Felicity Fenner appointed Chair of Public Art Advisory

UNSW Associate Professor, curator and writer Dr Felicity Fenner has been appointed to the role of Chair of City of Sydney’s Public Art Advisory Panel.

Sydney’s Public Art Advisory Panel was initiated by the Lord Mayor Clover Moore and appointed by Council in 2007. It comprises professional artists, curators and architects who provide advice to the City of Sydney on matters relating to public art. 

High profile members of the panel include: Lisa Havilah, director of Carriageworks (UNSW alumna), Professor Richard Johnson MBE (UNSW alumnus) director of the leading architecture practice Johnson Pilton Walker, high profile artist Janet Laurence (UNSW alumna), C3West and Museum of Contemporary Art, curator Anne Loxley, curator and manager of NAS Gallery Judith Blackall and founding director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Leon Paroissien AM. 

Felicity is a renowned authority on public art and has been a member of the Public Art Advisory Panel since its inception, becoming Chair in June this year. From 2013 until early 2018, Felicity was the inaugural Director of UNSW Galleries.

As a leading curator of contemporary art, Felicity has curated more than 40 exhibitions of Australian and international art, including for the Venice Biennale, National Art Museum of China, Art Gallery of South Australia and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.

Felicity was a lead researcher on Curating Cities, a major Australian Research Council project that investigated the world’s best practice eco-sustainable public art. Delivered in partnership with the City of Sydney, a comprehensive and continuing public art database was subsequently realised. She recently authored a book about the role of public art in urban spaces across the globe, titled Running the City: why public art matters (NewSouth Publishing 2017).

In recent years the City of Sydney’s Public Art Advisory Panel has championed public art in major city and state development initiatives.