MEMBER – EX OFFICIO, CHAIR – ACADEMIC STANDARDS AND DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
MR SIMON COOPER – INTERIM DIRECTOR AND CEO
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 Deputy Director.
SENIOR ACADEMIC STAFF NOMINEE
DR MICHAEL HILL – SENIOR LECTURER, HEAD OF ART HISTORY & THEORY
Dr. Michael Hill lectures on modern, contemporary, and Australian art, as well as conducting specialist electives on subjects such as architecture and 17th century painting. His research interests include Baroque art, portraiture, classical architecture, and art historical methodology. Michael is also a curator and advisor to Sculpture by the Sea in Bondi, Cottesloe, and Denmark. He has been Head of Art History & Theory at NAS since 2011.
SENIOR ACADEMIC STAFF NOMINEE
DR STEPHEN LITTLE – HEAD OF PAINTING
Dr Stephen Little is an artist and educator and he has taught progressive, creative higher education courses since the early 1990s. Prior to his current role as Subject Leader for Painting with Australia’s National Art School he has held lecturing posts at a range of other creative arts institutions. These have included Goldsmiths College in London, Sydney College of the Arts (University of Sydney), the University of Western Sydney (Nepean), the Australian Catholic University and Penrith College of TAFE. Aside from academic posts Stephen has spent many years working in different capacities with a range of galleries in Australia and overseas. These have included, but are not limited to, the Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney), the Alan Cristea Gallery (London), White Cube (London), and the Lisson Gallery (London) where he held the position of Technical Manager for five years. The wealth of accrued experience that he now brings to his current post, in conjunction with his arts practice and his professional associations across a range of educational institutions, has provided him with a valuable and varied set of competencies that draw on theory, practice based research, and first hand experience with some of the art industry’s most reputable galleries and international art organisations.
ACADEMIC STAFF REPRESENTATIVE
DR GEORGINA COLE
Georgina is an art historian specialising in the art and ideas of eighteenth-century Europe. Her research focuses on the senses and sensory deprivation, and she has published articles and book chapters on representations of blindness in French and British art as well as the nature and uses of ambergris. She is currently a member of the International Advisory Board of the journalBritish Art Studies. As Lecturer in Art History and Theory at the National Art School, Georgina coordinates the first-year program, teaches electives on The Age of Enlightenment and the Artist in Art History, and contributes lectures to third- and fourth-year core programs.
SESSIONAL ACADEMIC REPRESENTATIVE
LESLIE RICE
Leslie Rice was a professional tattooer for more than 10 years before visiting art school and realising that everything he once loved was awful. Completing his BFA with Honours at the National Art School in 2006, Leslie Rice began to make paintings that exploited, mocked and critically examined his own questionable taste. Winning the Doug Moran National Portrait prize in 2007 (and again in 2012), he was featured in a smattering of group shows, prizes and solo shows over the next ten years. As an actor, Rice has appeared in several feature films and nationally syndicated television programs and has contributed regularly as a presenter on ABC’s arts program, The Mix. Rice has taught students studying across all levels at the National Art School since 2008. He is currently studying his Doctorate.
EXTERNAL – HIGHER EDUCATION MANAGEMENT REPRESENTATIVES
DR MELISSA LAIRD – DIRECTOR, LEARNING AND TEACHING, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF DRAMATIC ART (NIDA)
Dr Melissa Laird is a material culture practitioner-scholar whose research blends academic inquiry with creative practice; she has a particular devotion to writing and scholarship in the creative arts. Her research frames ephemeral, transient and fragmentary artefacts as significant models for historical study and object-based artwork. As Director, Education and Graduate Studies at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) Melissa nurtures a culture of practice-based scholarship across the organisation and is actively engaged in learning and teaching, course development and academic governance which reflects contemporary attitudes and policy. She champions the development of unique communities of creative practice through partnerships in which staff and students from diverse backgrounds can flourish. Melissa has presented at academic conferences in Australia and overseas, and won awards for her drawing and sculpture. Recently published in Doctoral Writing in the Creative and Performing Arts (2014 Libri UK), the text utilises one of her artworks on the cover. Melissa received the Distinguished Teaching Award from the Australian Council of Art and Design Schools (ACUADS) in 2014.
EXTERNAL – ARTS INDUSTRY REPRESENTATIVE
MS ALEXIE GLASS-KANTOR – EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ARTSPACE
Alexie Glass-Kantor is the Executive Director of Artspace, Sydney, which supports the commissioning of contemporary art, exhibitions, publishing initiatives, and research residencies for artists and curators. Prior to her appointment to Artspace in November 2013, Glass-Kantor was Director, Senior Curator, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, an independent art space that was well regarded for its outreach and curatorial engagement with the Asia-Pacific under her leadership. As curator or co-curator of over one hundred exhibitions and biennials, Glass-Kantor has worked extensively with Australian and International artists across generations and instigated ambitious international exchanges and collaborative projects in Singapore, Malaysia, China, South Korea, Indonesia, New Zealand, Italy, France, UK and USA. Selected highlights include Parallel Collisions: 12th Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia (2012); City Within the City, Art Sonje Centre, Seoul (2011/12); Dying In Spite of the Miraculous, Melbourne Festival (2010); No Name Station, Iberia Centre for Contemporary Art, Beijing, Warmun Art Centre, WA and Gertrude Contemporary (2010/12); 21:100:100 – one hundred sound works by one hundred artists from the twenty-first century, Melbourne Festival and MONA MOFO (2008/09); and Australian curator for Lucky Number Seven: SITE Santa Fe Seventh International Biennial, SITE Santa Fe New Mexico (2008). Glass-Kantor was previously a Curator at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image and has held programming positions in state art institutions, museums, independent spaces and festivals. She has authored artist monographs and regularly contributes to catalogues, symposiums and journals internationally. Glass-Kantor is currently the Curator, Encounters, Art Basel | Hong Kong (2015-2017).
EXTERNAL – ARTS INDUSTRY REPRESENTATIVE
JUMAADI – ARTIST
NAS alumnus Jumaadi lives and works in Imogiri, Yogyakarta, Indonesia and Sydney NSW. He is a multi-disciplinary artist working across a range of mediums, including painting, drawing, performance and installation. His practice is informed by personal experience as well as the political and aesthetic lineages of his homeland, including wayang kulit, a tradition of shadow-puppet plays that originated in Java and Bali. Jumaadi’s work is widely featured in public and private collections across Australia, Asia and Europe such as the National Gallery of Australia, Museum of Contemporary Art and Art Gallery of New Wales.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS REPRESENTATIVE
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 Lincoln University College, serves on the Advisory Board of QS rankings, a UK based group, and on the Boards of the Adelaide based Media Centre for Education Research (MCERA).
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.
