At her studio in Los Angeles, Australian artist Jemima Wyman is trying to come to terms with the cancellation of her 30-year survey show.
The internationally-known Palawa artist could have shown her career survey at a range of prestigious institutions, but went with the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane, where she has both studied and taught.
“It has a really special place in my heart, and that’s why I was excited to do the 30 year survey show there, because I had such a long relationship with the institution,” she told AAP.
In November, Wyman was told QUT’s Art Museum was cutting its 2025 program, and her show would be axed.
The free-to-visit museum at QUT’s Garden Point campus has eight staff and describes itself as one of Queensland’s premier visual arts institutions.
The university is facing financial challenges due to funding shortfalls, but staff would not be impacted by any of the university’s current plans, a QUT spokesperson said.
“We have had to make a number of difficult decisions with regard to pausing activities across a number of areas of the university, including some programming at QUTAM for 2025,” they told AAP.
It appears the museum will show one exhibition of items from the university’s art collection during 2025.
Wyman is not the only artist left hanging, with an exhibition of two of Australia’s most significant ceramicists, Vipoo Srivilasa and the late Gwyn Hanssen Pigott also affected, as well as a group show by six Barkandji/Barkindji artists.
University museums do more to support first nations artists than any other type of gallery, according to Penelope Benton of the National Association for the Visual Arts.
“This kind of decision is hugely impactful for the working lives of Australian artists,” she said.
Wyman’s exhibition had been expected to tour to UNSW in Sydney, followed by the Samstag Museum at the University of South Australia.
The artist said she’s worried the university is technically shutting down the museum.
“If you’re only having one show a year, and it’s from the collection, then you’re not really being an active institution in terms of supporting contemporary artists,” she said.
“It sounds to me like a strategy to not ring alarm bells … a strategy to step down the museum and eventually shut it down completely.”
University Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Margaret Sheil has apologised to Wyman in an email, saying the university has to make tough decisions, with departments prioritising teaching and research until the budget returns to surplus.
Professor Sheil also cited a rapid decline in creative and fine arts enrolments, and said fine arts degrees and staff are now based at QUT’s Kelvin Grove campus, several kilometres away from the museum.
There have been a series of recent cuts to arts courses at institutions in the region, including at the University of Queensland, James Cook University, Queensland College of the Arts, and Southern Cross University.
“It’s a shame that it’s all being cut, I think it will be really detrimental to the region,” said Wyman.
“Artists will have to go interstate to get the education they need, it will probably create a cultural desert in Queensland.”
