Maud Page becomes first woman to be appointed director of Art Gallery of New South Wales

Maud Page has been announced as the next director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), becoming the first female leader of the 154-year-old institution in the state. This appointment marks a significant milestone in the gallery's history and a new era for the museum.

“It’s pretty awesome to be the first woman director,” Page said in an interview with ABC Arts. She currently serves as the gallery's deputy director and director of collections. Page will officially take over next week, succeeding Michael Brand, who stepped down last October after 13 years in the role. She is only the tenth director in the gallery's history, following a line of influential leaders.

Page attributed the delayed emergence of a female leader in part to the long tenures of previous directors, including Edmund Capon, who led the gallery for over 33 years. “I also think the time is right,” she said, “It’s our time now.” This reflects a broader shift towards recognizing female leadership in cultural institutions.

Page has been with AGNSW since 2017, having previously served as Deputy Director and Senior Curator of Pacific Art at the Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) in Brisbane, and as a lecturer in museology at the University of Sydney. Her appointment also reflects a notable increase in the number of female leaders at state art galleries across Australia.

According to the second Countess Report released in 2019, which documented data from 2014 to 2018, only 12.5% of director or CEO-level positions at state art galleries were held by women. By 2024, with the release of the third report documenting data from 2018 to 2022, that number had risen to 50%. Page also noted that internal candidates were rarely considered for the top job in the past.

Early media speculation listed Page as a potential frontrunner, along with Lisa Slade from the Art Gallery of South Australia, as well as international candidates such as Melissa Chiu from the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum in the United States, and Australian Suhanya Raffel from M+ in Hong Kong. “People coming from the outside are always shinier, and I knew it was going to be very competitive,” Page said. This is especially considering the gallery's standing among global art enthusiasts: it is one of the top 30 most visited art museums in the world.

“This is an institution that has just opened a new building,” she said. “We have an incredible collection, a fantastic staff base… so, I knew that [the director position] was going to be very, very competitive. I had to put in a really solid effort.” As the leader of AGNSW, Page hopes to emphasize the "transformative power" of art. “I really think that museums and art galleries are social places, and I really believe in the civic nature of institutions,” she said. “I just want more people to use it in that way, so that people can walk through our doors and really see the value of art.”

Page was recently involved in the Djamu Youth Justice Project, which since 2017 has had artists running workshops with young people in the New South Wales justice system. “Initially, [the young people] were a bit like, ‘Why are we doing this?’” she said. But by the end of the workshops, they had “experienced something different and valued it”. “Seeing what happened with those young people was a life-changing experience for me. I really enjoyed seeing those very real examples of the role that art can play.”

Page’s own appreciation for the power of art stems from her childhood, when her family took her to art galleries and museums. She recalled being struck by the work of 18th-century French painter Jean-Antoine Watteau, as well as Picasso’s Bull’s Head – a readymade artwork made from a bicycle seat and handlebars. “I think when you’re young, you’re drawn to the big names, and you see the incredible nature of [their work],” she said. “And then as you get older, that appreciation expands.”

Now, Page is particularly focused on the work of local artists at all stages of their careers, from emerging artists to established names. “They’re the people who are doing the work, and they’re making incredible work, whether it’s aesthetically, thematically or materially,” she said. “The breadth of our industry is amazing; that’s what makes it exciting. There’s never a dull moment.”

She is particularly excited about the gallery's diverse spaces – including its new building, Naala Badu, and its restored neoclassical original building, Naala Nura – and how it celebrates both historical and contemporary collections. She is excited about how these spaces will showcase new work from contemporary New South Wales artists, such as Archibald Prize-winning Sydney artist Mitch Cairns; or the work of overlooked female artists, such as 83-year-old abstract painter Lesley Dumbrell.

For Page, running an art gallery is about more than just “working with one particular group”. “It’s just about making sure that we are focusing on our local ecology while we are working with an international platform.” This balanced approach will be crucial for the gallery's continued success and relevance.