The Countess Report, 2019.
The Countess Report
To achieve gender parity and due recognition for Australian women artists, we need to benchmark where we are now and use this as a foundation to move forward. This insight led to Sheila’s support of the inaugural The Countess Report in 2014, followed by reports in 2018 and 2022. These reports and the improvements they facilitated and documented have been among Sheila’s most significant achievements.
The Countess Report, a collaboration between Elvis Richardson, Amy Prcevich and Miranda Samuels, has become the trusted data source for conversations on gender parity in Australian art, and a key driver of change since Elvis first established her CoUNTess blog in 2008. It provides state-by-state statistics across the ten key areas of the visual arts sector.
We are proud that Sheila has been a partner and ongoing financial supporter of The Countess Report since 2014. This funding has allowed the report to be expanded and professionalised, and has helped provide salaries for female artists to contribute to creating the report.
It is encouraging that the second Countess Report (2018) shows that many areas of the visual arts sector have made solid improvements in parity. However, it also highlights where work still needs to be done. The areas lagging behind continue to be our state and national galleries, providing an opportunity for Sheila Foundation to continue to help promote change in these spaces.
ARTIST STORY
Elvis Richardson
"Sheila Foundation is so distinctive as they have done something different by focusing on women artists – they have made themselves special by doing so."
Image: Amy Prcevich and Elvis Richardson at Seventh Gallery, Melbourne. Artwork pictured by Ellen Yeong Gyeong Son, In the name of love. Photo by Phoebe Powell.
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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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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