Insights no 25

Welcome to ArtsNational Insights 25 July 2026. Thanks to everyone for their wonderful feedback on our previous edition. Please keep the feedback and ideas for stories coming, including anything you’d like to see in future issues of Insights. We want to hear from our members and share your stories with other ArtsNational members and guests across the country.

In this issue of Insights, you’ll find a fun and innovative fundraising idea from ArtsNational Newcastle, read about the annual Young Arts photographic competition run by ArtsNational Hobart, learn about a special ArtsNational treasure, find presenters to watch for in coming months, enjoy a member story from Hobart, learn why people collect art in a fabulous article from our Patron, and learn about some of the incredible conservation projects being supported across the country through the ArtsNational Philanthropic Fund.

We’re also excited to announce the inaugural ArtsNational Emerging Artist Prize, which is now open for entries, so please share the links for this very special award with your members and aspiring artists.

Please send me any feedback and ideas for articles you’d like included in future Insights issues. I look forward to hearing from you.

Cheers
Bevan Rigato, General Manager and Insights Editor
E: Insights@artsnational.au

ArtsNational holds an annual in-person meeting in Sydney each March. The meeting is attended by the Chairs of our 36 societies across Australia, along with members of the committees that support the running of the organisation.

This year, our Patron, Julian Bickersteth AO, delivered the keynote address, and I would like to share some of his insights.

Julian began by referring to the book Your Brain on Art*, which explores the emerging field of NeuroArts. NeuroArts examines how the arts and aesthetic experiences can measurably affect the body, brain, and behaviour. It investigates how engaging with music, dance, visual arts, literature and other art forms can influence both our physiological and psychological well-being. Scientific studies have shown that participation in the arts can enhance brain development, improve mental and physical health, and provide physical health benefits such as lowering blood pressure and supporting immune function.

ArtsNational aims to bring people together through stimulating lectures presented in a congenial atmosphere. How wonderful to know that this engagement is also good for our health.

As winter settles in and the temptation to stay at home grows, you can still enjoy these health benefits from the comfort of your armchair by signing up for Professor Sam Bowker’s free lecture series, The Art of Everywhere Else. Although these lectures have been offered before, they are well worth revisiting and this offer provides an excellent opportunity to catch up on any sessions you may have missed. The series began on 14 July, but there are still plenty of lectures to come.

Scroll to the end of this issue of Insights where you can see the current schedule and click on the image to visit the online registration page.

*New York Times Bestseller Your Brain on Art by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross

Sally Louw, Chair ArtsNational
E: chair@artsnational.au

I was fortunate to be present on Friday 13^th March 2008 at the 20^th AGM of the Association of ADFAS (now ArtsNational) when Kate Siebert, NADFAS Overseas Area Representative, addressed the meeting and presented a gift from NADFAS to AADFAS on the occasion of the 20^th Anniversary of the Association.  Kate said, “it comes with much affection and esteem that ADFAS is regarded in the UK.”

The gift, a silver box, had been commissioned by NADFAS from Bryony Knox, MA, Glasgow School of Art 1999, and first recipient of a NADFAS grant from the South Mercia Area in 2006. Bryony has since become very well known, especially for her boxes with secrets; to see more of her work click here.

Bryony’s design incorporates an element of surprise as hidden inside, in a nest of English oak, are a silver acorn and a eucalyptus leaf with gumnuts, to symbolise England and Australia.  The seeds from these trees also represent the seeds of friendship, sharing of ideas, and are a symbol of our ongoing relationship.

The decoration of oak leaves, acorns and eucalyptus leaves on the lid was achieved by using the techniques of repousse and chasing. The acorns act as highlights and give a three-dimensional effect to the lid. The box has an Edinburgh hallmark and is engraved on the front “ADFAS 1989-2009 NADFAS”.

Then Chairman Charlotte Nattey received the gift on behalf of the Association, and thanked NADFAS for their very kind thoughts and gesture.  The box was left on display for members to admire.  Since then, the box is usually displayed at all Council Meetings.

The Minutes of the AGM held on Friday March 30, 2012 tell us that “The outgoing Chairman, Trish Roche Greville, handed to the incoming Chairman, Pam Nielson, the silver box given to ADFAS by NADFAS on the occasion of the Association’s 20^th anniversary, the silver brooch given to ADFAS by NADFAS on the occasion of the Association’s 10^th anniversary and a memory stick holding data relevant to the role of National Chairman”.

The Sterling Silver and Gilt brooch, engraved “Presented to AADFAS by NADFAS, March 2000” was commissioned by NAFAS (now The Arts Society) and presented to then National Chairman Pamela Peschar by then NADFAS Vice Chairman J Read, on her visit to Australia in 1999. It was designed by renowned London silversmith Shannon O’Neill. To find out more about Shannon’s work click here.

The Minutes of our National AGM in 2008 tell us that National Chairman Neroli Jordan presented the NADFAS brooch to Charlotte Nattey symbolising the changeover in Chairmen.

The silver box and broach have been presented to every succeeding National Chair and have stayed in their care during their term of office.

Written By Terry Cronin
Chair ArtsNational Brisbane River, Former National Treasurer

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Our members and guests will very much enjoy the beautifully illustrated lectures and interest days on offer over the next few months. If you are travelling in Australia, do check our What’s On for ArtsNational webpage to locate a lecture near you. Click here if you’d like to do a search by state. These pages will show you the extensive range of lectures on offer across the country. Click on your lecture of interest to find out more details about both the talk and the presenter.

August 2026

Our members and guests can enjoy beautifully illustrated presentations by Mark Cottle who is visiting societies mainly in NSW where he will speak on Medieval and Tudor topics, including Medieval Cathedrals, the Tudor Court and all things Gloriana. Meanwhile, our societies from Cairns, through Sydney, Canberra, South Australia and Western Australia will learn the stories of invisible women of the 19th and 20th century from Tessa Boase, a freelance journalist, author and campaigner who will delve into the lives of these women who worked in English country homes, how women shopped and Women’s Fight for Change. For members in Victoria, Tasmania and Queensland James Renshaw, a Classicist and author of textbooks will uncover the stories of Alexandria, Pergamon, Pompeii and Herculaneum amongst many others as he visits the societies on his ArtsNational tour.

Interest Days to note, an opportunity to delve deeper into a subject:

• A Social History of the High Street, Tessa Boase, 10am 6 August 2026, ArtsNational Ku-ring-gai
• Icons of Greek Art & Architecture, James Renshaw, 10am 13 August 2026, ADFAS Brisbane
• The Housekeepers Tale: The Women who really ran the English Country House; 10.30am 16 August 2026, ArtsNational Murray River

September 2026

Professor Marie Conte-Helm OBE will tour our New South Wales societies with a fascinating offering of lectures on the arts and culture of Japan, Chinese Landscape Painting and more.  Concurrently, Mariska Beekenkamp-Wladimiroff, an art historian specialising in Dutch Baroque arts of the 17^th century, will be touring the ArtsNational Flinders circuit societies sharing her knowledge on subjects as diverse as Jan Van Eyck, Hieronymus Bosch and Mondrian.  A complete contrast is available via Clare Blatherwick’s presentations to societies on the ArtsNational Cook circuit as Clare is a Scottish independent jewellery consultant and jewellery historian who will delve into the Naturalism of Fabergé, the World of Pearls and The Story of the Cullinan Diamond Mine, to mention a few topics.

Interest Days to note, an opportunity to delve deeper into a subject:

• Symbolism in Art: Discover the Hidden Meaning; Mariska Beekenkamp-Wladimiroff, 10am 3 September 2026, ArtsNational Ku-ring-gai
• Nature, Art and Gardens in Japan: From Tradition to Contemporary Life; Professor Marie Conte-Helm, 9.45am 25 September 2026, ArtsNational Sydney

Written By Sarah McCosker
Chair Lecturers Committee

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While most are familiar with the Met Gala as the glittering annual event held to raise funds for the running of the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, little did I imagine that I would come to be intimately involved with its latest exhibition Costume Art which opened on May 4th this year in the brand new gallery space at the Met!

It all began with an invitation from the chief curator of the Costume Institute, Andrew Bolton, who became aware of my work on fashion as an embodied artform through writings of mine, published in academic journals and collected anthologies during the course of my professional life as Head of Art and Design Theory at the School of Art, University of Tasmania. The pivotal role that these writings came to play in his conceptualisation and curation of the exhibition Costume Art, led him to invite me to write an essay for the catalogue accompanying this exhibition, as well as to provide feedback on his curation.

The process of working over the past few months on this project, whose scope and ambition is beyond anything I have ever experienced, has been an inspiring one! The exhibition comprises two hundred fashion garments paired with two hundred artworks sourced from across all of the departments at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, illustrating the integral relationship between clothing and the body. In order to counter the reduction of fashion to a purely visual form, which tends to occur when it is juxtaposed with art, here the corporeal nature of fashion is emphasized. This is achieved through the organisation of the exhibition into various body types including the Classical body, the pregnant body, the corpulent body, the disabled body, the inscribed body, the anatomical body, the ageing body and the mortal body. What is unusual about this exhibition are the diversity of body types that are featured, many of which depart from the standardised ideal of beauty prevalent in the fashion industry. In a number of instances, custom-made mannequins based on the bodies of actual people were produced in order to encompass the wide range of body shapes on display.

Another innovative feature is the replacement of the mannequins’ faces with shiny, metal surfaces in which the spectators can see their own reflection, in order to elicit an empathetic connection between the viewer and the dressed mannequins. The prominent display of the clothed mannequins on elevated podiums into which the artworks are embedded, also serves to encourage the audience to view the artworks through the lens of the dressed body rather than the other way around.

In May this year I travelled to New York to attend the opening of the Costume Art exhibition at the Met which was a star-studded event featuring the Director of the Met, Max Hollein, Anna Wintour, Venus Williams and Andrew Bolton. It was wonderful to finally see the exhibition after having viewed the works in reproduction for the preparation of my catalogue essay. I also had the opportunity to attend an event celebrating the opening of the new gallery space housing the exhibition where I met one of the fashion designers/model – Michaela Stark – whose body was used as the basis for some of the mannequins in the exhibition.

I feel very privileged to have been a part of this project and to see how my ideas have influenced a new direction in the way fashion is displayed in such a pre-eminent institution as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The exhibition runs until January 10th, 2027.

Dr. Llewellyn Negrin

Adjunct senior researcher

School of Creative and Performing Arts

University of Tasmania L.Negrin@utas.edu.au

Photos all care of Dr. Llewellyn Negrin. The mannequin displaying the outfit on the left is based on the body of Michaela Stark who Dr Negrin met at one of the Met functions. The photo without  anyone present features examples from the corpulent body section. 

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In May 2026 Jackson Pollock’s Number 7A, 1948 sold for $265m in New York. Jerry Saltz, New York Magazine’s art critic, described the auction as “a carnival-freak show spectacle in evening wear. The grotesque price drew gasps, then the sickening applause began — applause for money itself.” Apart from the fact that Blue Poles, our very own Jackson Pollock at the National Gallery in Canberra, is in my view a far more attractive painting (and being already Australia’s most valuable painting has presumably gone roaring up in value), it set me thinking as to why do people collect art. There seem to be three main reasons, setting aside such issues as supporting living artists, or liking the story behind the artwork. These are:

* For personal enjoyment, whether viewing the artwork evokes memories, brings comfort or just uplifts the soul.

* For social prestige and investment, whether to establish status or cultural sophistication with the added hope the artwork will increase in value.

* For the thrill of collecting, both in the process of acquiring and also in building a collection.

Without knowing the backstory, I think we can assume that Number 7A, 1948 was acquired for the purposes of social prestige and investment. At the other end of the collecting spectrum the David Roche Gallery in Adelaide holds the collection of the late David Roche AM (1930- 2013). David was born into wealth which allowed him to pursue his interests in dog breeding and antique collecting, and he did both with a single-minded passion. With dogs, he bred show winners all over the world, and became the first non-British resident to be invited to judge the Best in Show at the prestigious Crufts dog show. With antiques, it was for him the thrill of collecting. He inherited from his father a keen eye and the allure of the chase for the right artwork – his father advised: ‘Never buy anything just to fill in a spot but wait until you find exactly the right thing’. He combined that with a deep knowledge of his period of interest which was late 18th and early 19th Century European decorative arts. It gave him great joy in his own lifetime and he was determined to share that pleasure with others by creating the David Roche Foundation.

Take a look next time you are in Adelaide at this astonishing collection, and see what a lifetime of focused collecting can create.

The David Roche Gallery is located at 241 Melbourne Street, North Adelaide, South Australia 5006.

Visit the website at https://www.rochegallery.com.au/

Julian Bickersteth AO is Patron of ArtsNational and Chair of The David Roche Foundation

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