Patricia Piccinini and Dr Theresia Spencer join the ACCA Board
Wednesday 27th August, 2025: Dr Terry Wu, Chair of The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) announced today that internationally renowned Australian artist Patricia Piccinini and arts advocate Dr Theresia Spencer have joined the ACCA Board.
Patricia Piccinini is one of Australia’s best-known and globally celebrated artists. Currently Professor of Practice at RMIT University, Patricia represented Australia at the 2003 Venice Biennale, and her work is held in all leading Australian and many international collecting institutions. Most recently, Patricia’s hyper-realist sculptures of surreal hybrid animals and vehicular creatures enthralled visitors to the abandoned ballroom above Melbourne’s Flinders Street Station with the exhibition A Miracle Constantly Repeated.
Patricia has a long history of association with ACCA. Her first major survey exhibition, Retrospectology: The World According to Patricia Piccinini, was the second exhibition to be shown in ACCA’s Southbank premises in 2002, and in 2013, her much-loved hot-air balloon Skywhale, commissioned for the Centenary of Canberra, was tethered to the ACCA Forecort. ‘ACCA is an incredibly important space in Melbourne’s contemporary art scene, and I feel honoured to be able to contribute in any way I can,’ Patricia said.
Dr Theresia Spencer is a Melbourne-based arts philanthropist, deeply committed to supporting cultural institutions and artistic practice, and an Australian Ambassador for the Venice Biennale. She holds a Doctor of Clinical Dentistry degree (Orthodontics) and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and the Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons. Theresia is a spokesperson for the Australian Society of Orthodontists and is an international lecturer for Invisalign.
‘I am excited to work with Terry and the ACCA Board to help ACCA continue to provide such a vital platform and forum for emerging and established artists, and a space where they have the freedom to take risks, such that audiences have the opportunity to be challenged, surprised and inspired,’ Theresia said.
Terry said, ‘Patricia and Theresia bring diverse expertise to the ACCA Board. Patricia’s experience as an artist who has exhibited at major institutions worldwide is unmatched, and her connections and perspective will enrich our work as an institution focused on supporting artists to do their best and boldest work. She has a long history of involvement with ACCA, as both an artist and an audience member, and we are thrilled to welcome her to the Board.’
‘Theresia is a dedicated and passionate arts advocate who supports the arts because she believes in its power to shape communities and to change the way we see the world. I look forward to working closely with Theresia to consolidate support for ACCA and expand ACCA’s delivery across exhibitions and ground-breaking education programs.
‘Supporting artists to take risks is at the heart of everything we do, and Theresia and Patricia are invaluable additions to the ACCA Board, joining in a period of renewal and heightened activity, with a vibrant forward program under new Artistic Director and CEO Myles Russell Cook and ambitious plans for ACCA’s future,’ Terry said.
Patricia Piccinini and Theresia Spencer join existing ACCA Board members Charlotte Day, Lisa Fox, Sarah Lynn Rees, Andrew Taylor, John Tuck and Gordon Thomson.
Australian Centre for Contemporary Art
111 Sturt Street, Southbank VIC 3006
Melbourne, Australia
Opening hours: Tuesday – Friday 10am–5pm, Weekends 11am–5pm
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Katrina Hall
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ACCA acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woiwurrung people as sovereign custodians of the land on which we work and welcome visitors, along with the neighbouring Boonwurrung, Bunurong, and wider Kulin Nation. We acknowledge their longstanding and continuing care for Country and we recognise First Peoples art and cultural practice has been thriving here for millennia. We extend our respect to ancestors and Elders past and present, and to all First Nations people.