8 - 12 March 2024

About Us

The Selection Panel

Introducing the 2024 Beechworth Biennale selection panel members:

Belinda Briggs
Writer, Curator of Indigenous Art at SAM

Belinda Briggs is a Yorta Yorta and Wamba Wamba woman, currently living and working in the Dungala Kaiela (Goulburn Murray) region in northern Victoria. She is a writer and curator whose most recent curatorial projects include the Shepparton Art Museum’s major exhibition, Lin Onus: The Land Within (2021), and the prestigious Indigenous Ceramic Award (ICA) 2022. Belinda also works with Kaiela Art as a curatorial lead for the Munarra Regional Centre of Excellence project build. Belinda says engaging with Indigenous artworks and becoming intimately acquainted with artists’ stories is one way for everyone to enhance learning and, as a result, empower us to effect change in our communities.

Belinda is the indigenous curator at the Shepparton Art Museum (SAM) and co-curator of the prestigious SAM Indigenous Ceramic Award. Founded in 2007, the Award aims to recognise the rich and diverse use of the ceramic medium by Indigenous artists all across Australia while providing a national platform to share personal, historical and deep cultural learnings from artists and Country. The BIENNALE COMMITTEE is pleased to announce BELINDA BRIGGS will offer an integral contribution to the 2024 event.

Susie Losch
Artist

Susie Losch was a previous entrant and exhibiting finalist in the 2022 Beechworth Contemporary Art Award. She has first hand valuable insight regarding installation of a site specific work in Beechworth. Her celebrated 2022 artwork entitled SWELL, was the continuum of her investigation into the use of air as a medium, or transformative material.

The old Beechworth Town Hall, with its recently re-installed pipped organ provided the site and impetus for further exploration into the notions of inflation and deflation as a basis for sculpture by Losch. Using recycled fabrics, she created varying organic forms. Involving a local organ player and then a sound technician she manipulated the original recording. The interaction between the forms was determined by a configuration of linked electronic timers - this control allowed for choreography of the individual forms as well as control over the sound and patterns of the work. SWELL by Susie Losch was awarded a one time monetary prize by the guest judge Sebastian Goldspink, who claimed the artwork to be world class. Image by Jules Boag.

Nina Machielse Hunt
Creative Director

Nina Machielse Hunt's experience within the Australian art scene began in the 1990s as an artist on the Board of Directors at First Draft Gallery, the longest running ARI in Sydney. After completing her Masters in Art Administration at COFA now UNSW school of Art and Design she cites the late respected curator Nick Waterlow as one of her mentors.

Working in Art Education programming within schools and state and regional galleries, her love of engaging audiences with contemporary art processes and concepts developed. In 2022 she initiated The Beechworth Contemporary Art Award out of the desire to bring people together in meaningful ways, post fires and pandemic lock downs in regional Victoria. The unique heritage setting of her home town of Beechworth providing the ‘canvas’ and the inspiration. Successfully representing 28 regional artists in the stable of a newly established art business, Beechworth Contemporary Art Space, she was able to sponsor the $10,000 prize money as a draw card for the event. The art award has since evolved into the Beechworth Biennale and now with the support of an incorporated committee of skilled professionals, Nina looks forward to overseeing an exciting 5 day program of exhibition and events in March next year. Image Marc Bongers.

Eric Nash
Director, Benalla Art Gallery

Eric Nash is an arts professional with qualifications in Visual Art (Majoring in Painting), Arts Administration, and Management, and a wealth of experience in the gallery sector.

Appointed in 2019 to lead the Benalla Art Gallery - a cultural and architectural icon of northeast Victoria since it opened in 1975, with a significant collection spanning three centuries of Australian art - Nash was previously the General Manager for the country's leading lens-based media gallery, the Centre for Contemporary Photography. Nash has also developed training programs for Victorian galleries' peak body, the Public Galleries Association of Victoria. He is experienced in working in public galleries in a regional context, having worked for Perc Tucker Regional Gallery and Pinnacles Gallery in Townsville for nine years, including as Curator from 2013 to 2016. Nash is currently a member of the NETS Victoria Exhibitions Advisory Committee.

The Beechworth Biennale Inc Committee

The Beechworth Biennale Committee Inc. from left, Beverley Smith, Jamie Kronborg, Nina Machielse Hunt, Sally Huguenin, Terrence Batt, Lisa Pidutti and Maarten Vlot (not pictured) oversee the 2024 event.

Image by Marc Bongers.