Adviser appointed to curate and plan Aboriginal art centre exhibits

One of Australia’s most acclaimed Indigenous advisers will plan exhibits for Adelaide’s new Aboriginal Art and Cultures Centre.

Indigenous arts administrator Lee-Ann Buckskin.

Acclaimed Indigenous arts adviser Lee-Ann Tjunypa Buckskin has been appointed to drive planning, programming and curation for Adelaide’s new Aboriginal Art and Cultures Centre.

Miss Buckskin’s freshly created role as assistant director of program and strategy will involve working with collecting institutions, such as the SA Museum and Art Gallery, and other stakeholders.

She will also develop an artistic vision and implementation plan for the $200m centre, which is due to start construction later this year and be completed by 2024.

“My role will draw upon a wealth of local knowledge and experience which will inform the programs curated in the space,” Miss Buckskin said.

“The collaborative approach is embedded in Indigenous cultural practice and represents a millennium of trial and error, testing and listening to the bonds of people and landscape.”

A Narungga, Kaurna, Wirangu and Wotjobaluk woman, Ms Buckskin has won several major

awards for her work and was previously deputy chair of federal funding body the Australia Council for the Arts.

Lee-Ann Tjunypa Buckskin, the Aboriginal Art and Cultures Centre's newly appointed assistant director of program and strategy, with Premier Steven Marshall. Picture: Supplied

Premier Steven Marshall said Miss Buckskin’s appointment was a “pivotal milestone” in the AACC’s progress,

“From project inception, representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities has been at the core of the project and will continue to be so under Miss Buckskin’s leadership,” Mr Marshall said.

The search for an AACC director will commence in 2022. Last year, the state government appointed former Aboriginal education chief executive and community advocate David Rathman as the centre’s ambassador, to lead its reference group.

Miss Buckskin has worked on major events such as the Adelaide Fringe, Adelaide Festival and Brisbane Festival, and in advisory roles for TV series and feature films including The Leftovers, Storm Boy and Coming Home: A Film Honoring Aboriginal Diggers.

She has also been co-chair of Adelaide’s national Tarnanthi Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art, which will release its 2021 program on Wednesday.

“I look forward to developing a vision for our communities and international visitors to engage, learn, explore and connect with the history, art and contemporary culture of Australia’s First Peoples,” Miss Buckskin said.

Final design for the Aboriginal Art and Cultures Centre at Lot Fourteen. Picture: Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Woods Bagot.

While final external concept drawings by international architecture firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro were released earlier this month, its Australian partner Woods Bagot said the project had yet to enter the design development phase for its internal structure and materials.

A State Government spokesperson said a construction contractor would be appointed in October, with site preparation to start in November.

Completion and handover is due in late 2024, to allow for installation of exhibits before the centre opens to the public in early 2025.