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📍James Fairfax Theatre🎟️Free, bookings essential
⌛️Duration: 90 mins
At the Gallery Live Stream
To mark the 50th anniversary of the United Nations International Women's Year (IWY) the 2025 Betty Churcher AO Memorial Oration celebrates diverse voices and the contributions of artists internationally.
Join us for an exclusive conversation between ground-breaking feminist artist Judy Chicago and award-winning author and art historian Katy Hessel followed by a panel discussion with leading Australian artists Alison Alder, Marie Hagerty, Raquel Ormella and r e a, hosted by Tracy Cooper-Lavery, Head, Art Across Australia and Chair of the National Gallery’s Gender Equity Action Group.
Filmed across two continents, the conversation between Chicago and Hessel delves into Chicago’s experiences as a woman artist from the 1960s to today and how gender has shaped her art and career.
On stage at the National Gallery, the panellists will discuss their own experiences in the arts and feminist movements in Australia and reflect on their various contributions as artists, educators, activists, advocates and community organisers.
Together these conversations highlight the role of institutions in addressing gender inequality and what still needs to be done in the continuing fight for gender equality in the arts.
Betty Churcher AO (1931–2015) was a leading Australian arts educator and administrator. During her esteemed career, Betty Churcher was the first woman to lead an Australian tertiary education centre as Dean of the School of Art and Design at Phillip Institute of Technology in Melbourne (1982–1987), first woman to lead a state gallery as Director of the Art Gallery of Western Australia (1987–1990) and first and only woman Director of the National Gallery (1990–1997).
Established in 2022 as part of the National Gallery’s Gender Equity Action Plan, the Betty Churcher AO Memorial Oration is a major annual event featuring leading women in the arts who inspire creativity, inclusivity, engagement and learning.
Judy Chicago, 2023. Photograph © Donald Woodman/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia
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