ABOUT THE SYMPOSIUM
The 1988 exhibition Dreamings: The Art of Aboriginal Australia at the Asia Society Galleries in New York catapulted Aboriginal art onto the world stage. Dreamings was the first major introduction of Aboriginal art to American audiences and represented a major turning point in its international reception. Anthropologist Fred Myers describes it as the moment when “Aboriginal art emphatically became “fine art.” Dreamings also signaled a radical shift in the ways Indigenous artists and communities were represented in the modern museum. This symposium celebrates three decades since Dreamings, reconsidering its historical moment and examining its legacies. Speakers include artists, curators, art historians, anthropologists and critics who will consider the future of contemporary Indigenous Australian art in the post-Dreamings era.
SCHEDULE
Thursday, February 21, Harrison Small Auditorium
5:00 pm: Keynote, Aboriginal Art Over the Last 30 Years with Indigenous Curator Djon Mundine
Friday, February 22, Harrison Small Auditorium
9:30 am: Coffee and refreshments
10:00 am – 12:00 pm: When Aboriginal Art Became Fine Art, with John Carty, Peter Sutton, Françoise Dussart, Chris Anderson and Fred Myers.
12:00 pm: Lunch
1:00 pm – 4:00 pm: Indigenous Australian Art in Contemporary Art Discourse, with Terry Smith, Maia Nuku and Henry F. Skerritt
5:30 – 7:00 pm: Reception at the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of UVA (note that this event is in a different location, a 20 minute drive from Harrison Small Auditorium)
Saturday, February 23, Kluge-Ruhe Collection
10:30 am: A special program, soon to be announced.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
CHRIS ANDERSON Principal at Yirri Global and Senior Advisor Acorn International
JOHN CARTY Head of Humanities, South Australian Museum, and Professor of Anthropology, University of Adelaide
FRANÇOISE DUSSART Professor in the Department of Anthropology and the Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, University of Connecticut
DJON MUNDINE OAM Indigenous Australian curator, writer, artist and activist (Bandjalung)
FRED MYERS Silver Professor of Anthropology, New York University
MAIA NUKU Evelyn A.J. Hall and John A. Friede Associate Curator for Oceanic Art (Maori – Ngai Tai), Metropolitan Museum of Art
HENRY F. SKERRITT Curator of the Indigenous Arts of Australia, Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of UVA
TERRY SMITH Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Contemporary Art History and Theory, University of Pittsburgh
MARGO SMITH AM Director of the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of UVA
PETER SUTTON Curator, anthropologist and Senior Research Fellow, University of Adelaide