Chief Judge
Suzanne Cotter
Director
Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
Suzanne Cotter is a leading curator and scholar of international contemporary art with over 30 years’ experience. Her distinguished career continues in her current role, Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia.
She has held director and senior curatorial positions in museums around the world, including Director of the Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean (MUDAM), Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Serralves Foundation in Porto (Portugal), Curator for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation New York, Deputy Director and Senior Curator of Modern Art Oxford (UK) and Exhibitions Curator at the Hayward Gallery, London.
Widely published, she has participated in numerous international contemporary art panels and juries. A board member of CIMAM (International Committee for Modern and Contemporary Art Museums) since 2017, she is currently chair of the Committee for the CIMAM Outstanding Museums Practices Award and chair of CIMAM’s Committee for Museums and Environmental Sustainability. She is also on the Board of Mophradat, an independent cultural agency that supports artists from the Arab world. Through her work with contemporary artists her contributions to culture have been recognised.
In 2005 Suzanne Cotter was awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French Government. In 2021 she was awarded the Chevalier de l’Order de la Couronne la Chêne of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the Cavaliere Osi (Ordine Della Stella D’Italia awarded by the Republic of Italy.
Finalist Judges
Dr Holly Arden
Art educator, curator and author,
Former Interim and Associate Director of UQ Art Museum
Dr Holly Arden has worked in curatorial, education and arts leadership roles for over 20 years, most recently serving as Interim Director and Associate Director at The University of Queensland Art Museum.
She has a PhD in Art History and Theory from Monash University. Holly’s most recent publication is a co-edited anthology about contemporary art and networked technologies titled Conflict in My Outlook.
Teho Ropeyarn
Curator
Cairns Indigenous Art Fair
Teho Ropeyarn is an artist and curator from Injinoo, Cape York Peninsula, Queensland. Born in Mount Isa in 1988, he holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the College of Fine Arts (UNSW) in Sydney and is currently based in Cairns, Queensland.
Ropeyarn is descended from the Angkamuthiand Yadhaykana clans from Injinoo on the mainland, Badu, Moa and Murray Island in the Torres Strait; Woppaburrapeople (Great Keppel Island) and Batchullapeople (Fraser Island). His practice is focussed on his father’s people’s heritage. Having lived in Injinoo most of his life, he focuses on his Aboriginal heritage to keep what is remaining, alive.
