Acclaimed writer and arts and culture advocate Esther Anatolitis has been appointed to the council of the National Gallery of Australia by Federal Arts Minister, Tony Burke. This comes a week after Dr Nathan Hollier, Publisher & Chief Executive Officer at Melbourne University Publishing, announced Anatolitis as the next Editor of Meanjin.

Anatolitis, works all over Australia on strategic development, creative precincts and public policy. From 2004 Esther held arts and media CEO positions, and in 2020 she was appointed Honorary Associate Professor at RMIT School of Art. Esther was a founding director and Deputy Chair of Contemporary Arts Precincts, the organisation behind Collingwood Yards, and a former board member of ACMI, Elbow Room, the Arts Industry Council (Victoria), and Regional Arts Australia.

The former executive director of the National Association for the Visual Arts’ appointment coincides with the 40th anniversary of the National Gallery’s Council signifying a new breeze in terms governance, focusing more on new and critical voices.

So greatly honoured to be joining the @NatGalleryAus Governing Council as we celebrate 40 years today – here’s to the next 40!

I’m also particularly proud of this image caption – my parents will be so chuffed when I post the printed copy to Greece (they’re very much not online). https://t.co/wkFmij3eHk pic.twitter.com/l9PKtqR4od

— Esther Anatolitis (@_esther) October 11, 2022

 

Anatolitis, who took to Instagram and Twitter earlier today to share the news said that she was “greatly honoured” by the appointment and is looking forward to bring more representation to national cultural institutions.

In an interview with The Australian Financial Review, Anatolitis said: “We just had the pandemic, which for most people was the most significant cultural disruption of our time, and we’ve seen just how little support and attention and focus artists were given.”

“When we had health experts saying that we needed to think creatively in order to get out of the crisis, that we couldn’t do the things we’ve done before. This is precisely the time when Australia and the world needs our most creative and critical voices.”

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