The ''Dictionary of Australian Artists'' (DAA) was the outcome of a project begun in the 1970s at the
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...
under the leadership of Bernard Smith, and was continued after his retirement in 1981 by
Joan Kerr
Joan Kerr (1938–2004) was an Australian academic and cultural preservationist. Initially her interest was sparked in preserving the architectural heritage of Australia, but over time her interests spread to art history and Australian culture ...
. The dictionary went online as the digitised version of the DAA, known as the ''Dictionary of Australian Artists Online'' (DAAO), in the early 2000s, before being revised and extended as Design & Art Australia Online in 2010.
Background
The project to create the ''Dictionary of Australian Artists'' began in the 1970s at the
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...
under the leadership of Bernard Smith and funded by the
Australian Research Council
The Australian Research Council (ARC) is the primary non-medical research funding agency of the Australian Government, distributing more than in grants each year. The Council was established by the ''Australian Research Council Act 2001'', ...
. Its development was continued after his retirement in 1981 by
Joan Kerr
Joan Kerr (1938–2004) was an Australian academic and cultural preservationist. Initially her interest was sparked in preserving the architectural heritage of Australia, but over time her interests spread to art history and Australian culture ...
(1938–2004), who brought a new standard of inclusivity to a work that had concentrated on mainstream figures.
In early 2003 Kerr found that it was not possible to publish her recent research on Australian Black and White artists. In addition the 1991 edition of the Dictionary was out of print, and being marketed as a rare book, but
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
were not interested in a new edition. In both cases publishers indicated that the small size of the Australian book market meant that scholarly publications of this nature were no longer a viable financial proposition. Kerr discussed her problem with Joanna Mendelssohn when she was giving a guest lecture to Mendelssohn's Australian art history students at the
College of Fine Arts
The School of Fine Arts or College of Fine Arts is the official name or part of the name of several schools of fine arts, often as an academic part of a larger university. These include:
The Americas
North America
*Alabama School of Fin ...
(COFA). Mendelssohn's writing students had begun to publish their work online in a (now defunct) blog entitled ''Artwrite'' and she was only too aware of the lack of reliable scholarly material on Australian art on the web. She suggested to Kerr that the solution was to take her research online. Mendelssohn enlisted the support of
University of New South Wales
The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...
(UNSW) librarian Andrew Wells and Neil Brown, the COFA Associate Dean of Research.
When Kerr was diagnosed with
terminal cancer
Terminal illness or end-stage disease is a disease that cannot be cured or adequately treated and is expected to result in the death of the patient. This term is more commonly used for progressive diseases such as cancer, dementia or advanced ...
, the project became a national effort by scholars in Australian art to ensure that Kerr's legacy would be in part a continuance of her scholarly research. Kerr asked for Vivien Johnson, author of scholarly works on Western Desert artists, to become editor in chief of the project. Before she died on 22 February 2004, she knew that a national partnership of universities, art galleries, and libraries was in the process of applying for funding to create the ''Dictionary of Australian Artists Online'' (DAAO). The first Australian Research Council (ARC) grant in support of the project was a partnership headed by UNSW, the
Art Gallery of New South Wales
The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most importa ...
, The
National Gallery of Australia
The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...
, the
National Library of Australia
The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...
, the
State Library of New South Wales
The State Library of New South Wales, part of which is known as the Mitchell Library, is a large heritage-listed special collections, reference and research library open to the public and is one of the oldest libraries in Australia. Establish ...
, the
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...
, and
Charles Darwin University
Charles Darwin University (CDU) is an Australian public university with a main campus in Darwin and eight satellite campuses in some metropolitan and regional areas. It was established in 2003 after the merger of Northern Territory University, ...
.
Online
Initially, three major books were digitised: the two works by Joan Kerr and one by Vivien Johnson listed below, plus a database of cartoonists prepared previously by Kerr and of prints by Roger Butler of the National Gallery of Australia.
Johnson, with the assistance of Tess Allas and Laura Fisher, also added an extensive database of Aboriginal biographies created as a part of her Storylines project.
Storylines website
/ref> The first project director was Leonie Hellmers (2005 to 2008).
Design and Art Australia website.
In 2010, after a third ARC grant, the DAAO began the process of revising its website and transforming itself into Design & Art Australia Online.[
]
Description
The current research director is Gillian Fuller, supported by managing editor Olivia Bolton and data manager Jo Croucher. Joanna Mendelssohn and Anita Calloway are joint editors in chief, and Ross Harley is the new lead chief investigator.["How We Are Organised"]
Design and Art Australia website.
Bibliography
*Kerr, Joan ''Dictionary of Australian Artists, Painters, Sketchers, Photographers and Engravers to 1870'' Melbourne 1992
*Kerr, Joan ''Heritage: The National Women's Art Book'' Sydney 1995
*Johnson, Vivien ''Western Desert Artists: A Biographical Dictionary'' 1995
See also
Other reference works covering Australian art include:
*McCulloch, Alan ''Encyclopedia of Australian Art'' 1st edition 1968, Hutchinson & Co, London
*McCulloch, Alan ''Encyclopedia of Australian Art'' 2nd edition 1984 (Two volumes), Hutchinson & Co, London
*Germaine, Max ''Artists and Galleries of Australia and New Zealand'' 1979, Lansdowne Editions, Dee Why West, NSW 2099
References
External links
Design and Art Australia Online
How the internet liberated Australia’s art history
at ''The Conversation
''The Conversation'' is a 1974 American mystery thriller film written, produced, and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Cindy Williams, Frederic Forrest, Harrison Ford, Teri Garr, and Rober ...
''
{{Authority control
Australian biographical dictionaries