Paul Gladston at UNSW Art & Design Graduation

At the UNSW Art & Design graduation ceremony later this month, we are delighted to have Professor Paul Gladston delivering a speech. Last month, Gladston took up the inaugural Judith Neilson Chair of Contemporary Art at UNSW Sydney. He is one of the world’s leading experts on Chinese contemporary art and culture. 

Paul Gladston will be speaking about his personal story training in visual arts academia, the changes in research-based arts training since the 1980s, and the career options and pathways available today to arts graduates.  

Gladston brings with him a long list of outstanding achievements, including his previous role at the University of Nottingham where he was Professor of Contemporary Visual Cultures and Critical Theory and Director of the Centre for Contemporary East Asian Cultural Studies. Gladston has also published extensively, was founding principal editor of the peer-reviewed Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art between 2014 and 2017, and also an academic adviser to the internationally acclaimed exhibition ‘Art of Change: New Directions from China’, staged at the Hayward Gallery-South Bank Centre London in 2012. 

The Judith Neilson Chair of Contemporary Art at UNSW Sydney was established in February 2017 with a $6 million gift from philanthropist Judith Neilson. Neilson is the founder of White Rabbit Gallery and a new art space currently under development named Phoenix, which will be in Chippendale, Sydney.    

The wintertime UNSW Art & Design graduation ceremony will take place at 6pm on Wednesday 20 June at Kensington campus. Thereafter, you will be able to view Paul’s speech via Vimeo.