Ian Potter director appointed at Harvard

MEDIA RELEASE COURTESY OF: HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Distinguished Australian art historian and Director of the Ian Potter Museum of Art at the University of Melbourne Dr Chris McAuliffe has been appointed to the Chair of Australian Studies at Harvard University for the 2011/2012 academic year.

The appointment by the Australian nominating committee for the Chair is a dual one with Professor Mick Dodson, Director of the Australian National University’s National Centre for Indigenous Studies.

Dr McAuliffe will be appointed to the Department of Art and Architecture in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard. It is the first appointment in Australian art history to the Department in over 20 years. That appointment was Professor Patrick McCaughey, Director of the University of Melbourne’s Festival of Ideas.

Chair of the Australian Nominating Committee for the Harvard Chair, Professor Graeme Davison, says, "Chris McAuliffe combines an impressive record as a gallery director with first-rank scholarship. ―His engaging style as a lecturer will appeal to Harvard students."

Dr McAuliffe has written extensively on contemporary art and its relationship with sport, popular music, suburbia and Australian culture. During his appointment, he intends to develop closer links between academic programs and university collections as well as establish a dialogue between American and Australian art.

Dr McAuliffe’s research encompasses both Australian and American art.

"This has taken me everywhere from obscure galleries in Melbourne laneways to earthworks sculptures in Utah’s Great Salt Lake," he says.

"My teaching at Harvard will explore issues central to Australian art—landscape, coastline, suburbia—which also emerge in American culture. I’ll be building a dialogue between Australian and American art into Harvard’s interdisciplinary curriculum.

"As a museum director, I’ll be exploring the close ties between Harvard’s art museums and teaching. This is something that Australia’s university museums need to develop further and that we are exploring at the Potter."

Dr McAuliffe joins other prominent University of Melbourne academics appointed to the Chair, including historians Geoffrey Blainey and Stuart Macintyre, and poet Chris Wallace-Crabbe.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Glyn Davis says Chris McAuliffe’s appointment to the Chair acknowledges his outstanding reputation in the field of art history scholarship and superb direction of the University’s flagship Potter Museum.

"Chris’ interest in both Australian and US art means his appointment at Harvard will bring significant contributions to art history and to university art museum development in both countries."