Amber Creswell Bell

Amber Creswell Bell

Wednesday 11 June
12.45 – 1.30pm
Cell Block Theatre

Amber Creswell Bell turned her corporate career on its head to become author of seven art books and a gallery director. She also established an art prize and has acted as mentor to hundreds of emerging artists. In this presentation, Creswell Bell will discuss how to navigate the many winding roads that lead to a career in the arts as well as providing an overview of the key building bocks that that artists needs.

Amber Creswell Bell is an art curator, an author of books on the arts, a lifestyle writer, a public speaker, an artist mentor and an enthusiastic creative hustler. With a passion for art, Amber is recognised for championing and educating emerging and unrepresented artists. She was the Director of Emerging Art for Michael Reid galleries, curating both the emerging art and ceramics programs from 2019-2025. In 2021 Amber established the National Emerging Art Prize (NEAP) in collaboration with Michael Reid. Amber has been curator of the NEAP since its inception. Amber has published six art books with Thames & Hudson to date, with her seventh out in September this year.

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What's happening at the National Art School on 6 September? RSVP to our Open Day today to find out. (Link in bio)
Hear artist James Nguyen (@jamesnguyens) discuss the process of his artwork ‘Homeopathies_where new trees grow’ (2025), a site-specific installation created for The Neighbour at the Gate, now on at NAS Gallery.

In response to the exhibition, Nguyen created a large-scale suspended textile, dyed with introduced weeds and contaminated mud collected along the Duck River and Parramatta River in Sydney. These local sites, like many places in Vietnam, continue to be contaminated by Agent Orange, dioxins and toxic leachates that account for the industrial scale manufacturing of chemical weapons along Homebush Bay.

The Naarm/Melbourne-based, Vietnamese Australian artist positions his personal experiences and perspectives in dialogue with others in his interdisciplinary practice, moving between live and online performance, video, drawing and installations. This work was made in conjunction with Nguyen’s aunt, Nguyễn Thị Kim Nhung, and uncle, Nguyễn Công Chính, who you can hear in conversation with the artist in the Artist Talks archive on our website.

The Neighbour at the Gate is now on until Saturday 18 October 2025. 11am – 5pm, Monday to Sunday. Plan your visit at the 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.
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