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’ experience in arts leadership, curatorship and collection development and management, including in the state gallery and university sectors. While at the National Gallery of Victoria she curated retrospectives by artists including Rosalie Gascoigne and Gordon Bennett. From 2013-2020 she was director of the Ian Potter Museum of Art of the University of Melbourne, where she was instrumental in securing the Michael Buxton Gift for the university and in the development and building of Buxton Contemporary, a purpose-built museum on campus at Southbank.
‘It is exciting to welcome a new director with such strong curatorial, management and industry experience to our dynamic board. It is a timely appointment given Sheila Foundation is gathering considerable momentum in its mission to overturn decades of gender bias in the Australian art world and ensure equality for today’s women artists,’ said John.
John noted that Kelly’s knowledge, breadth of experience and connections will enhance the Sheila board’s already strong skillset. It also improves the foundation’s national footprint, with directors in NSW, Queensland, Western Australia and now Victoria.
Kelly has expressed her delight at joining such a strong group of talented and hard-working individuals.
‘I am a long admirer of the Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art and have been impressed by the commitment and dynamism of the Sheila Foundation since its inception. The statistics of the poor representation of women in our state and national collections may now be well known, but statistics alone don’t generate change.
‘I look forward to working with the board on initiatives and programs that increase the representation of women artists in collections and through exhibition, and to helping to champion the extraordinary work our women artists make.’
