Jessica Whiting (Home)

I have taken on a part-time role at a registered training organisation that provides training grounded in community and cultural development. The organisation is called Creating Links and my role within it is not just in marketing but in administration. This allows me the opportunity to become familiar with the policies and procedures required of an education provider and also to contribute content to courses that are currently in development.

The other part-of-my-time continues to be dedicated to White Canvas Gallery and other contracts.

Helen Burton is Manager of Macquarie Group Collection which is recognised as a significant collection of Australian art. Whilst part of a panel of collectors at QUT Art Museum’s ‘The Art of Collecting’, she described the acquisition criteria to which her consultants must refer when considering a work for the collection. These consultants must ask themselves:

• is the artist considered to be emerging? (n.b. the Macquarie Group Collection does not consider age to be of any consequence; rather, the number of years since the artist graduated from university)
• how many exhibitions has the artist’s work been included in?
• has the artist won any prizes?

‘The Art of Collecting’ was a panel discussion that provided insight into the collection of art from the viewpoints of public institutions, commercial galleries, corporate collections and collecting groups. It took place at QUT Art Museum on Wednesday, 21 March 2012.

“It’s the people who bombard you that you don’t want to show” says Bruce Heiser at QUT Art Museum’s ‘The Art of Collecting’. Heiser is Director of Heiser Gallery and part of a panel of individuals with differing views on collecting works of art. He explains that the majority of artists that he represents had been recommended to him by other artists and that he had then read more about them in magazines. He explained that before he represents an artist he has to:

• experience a gut reaction to the work of the artist
• be convinced of the skill of the artist
• consider the dynamic of his represented artists
• be convinced that the artist will make a contribution to Queensland or Australian art history

‘The Art of Collecting’ was a panel discussion that provided insight into the collection of art from the viewpoints of public institutions, commercial galleries, corporate collections and collecting groups. It took place at QUT Art Museum on Wednesday, 21 March 2012.