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Academic Board

Ex Officio Member (Chair) – Director of the School

DR KRISTEN SHARP

Prior to being appointed as CEO and Director at the National Art School, Sydney, Dr Kristen Sharp was an Associate Professor and Associate Dean Discipline, Art in the School of Art, RMIT University. Kristen’s research focuses on contemporary Asian art, urban space, public art and sound art. She has led several international research projects including Phantasms for Future Ecologies (with M. Dwyer/T. Hulbert) and Mutable Ecologies (with P. Samartzis) and is the co-author of Screen Ecologies (MIT Press 2016). Kristen is an invited speaker, writer and peer-reviewer. She has also convened several innovative and interdisciplinary research symposia, reframing the relationship between contemporary art practice and global urban space, and drawing together Australian and international researchers. Kristen continues to develop art projects in the Asia-Pacific region responding to the environmental, material and social spaces of the city.

Ex Officio Member – Deputy Director, Head of Studies

MR SIMON COOPER

Simon Cooper has practiced and exhibited extensively throughout Australia and internationally. His work is held in numerous private and public collections throughout the world including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; and the Seoul Metropolitan Museum of Art, South Korea. He completed his undergraduate studies in Printmaking at Prahran College, Victoria and his post-graduate studies at Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne. Simon has taught with a range of institutions in Australia including Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne; RMIT University, Melbourne; University of Southern Queensland; and Chisholm Institute, Melbourne. Since joining NAS in 2001 as Head of Printmaking, he has held other academic positions within the school including Acting Director, and is currently Head of Studies. 

Ex Officio Member – Head of Learning & Teaching (Acting) 

DR YOLUNDA HICKMAN

Yolunda Hickman works in the wider fields of painting and drawing, aiming to test the potential of images and communication systems. She has exhibited extensively in Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally including the exhibitions Domestic Sects at Neon Park (Melbourne); Size at Te Tuhi (Auckland); Crossings at Adam Art Gallery (Wellington); Shoaling at Blue Oyster (Dunedin); and Zombies Everywhere at Sumer Fine Arts (Tauranga). In 2019, Yolunda was awarded the 4Plinths Sculpture Commission by the Wellington Sculpture Trust, with Signal Forest opening the following year on the Te Papa Tonagrewa forecourt. In 2016, she travelled to Canada for a residency at Banff Centre for the Arts and was also part of the RM Summer Residency, Auckland. Yolunda teaches across the postgraduate programmes at National Art School and completed her doctorate at Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland in 2020.

Ex Officio Member – Head of First Peoples Programs 

MR JOHN WAIGHT

John was appointed to the new position Head of First Peoples Programs in February 2022. John is from the Mangarayi people whose country is just outside Katherine. John has worked as Curator and Liaison Officer at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney, and Darwin was Manager of the Maningrida Arts and Culture Shop, and Curator of Aboriginal Art at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, where he delivered the 29th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award. John was also an Aboriginal Health Education Officer at Albion Health Centre and recently completed his Masters of Curation and Cultural Leadership at UNSW. John also sits on a number of cultural boards and committees, including Artback NT, Create NSW MultiArts, MAAS Indigenous Reference Committee, and the Sydney Culture Network. As Head of First Peoples Programs, John will lead the development and coordination of First Peoples academic, community and public programs, policies, and curricula. In addition, the role provides essential leadership for First Peoples engagement and public advocacy at NAS, including the development of courses, student welfare and professional practice. 

Appointed Member – Head of Academic Department

DR ALEXANDER KERSHAW (HEAD OF PHOTOMEDIA)

Dr Alex Kershaw is an artist, writer and educator. As an artist, he works in photography, video installation and documentary film. As a scholar, he connects photographic history and theory with other fields concerned with intersubjective and multi-species encounters such as ethnography, material culture and performance studies. He holds a PhD in Art History, Theory and Criticism with a Concentration in Art Practice from the University of California at San Diego and an MFA from the University of New South Wales, Art and Design. He has written for journals such as FIELD: A Journal of Socially Engaged Art Criticism and exhibited work at venues such as—Tokyo Wonder Site, Japan; Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Art Gallery of New South Wales and Australian Centre for Photography, Australia; Jeu de Paume, France; Oberhausen Short Film Festival, Germany; and Matucana 100, Chile. 

Appointed Member – Head of Academic Department

DR YOLUNDA HICKMAN (HEAD OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES)

Yolunda Hickman works in the wider fields of painting and drawing, aiming to test the potential of images and communication systems. She has exhibited extensively in Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally including the exhibitions Domestic Sects at Neon Park (Melbourne); Size at Te Tuhi (Auckland); Crossings at Adam Art Gallery (Wellington); Shoaling at Blue Oyster (Dunedin); and Zombies Everywhere at Sumer Fine Arts (Tauranga). In 2019, Yolunda was awarded the 4Plinths Sculpture Commission by the Wellington Sculpture Trust, with Signal Forest opening the following year on the Te Papa Tonagrewa forecourt. In 2016, she travelled to Canada for a residency at Banff Centre for the Arts and was also part of the RM Summer Residency, Auckland. Yolunda teaches across the postgraduate programmes at National Art School and completed her doctorate at Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland in 2020.

EXTERNAL – HIGHER EDUCATION MANAGEMENT REPRESENTATIVES

DR MELISSA LAIRD – DIRECTOR, LEARNING AND TEACHING, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF DRAMATIC ART (NIDA)

Professor Melissa Laird is the Associate Dean, Program Excellence at Collarts, Narrm (Melbourne), and is the current chair of their Indigenous Working Group – RAP Committee. Melissa previously held positions at the University of Melbourne, as Deputy Head of School and Academic Director Curriculum and Transformation at the Melbourne School of Professional and Continuing Education (MSPACE). She was formerly the co-chair non-Indigenous of the University of Melbourne’s Reconciliation Network. Working in senior academic and leadership roles in the creative-arts education sector for over 25 years Melissa has developed whole school strategies and implemented Higher Education transitions that transform the lives of learners through future-focused and immersive, connected-enterprise learning and curriculum design that positively influences individual wealth and well-being through access to the creative and performing arts and design. She promotes collaboration and communities of creative practice, and champions embodied learning that reflects industry and sector practice. Through her work, Melissa acknowledges and enriches the differing status of learners in continuing, professional and executive contexts, supporting the authorisation of learners’ unique learning pathways, and their productive contribution to the arts-landscape, academe and the national economy.

EXTERNAL – ARTS INDUSTRY REPRESENTATIVE

MS TESHA MALOTT – ARTS AND CULTURE MANAGER, UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY UNION/DIRECTOR, VERGE GALLERY

Tesha Malott is an experienced arts professional with over 12 years working across experimental and contemporary visual arts in Australia. Her practice is grounded in supporting artists at all career stages, with a sustained focus on accessibility, audience engagement, and inclusive programming. She is currently Arts & Culture Manager at the University of Sydney Union (USU), where she oversees strategic cultural programming across the University, including Verge Gallery, PULP Magazine, and major campus festivals. She has directed Verge Gallery since 2018. From 2013 to 2018, she was General Manager of Firstdraft, Australia’s longest-running artist-led initiative, contributing significantly to its development and the support of emerging artists. 

EXTERNAL – HIGHER EDUCATION MANAGEMENT REPRESENTATIVES

MR ANDREW COMRIE – DIRECTOR OF LEARNING AND INNOVATION, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF DRAMATIC ART

Andrew Comrie is an experienced academic and educational manager, with a career in education spanning 40 years, in tertiary education in both further education/college (Scottish equivalent of TAFE) and higher education in Scotland. He has held academic, management, and senior management positions. Over the last ten years, he has been a senior manager at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, which is listed in the top ten performing arts institutions in the world in the QS world ranking and Director of Learning and Innovation at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in Sydney, Australia.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS REPRESENTATIVE

PROFESSOR EMERITA CHRISTINA SLADE

Christina Slade is Emeritus Professor at Bath Spa University in the United Kingdom where she was Vice-Chancellor from 2012-17. Prior to that she was the Dean of Arts and Social Sciences at the City University London and Macquarie University’s Dean of Humanities. She was Professor of Media Theory with the University of Utrecht and the Head of the Creative Communication School at the University of Canberra. She is currently assisting as Rector of Charles Sturt University. She has studied and worked in universities in Europe, the US, Latin America and South Asia. She has a PhD in philosophy of language and logic from ANU, a Diploma of Education from the University of New England and qualifications in Spanish French and (very rusty) Arabic.  She has led major EU funded research grants and has authored numerous articles, books and has given policy advice in Westminster and Brussels. Her UK board appointments include: Trustee of The Royal High School Bath and the Holburne Museum, Trustee and Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee of the Association of Commonwealth Universities in the UK, and Director and Chair of the Education, Heritage and Culture Sector Table with the Iraq Britain Business Council.  She now chairs the Board of PIA, a higher education institution, serves on the Board of the National Art School and the Media Centre for Education Research (MCERA) the Advisory Board of QS rankings, a UK based group, and on the Council of the Royal Society of NSW. 

ACADEMIC STAFF REPRESENTATIVE 

DR GEORGINA COLE (LECTURER, ART HISTORY & THEORY)

Georgina studied art history at the University of Sydney, receiving the University Medal in her Honours year. She completed her PhD in 2010 with a thesis on doors and architectural space in eighteenth-century genre painting. Since 2006, she has taught art history and theory at the University of Sydney, and in 2011 joined the National Art School’s Art History Theory program. Georgina was a Visiting Scholar at the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Ct, from October to December 2011, and regularly contributes lectures to the Art Gallery Society of New South Wales. Her recent publications include: ‘Rethinking vision in eighteenth-century paintings of the blind’, Art Theory as Visual Epistemology, ed. Harald Klinke (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014), Fugitive forms and grand designs: 16th to 19th century drawings from the collection of Justice Roddy Meagher (Sydney: University Art Gallery, 2014) and “Looking back at Zoffany”, Art History 35, no 4 (2012). She recently curated an exhibition of early modern drawings, Fugitive forms and grand designs: 16th to 19th century drawings from the collection of Justice Roddy Meagher at the University Art Gallery, University of Sydney and has worked as a researcher in photography at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. 

SESSIONAL ACADEMIC STAFF REPRESENTATIVE 

DR LIZ BRADSHAW (SESSIONAL LECTURER, SCULPTURE)

Liz Bradshaw is an artist, cultural researcher, and lecturer. She currently teaches in the Sculpture department at NAS and into the Masters of Design program at UNSW Art, Design, and Architecture. She has recently curated exhibitions including I want a future that lives up to my past (NAS, Queer Contemporary, 2022); A thousand beautiful things (Clifford Chance, 2023), Ward 17 South (Qtopia, in partnership with St Vincent’s Hospital, NAS 2023).  She was the lead curator for the opening exhibitions of Qtopia Sydney (February 2024) the largest queer museum in the world. 

STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES

ELENI PAPE (UNDERGRADUATE), AISLINN CONNOLLY (POSTGRADUATE)

IN ATTENDANCE

SECRETARY TO ACADEMIC BOARD

MR BEN GRIFFIN – REGISTRAR

Ben has over 15 years of experience of management and quality improvement in the tertiary sector in the United Kingdom and Australia. From his time as Vice President Education & Representation of the Queen Mary, University of London, Student Union he moved on the Learning & Skill Development Agency (LSDA), a national non-governmental quality improvement and research organisation for the Further Education sector in the UK. He worked on numerous quality improvement programs culminating in his role as Development Officer on the National Teaching and Learning Change Program at LSDA’s successor organisation the Learning and Skills Network (LSN) and as Partnerships Manager for LSN’s bespoke quality improvement, consultancy and training service. Ben completed his Masters of Education (Leadership & Management) at the University of Sydney in 2009 and since 2010 has been the Quality Manager at the National Art School with responsibility for Student Services and the School’s quality and compliance procedures. In 2015 Ben was appointed as Registrar.

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Led by art educators and inspired by James Nguyen’s new installation work `Homeopathies_where trees grow` (2025), join us for a free drop-in artmaking workshop to make your own incense holder out of clay which will become part of the evolving artwork in the NAS Gallery, commissioned for The Neighbour at the Gate.

Next Saturday, 12 July, between 11am – 3pm.

Visit our website to view the full program (link in bio).

The Neighbour at the Gate has been made possible with the generous support of the NSW Government through its Blockbusters Funding initiative.

View Instagram post by nas_au

Jul 8

Open post by nas_au with ID 18485445532066303
Led by art educators and inspired by James Nguyen’s new installation work 'Homeopathies_where trees grow' (2025), join us for a free drop-in artmaking workshop to make your own incense holder out of clay which will become part of the evolving artwork in the NAS Gallery, commissioned for The Neighbour at the Gate. Next Saturday, 12 July, between 11am – 3pm. Visit our website to view the full program (link in bio). The Neighbour at the Gate has been made possible with the generous support of the NSW Government through its Blockbusters Funding initiative.

Next Saturday, join us for a fun-filled day of family friendly, free creative activities. There will be sound baths, drop-in artmaking, children`s activities, an artists and curators panel talk, followed by dj sets and food trucks. Stick around for after-hours access to the gallery and the Shared Skies Music Concert with BARKAA, Rainbow Chan and DJ Rocky Stallone (ticketed, 18+).

Visit our website to view the full program (link in bio).

The Neighbour at the Gate has been made possible with the generous support of the NSW Government through its Blockbusters Funding initiative.

View Instagram post by nas_au

Jul 5

Open post by nas_au with ID 18087507916680310
Next Saturday, join us for a fun-filled day of family friendly, free creative activities. There will be sound baths, drop-in artmaking, children's activities, an artists and curators panel talk, followed by dj sets and food trucks. Stick around for after-hours access to the gallery and the Shared Skies Music Concert with BARKAA, Rainbow Chan and DJ Rocky Stallone (ticketed, 18+). Visit our website to view the full program (link in bio). The Neighbour at the Gate has been made possible with the generous support of the NSW Government through its Blockbusters Funding initiative.

Just over a week to go until the `Shared Skies` music concert featuring BARKAA, "The New Matriarch of Australian Rap" (GQ), and Rainbow Chan, Artist of the Year at the 2022 FBi SMAC Awards. But who’s counting? 👀

🎫 Concession tickets just $25 — link in bio.

@barkaa__
@chunyinrainbowchan

The Neighbour at the Gate has been made possible with the generous support of the NSW Government through its Blockbusters Funding initiative.

View Instagram post by nas_au

Jul 2

Open post by nas_au with ID 18505519228031663
Just over a week to go until the 'Shared Skies' music concert featuring BARKAA, "The New Matriarch of Australian Rap" (GQ), and Rainbow Chan, Artist of the Year at the 2022 FBi SMAC Awards. But who’s counting? 👀 🎫 Concession tickets just $25 — link in bio. @barkaa__ @chunyinrainbowchan The Neighbour at the Gate has been made possible with the generous support of the NSW Government through its Blockbusters Funding initiative.
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