Regional & Public Galleries NSW has announced Ingrid Hedgcock, Curator, Tweed Regional Gallery and Margaret Olley Art Centre as the 2017 recipient of the Alan Sisley Memorial Fellowship.

The Fellowship provides funds for a professional gallery staff member to dedicate time to research and develop ideas that will benefit their organisation in the areas of exhibition, collection, public programs, audience development and partnerships.

Recipient Ingrid Hedgcock will be using the Fellowship award to undertake the first stage of a curatorial project concerning the relationship and intersecting practice of Margaret Olley and her life-long friend, expatriate Australian artist Frederick Arthur Jessup. The Fellowship support will enable necessary travel to Sydney to undertake archival research and interviews. This initial research will contribute to the shaping of a major exhibition.

The RPGNSW Alan Sisley Fellowship selection committee found Ingrid Hedgcock’s proposal to undertake primary research into the relationship between artists and friends Margaret Olley and Fred Jessup, to both contribute to art historical knowledge surrounding Olley and Jessup, and to have ongoing benefits for the individual and organization with a significant exhibition outcome.

Delighted with the announcement, Ingrid Hedgcock writes:

I am honoured to have been awarded the 2017 Alan Sisley Fellowship. Working in a regional setting means that travel is often essential for research and access to primary source documents such as archives and artworks in private collections in metropolitan areas. Opportunities such as this, afforded by the Alan Sisley Fellowship, are vital to our industry in terms of professional development and access to the resources required to undertake and deliver innovative projects.

I am very grateful to Regional Public Galleries New South Wales for their foresight in conceiving such a fellowship as a legacy of our colleague Alan Sisley’s contribution to our industry. 

Alan Sisley (1952-2014) was Director of Orange Regional Gallery from 1991 to 2014 and was previously
President of Regional & Public Galleries of NSW. A gifted communicator, he used his role to passionately advocate for the role art can play in peoples’ lives. Sisley was widely acknowledged for his risk taking projects, but he always placed the artist and the audience at the centre of his concerns.

The Fellowship, named in his honour, and awarded biennially, provides an opportunity for a NSW gallery worker to undertake a period of research or study to develop a project or program beneficial to their organisation.