Engages,

Anastasia Elias, Grace Davenport, Melissa Loughnan, Michael Schwarz, and John Wardle Other People’s Money

As part of Bus Projects’ Fourth Editions Exhibition we are delighted to host a discussion about the possibilities and potential of art collecting, patronage, and philanthropy in Australia’s arts ecology. Chaired by Melbourne-based curator, writer and fundraiser, Kim Brockett, this discussion will feature an eminent range of speakers, including Anastasia Elias, Grace Davenport, Melissa Loughnan, Michael Schwarz, and John Wardle.

As arts organisations and individual artists seek ways to remain viable and ambitious when competition for public money at an all time high, it is increasingly through a set of relationships with forward-thinking philanthropists, donors, collectors, and private museums. These relationships are complex and involve a combination of practical and aspirational expectations from the giver and the receiver.

As an artist-run organisation, Bus Projects has long benefited from the visionary investment our artist-community and the voluntary work that successive management committees have put into the organisation. Yet as we reach our 15th year of operation it is important that we have conversations that interrogate the key forces that shape the Australian arts ecology.

Kim Brockett is a Melbourne-based curator, writer and arts fundraiser. She is the Deputy Chair of Bus Projects, a Board Member of un Projects, a writer for Vault magazine, and works at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) in Corporate Partnerships. In 2013/14 she undertook development internships at the Museum of Modern Art and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Kim has produced projects and exhibitions at Gertrude Contemporary, Bus Projects, and Craft, and has written for NGV’s Gallery magazine, NAVA, Composite Journal, Buffet, City of Melbourne and West Space Journal. From 2015-16 she organised a curatorial exchange between Værelset in Copenhagen and Bus Projects. Kim holds a Master of Art Curatorship and a Bachelor of Arts (Art History & Cinema Studies) from the University of Melbourne.

Grace Davenport is a Melbourne-based development manager specialising in creative fundraising and marketing initiatives for cultural organisations. Grace currently holds the position of Patron Program Manager at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) and is completing a Masters of Marketing. Interested in new funding models and refreshing mentalities towards cultural philanthropy, she has recently created the annual ACCA BACKER campaign, a triple-matched funding model that in its first year raised $100,000 in a month. She has also established the Contemporary Circle, a new network activating young professionals and cultural enthusiasts as critically engaged ambassadors for the arts.

Melissa Loughnan is the founding director of Utopian Slumps, which operated ​as a non-profit curator-run arts initiative from 2007 to 2009, and a dealer gallery from 2010 to 2014. Melissa holds a Bachelor of Creative Arts,​ ​Postgraduate Diploma in Arts (Art​ ​History) and a Master of Art​ ​Curatorship from the University​ ​of Melbourne. ​She has undertaken roles at the​ Melbourne Museum and​ ​the Australian Commercial Galleries​ ​Association​, interned at the Queensland Art Gallery​ and​ the Ian​ ​Potter Museum of Art​, and carried out a curatorial mentorship at the​ ​Australian Centre for Contemporary​ ​Art. Melissa is currently writing An A​ ​to Z of New Australian Art, to be​ ​released by Thames and Hudson​ ​next year​. She is a founding member​ ​of the Australian Centre for​ ​Contemporary Art’s Contemporary​ ​Art Circle and a board member of​ ​School House Studios.​ Melissa now​ works as an art consultant and freelance curator.

Dr Michael Schwarz spent 35 years working as an Adolescent and Family Psychiatrist in public and private health systems in Victoria and New South Wales. He retired from clinical work at the end of 2015 to have a ‘final career’ in the arts field as an ‘arts enthusiast’. This encompasses many areas including: collecting, education, volunteer guiding (at the NGV), supporting and mentoring artists and projects, the establishment of an inner city not for profit arts space and philanthropy. Michael is amazed how quickly a full time medical career turned into a full time retirement vocation.

John Wardle John Wardle established his architectural practice in Melbourne and has led the growth of the practice from working on small domestic dwellings to university buildings, museums and large commercial offices. John has an international reputation as a design architect and has developed a design process that builds upon ideas that evolve from a site’s topography, landscape, history and context and a client’s particular aspirations and values. The architecture of John Wardle Architects (JWA) is closely tailored to its place and highly experiential in nature. John is attuned to the importance of detail - it is through the detail that the nature of material, the fit to function and the experience of occupation is expressed.

John has formed strong links with both artists and public art galleries and as a practicing architect and board member of The Ian Potter Museum of Art has contributed to important public art programs. The work of JWA has been celebrated in the publication of two monographs: Volume – John Wardle Architects, published by Thames & Hudson in 2008 and most recently, This Building Likes Me, published by Thames & Hudson in 2016.