0 Comments
News Publications
16 October 2020
Into the Light

Into the Light: Donor Circle Acquisitions 2019

Into the Light: Recovering Australia’s lost women artists 1870–1960 is Sheila Foundation’s national research project to collect data about women artists working professionall

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By Sheila Foundation
0 Comments
News
14 October 2020
Artist StoriesMedia ReleasesMichela and Adrian Fini Artist Fellowship

Sheila Foundation announces inaugural Michela and Adrian Fini Artist Fellowship

Sheila – A Foundation for Women in Visual Art has announced the inaugural Michela and Adrian Fini Artist Fellowship valued at $20,000. Sydney-based artist Salote Tawale has been

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By Sheila Foundation
0 Comments
Publications
25 June 2020
Media ReleasesSheila Foundation

Sheila Impact Report 2019-2020

It is a year since Sheila Foundation was officially launched by Elizabeth Ann Macgregor OBE. What a wonderful night it was, and how things have changed for all of us in this time.

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By Sheila Foundation
0 Comments
Blog
1 June 2020
Artist StoriesThe Countess Report

Artist Spotlight: Elvis Richardson

The Countess Report was founded by Elvis Richardson as a blog in 2008. In collaboration with Amy Prcevich and Miranda Samuels, Elvis has grown The Countess Report into a regular, c

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By Sheila Foundation
0 Comments
Blog
25 May 2020
Artist Stories

Artist Spotlight: Sera Waters

Sheila’s Champions Donor Circle provides funds for the purchase of new works by younger and mid-career artists to be added to the Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art at UWA. One

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By Sheila Foundation
0 Comments
Blog
11 April 2020
Sheila Foundation

Meet the Board: Catherine McMahon

Why did you join the Sheila Board? I joined the Sheila Foundation Board in April 2018. I was a recent graduate of the AICD Company Directors’ Course and was keen to get involved

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By Sheila Foundation
0 Comments
Blog
2 March 2020
Artist Stories

Untold Stories: Janet Dawson, Over the Rainbow

Janet Dawson (b. 1935) trained as a printmaker and worked in the lithography workshop at Gallery A in Sydney in the 1960s. She was one of only three women out of 40 artists invited

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By Sheila Foundation
0 Comments
Blog
29 November 2019
Artist Stories

Artist Spotlight: Danielle Freakley

Danielle Freakley is a Seychellois-Australian artist, a first selection finalist of the Arte Laguna Prize (Venice Arsenale), exhibited at Tate (Liverpool Biennial), Performa –

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By Sheila Foundation
0 Comments
Exhibitions and Events
19 November 2019

Sheila meets Nora

19 November 2019

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By Sheila Foundation
0 Comments
to be continued sigange
News
17 November 2019
The Countess Report

In the Press: RTR FM 92.1

Curator and Board member Helen Carroll spoke to RTRFM 92.1 Jorja Key about the Sheila Foundation and the visual arts gender parity statistics highlighted in The Countess Report 201

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By Sheila Foundation
0 Comments
lighted we are all made of stories red neon wall signage inside room
News
2 November 2019
The Countess Report

In the press: The Saturday Paper

“If we value women’s art less than we do men’s, then we need to rethink what it is that we value in art. If women’s art doesn’t slot neatly into the art historical narrat

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By Sheila Foundation
0 Comments
News
1 November 2019
The Countess Report

In the Press: ABC Arts

“Try naming five male artists, contemporary and historic … easy? And now five women. For most people this is much more difficult.” ABC Arts’ Eloise Fuss writes about the ge

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By Sheila Foundation
0 Comments
painting lot
News
1 November 2019
The Countess Report

In the Press: The Guardian

“I’ve seen a lot of art. Two things are inherent in this statement: I’ve seen a lot of bad art, and a lot of art by men. Ergo: I have seen a lot of bad art by men. I thin

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By Sheila Foundation
0 Comments
News Publications
30 October 2019
Media ReleasesThe Countess Report

The Countess Report 2019

For years, three dedicated Australian artists, with the support of Sheila Foundation, have been quietly working to change the face of Australian contemporary art in ways no-one has

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By Sheila Foundation
0 Comments
News
30 October 2019
The Countess Report

In the Press: Sydney Morning Herald

“The National Gallery of Australia has become the first major art institution in the country to commit to full gender parity in its artistic program, after a new report found sta

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By Sheila Foundation
0 Comments
News
30 October 2019
The Countess Report

In the Press: National Association for Visual Arts

“The latest Countess Report, Australia’s premier reference point on gender representation in the contemporary visual arts, has been released today…A total of over 13,000 arti

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By Sheila Foundation
0 Comments
News
30 October 2019
The Countess Report

In The Press: Editorial The Sydney Morning Herald

“In the history of art, or more pointedly the history of the industry of art, those who rose to the top were men. They ran the art schools, they won the patrons, they were feted

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By Sheila Foundation
0 Comments
News
2 October 2019
The Countess Report

In the Press: ArtsHub

“The latest report (30 October 2019) found that there has been ‘significant gender equity gains across public galleries, artist-run initiatives, major museums and university ga

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By Sheila Foundation
0 Comments
Blog
23 August 2019
Artist Stories

Artist Spotlight: Rima Zabaneh

Artist Rima Zabaneh writes the inspiration behind her work Street Directory. “In late 1990, I emigrated to Perth from Jordan with my partner and three children, in the hope of b

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By Sheila Foundation
0 Comments
human face wall art
News
8 August 2019
The Countess Report

In the Press: Vault

“The Australian slang term ‘sheila’, a derogatory term for a woman, is a relic of another, more sexist time. But, like other contested words, it has been reclaimed and reappr

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By Sheila Foundation
0 Comments
Exhibitions and Events
26 July 2019

Trying to find comfort in an uncomfortable chair

26 July - 6 October 2019

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By Sheila Foundation
0 Comments
News
11 June 2019
Into the Light

In the Press: Fabric Quarterly

In May, three significant examples of colour field paintings by women artists – two of which were omitted from The Field – hung in the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery to mark the l

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By Sheila Foundation
0 Comments
News
11 June 2019
Into the LightMedia Releases

3 important works unveiled at Sheila launch

To celebrate its launch, the Sheila Foundation has secured three important colour field paintings made by Australian women artists in the late 1960s. The Field was the opening exhi

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By Sheila Foundation
0 Comments
News
7 June 2019
Sheila Foundation

In the Press: POST Newspaper

It was a unique and beautiful thing for a mother and son to share, and it was the beginning of Sheila’s love and support of women artists.” The POST Sarah McNeil writes how She

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By Sheila Foundation
0 Comments
News
3 June 2019
Sheila Foundation

In the press: Business News

“Donors … agree that if we raise sufficient funds to carry out our programs, we can improve genderbalance in the visual art sector” – John Cruthers. Business News Madeline

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By Sheila Foundation
0 Comments
Black Binocular on Round Device
Resources
2 June 2019

Articles

Links to articles related to women’s art.

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By Sheila Foundation
person using laptop computer
Resources
2 June 2019

Related Websites

Links to websites related to women’s art.

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By Sheila Foundation
News
28 May 2019
Sheila Foundation

In the press: The Guardian

“The Australian Cruthers family are among a global movement of galleries and philanthropists putting the spotlight back on women”. Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore from The Guardian t

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By Sheila Foundation
0 Comments
News
28 May 2019
Sheila Foundation

In the press: ArtsHub

“Busting gender disparity in the visual arts wide open, Sheila is a new foundation aimed at building collections, and awareness.” ArtsHub writes about the need for Sheila Foun

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By Sheila Foundation
0 Comments
News
28 May 2019
Sheila Foundation

In the press: Sheila has launched

Sheila Foundation Limited launched on May 28 at Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery at The University of Western Australia. Feature articles in The West Australian, the Sydney Morning Hera

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By Sheila Foundation
0 Comments
News
25 May 2019
Sheila Foundation

In the press: The West Australian

“A new foundation to be launched next week will honour the art-loving legacy of Lady Sheila Cruthers.” The West Australian writes about Lady Sheila Cruthers and the inspir

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By Sheila Foundation
0 Comments
News
24 May 2019
Sheila Foundation

In the press: Sydney Morning Herald

“Sheila Cruthers never finished school, but by the time she died in 2011, aged 86, the former shop girl from regional Western Australia had made a major impact on the lives of wo

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By Sheila Foundation
0 Comments
turned on LED projector on table
Resources
2 April 2019

Films

Open House: The Cruthers Collection in its original home.

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By Sheila Foundation
Blog
19 June 2018

Vanguardist or vampire? Rethinking Cynthia Reed Nolan’s contribution to Australian Culture

Cynthia Nolan: A BiographyM. E. McGuireMelbourne Books, October 2016Hardcover $34.95Available from http://www.melbournebooks.com.au/ The last few years have witnessed a new tranch

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By Sheila Foundation
0 Comments
Publications
1 December 2012
Cruthers Collection of Women's ArtInto the Light

Into the Light – The Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art

The Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art is one of Australia’s most fascinating specialist art collections. Assembled since 1974 by collector and patron Lady Sheila Cruthers, the

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By Sheila Foundation
Publications
1 February 2012
Cruthers Collection of Women's Art

LOOK. LOOK AGAIN 2012 exhibition brochure

Held in 2012, LOOK. LOOK AGAIN was the first major exhibition of the Collection after it was gifted to The University of Western Australia in 2007. This brochure was produced to ac

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By Sheila Foundation
0 Comments
Publications
1 February 1995
Into the Light

In the Company of Women: 100 years of Australian women’s art from the Cruthers Collection

In the Company of Women was the first public exhibition of the Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art and represented the Collection after 21 years of collecting. It was developed by

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By Sheila Foundation
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