Max Delany
Artistic Director & CEO
Max Delany commenced the role of Artistic Director and Chief Executive Officer at ACCA in February 2016. He was formerly Senior Curator, Contemporary Art, at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2012–2016), and Director, Monash University Museum of Art (2004–2012), where he oversaw the development of MUMA’s award-winning architectural premises on the Caulfield campus.
Since 2011 Max has also held the position of adjunct Associate Professor, Curatorial Practice, in the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, Monash University; and is currently Deputy Chair, Contemporary Art Organisations Australia (CAOA). Max has contributed to numerous government, academic and professional advisory boards, juries and consultancies, and on public art strategy and procurement for a range of architectural and infrastructure projects.
At ACCA Max has been responsible for curatorial projects including Paul Yore: WORD MADE FLESH 2022; Like a Wheel That Turns: The 2022 Macfarlane Commissions (with Annika Kristensen) 2022; Who’s Afraid of Public Space? (with Annika Kristensen and Miriam Kelly) 2021–22; Yhonnie Scarce: Missile Park (with Lisa Waup and Liz Nowell) 2021; Overlapping Magisteria: The 2020 Macfarlane Commissions (with Miriam Kelly) 2020–21; On Vulnerability and Doubt 2019; Tom Nicholson: Public Meeting 2019; The Theatre is Lying: The inaugural Macfarlane Commissions 2018–19 and Eva Rothschild: Kosmos 2018 (both with Annika Kristensen); Unfinished Business: Perspectives on art and feminism (with a curatorial team of Paola Balla, Julie Ewington, Annika Kristensen, Vikki McInnes and Elvis Richardson) 2017–18; Claire Lambe: Mother Holding Something Horrific (with Annika Kristensen) 2017, Sovereignty (with Paola Balla) 2016–17 and Painting. More Painting (with Annika Kristensen and Hannah Mathews) 2016.
At the NGV Max was responsible for a number of significant curatorial projects including Andy Warhol | Ai Weiwei, 2015–16; David Shrigley: Life and Life Drawing, 2014-15; Melbourne Now 2013–14 and Mix Tape 1980s: Appropriation, Subculture, Critical Style 2013.
Other exhibitions include projects and commissions with artists including Simon Starling, Richard Bell, Emily Floyd, Juan Davila, Celeste Boursier-Mougenot, Paola Pivi, Carsten Holler, Carlos Amorales, Brook Andrew, Angela Brennan, Diena Georgetti, David Noonan and Tony Clark, among others. Selected curatorial projects include Lurid Beauty: Australian Surrealism and its Echoes (NGV 2015); Slave Pianos | Punkasila | Pipeline to Oblivion (MUMA 2011); Pitch Your Own Tent: Art Projects | Store 5 | 1st Floor (MUMA 2005); NEW05 (ACCA, 2005); Blackspot: Contemporary Indigenous Photography from the Monash University Collection, with selected loans (MUMA 2005); Octopus no.1 (Gertrude 2000); Mutlu Cerkez AND Marco Fusinato (Gertrude Contemporary 2003); Screen Life (with Stuart Koop, Museo Nacionale, Centro de Arte, Reina Sofia, Madrid, 2002); Strolling — the art of arcades, boulevards, barricades, publicity (Heide Museum of Modern Art 1998); 1956: Melbourne, Modernity and the XVI Olympiad (Heide Museum of Modern Art, 1996).
Claire Richardson
Executive Director
Claire Richardson has collaborated with renowned artists, curators, festivals and organisations to scope, develop and deliver a diverse range of ambitious, internationally renowned contemporary arts projects across her career.
Prior to her commencement as Executive Director at ACCA in October 2019, Claire held the position of Exhibitions Manager at TarraWarra Museum of Art (2017–19); oversaw the visual arts program for the City of Stonnington (2019); and spent over seven years in Exhibition Management at the National Gallery of Victoria (2010–17).
Claire has served on the board of SEVENTH Gallery, a space committed to supporting diverse and emerging art practices, worked at Anna Schwartz Gallery, and in 2019, was seconded to the Australia Council as an Australian Pavilion Exhibition Team leader at the Venice Biennale.
At TarraWarra, Museum of Art, Claire led the delivery of a number of major exhibitions, including All that is Solid 2017; the 2018 TarraWarra Biennial: From Will to Form; and Patricia Piccinini & Joy Hester: Through Love 2018-19. She also managed the permanent installation and ongoing activation of Callum Morton’s Valhalla in the public realm.
At NGV, Claire coordinated major blockbusters including Andy Warhol: Ai Weiwei 2015-16; Masterpieces of the Hermitage: The Legacy of Catherine the Great 2015; major exhibitions including Brook Andrew: The Right to Offend is Sacred 2017; William Eggleston: Portraits 2017; A Golden Age of China: Qianlong Emperor, 1736-1795 2015; Pedro Reyes: Disarm 2013; Shifting Gear: Design, Innovation & the Australian Car 2014; 200 Years of Australian Fashion 2016; and managed the careful planning and implementation of rehangs, refurbishment projects and regular changeovers of the NGV Collection displays across two major sites.
Claire holds a Bachelor of Arts and Masters of Arts Curatorship from the University of Melbourne.
Laura De Neefe
Director, Development & Engagement
Shelly McSpedden
Senior Curator
Jessica Clark
Curator
Elyse Goldfinch
Curator
Samantha Vawdrey
Exhibitions Manager
Margaret Stern
Operations Manager
Badra Aji
Visitor Experience Manager
Shae Nagorcka
Exhibition Project Manager
Felicia Pinchen-Hogg
Education Manager
Lauren Simmonds
Artist Educator
Freya Alexander
Acting Education & Access Coordinator
Minna Lappalainen
Education & Access Coordinator (currently on parental leave)
Grace Fraraccio
Development & Marketing Manager
Xuan Wei Yap
Development & Marketing Coordinator
Katrina Hall
Publicist
Matt Hinkley
Designer
Board of Directors
Dr Terry Wu, Chair
Dr Terry Wu is a long-standing arts advocate and supporter, and a leading plastic surgeon specialising in facial reconstruction. A Board Member of ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image) and Science Gallery International (Dublin) and serves as a Member of Creative Australia’s Venice Biennale Ambassadors Council. He was formerly a Board Director of Heide Museum of Modern Art and the National Association of Visual Arts, and a member of the International Council of Tate (UK). As the son of an artist and writer, Terry is passionate about arts, culture and philanthropy and in 2019 was awarded the Emerging Philanthropy Leadership Award by Creative Partnerships Australia.
Fayen d’Evie
Fayen d’Evie is an artist and writer living on unceded Dja Dja Wurrung country. She has performed and exhibited nationally and internationally, presenting collaborative projects that resist spectatorship by inviting audiences into sensorial readings of artworks. Fayen is the founder of independent imprint 3-ply, which approaches publishing as an experimental site for the creation, mutation, dispersal, and archiving of texts. With artist Katie West, Fayen co-founded the Museum Incognita grounded in custodial ethics. Fayen is a lecturer in Communications Design, College of Design and Social Context, RMIT. She previously held pedagogical and management roles at the UN-mandated University for Peace, and environmental NGO The Earth Council. Fayen holds a Phd in Resource Management and Environmental Studies, B.F.A. in Painting, and B.Sc. Hons in Physics, and is a PhD candidate in Curatorial Studies.
Sarah Lynn Rees
Sarah Lynn Rees is an associate and Lead Indigenous Advisor at Jackson Clements Burrows Architects, is a Lecturer at Monash University and program advisor and curator of the BLAKitecture series for MPavilion. She is Director of Parlour: Women, Equity, Architecture, a member of the Victorian Design Review Panel for the Office of the Victorian Government Architect, and Co-Chair of the Australian Institute of Architects First Nations Advisory Working Group.
Andrew Taylor, Chair, Development Committee
Andrew Taylor is an artist and a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts (1987) who has recently returned to Melbourne after a decade based in the United States. He has exhibited for over 25 years in galleries throughout Australia, Asia and the USA and is represented in both private and public national collections including Artbank and the National Gallery of Victoria.
Gordon Thomson, Chair, Finance Audit and Risk Committee
Gordon is a partner in PwC’s Accounting Advisory Group. He has over 20 years’ experience in accounting and finance and specializes in a range of industries with a particular focus on the Government and Not for Profit sectors. Gordon is passionate about the arts, with a particular interest in the visual arts.
Yalingwa Directions Circle
Aunty Joy Murphy Wandin AO (Chair)
Kylie Belling
Belinda Briggs
Hetti Perkins
Stacie Piper
Hannah Presley
Associate Elders
N’arweet Carolyn Briggs AM