Board & Directorate

Director
Elizabeth Ann Macgregor

Elizabeth Ann Macgregor was born in Dundee, Scotland, in 1958. Her formal education began at Stromness Academy Orkney. She completed an MA History of Art (Hons) at Edinburgh University in 1979 and a Diploma in Museum and Gallery Studies at Manchester University in 1980.

On completion of her conventional academic training in art history and curatorship, Macgregor spent the first three weeks of her career in the arts sitting her HGV [heavy goods vehicle] licence. As curator and driver of the Scottish Arts Council's travelling gallery, she spent three years organising exhibitions and taking them on board a converted bus to Highland villages, inner city estates, schools, factories, hospitals and prisons.

This experience informed what has become the driving force of her career - making contemporary art accessible to a wider audience.

Macgregor moved to the Arts Council of Great Britain in 1985 as a Visual Art Officer with responsibility for funding to regional galleries. Here she set up a new program to encourage and assist more galleries outside London to promote the work of living artists and develop education programs aimed at new audiences.

In 1989 she was appointed Director of Ikon Gallery, one of the UK's leading contemporary art galleries. Under her directorship Ikon presented major international exhibitions and supported work by British artists from a range of cultural backgrounds. The Gallery's community touring program and off-site projects played a key role in increasing access, which was at the heart of the gallery's objectives. The gallery was short-listed three times for the prestigious Prudential Awards for the Arts for its ‘creativity and innovation coupled with excellence and accessibility'. Its education program was also nominated for several awards.

Macgregor took up the Directorship of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney in September 1999. One of Macgregor's key objectives in moving to Sydney was to develop broader and new audiences for contemporary art. This was realised at the MCA in 2000 when moving from a general admission charge to a free access model with select ticketed exhibitions. This strategy has resulted in massive growth in visitor numbers.

After working with the City of Sydney in an attempt to secure the MCA's future through redevelopment of the MCA building, in 2001 Macgregor successfully negotiated long-term funding for the MCA with the NSW State Government, securing the Museum's stability and long-term viability.

Since then the Museum has gone from strength to strength, with visitor figures continuing to climb, a large increase in the number of school groups visiting and excellent reviews in the press. Attendances have increased threefold to over 400,000 and in 2007, the MCA was named Sydney’s favourite museum in the annual Chamber of Commerce survey, beating more established institutions.

The MCA has exhibited high profile exhibitions from overseas including Bridget Riley, Sam Taylor Wood, Tim Hawkinson as well as major exhibitions promoting Australian artists including Paddy Bedford, James Angus and Julie Rrap. The MCA has an extensive touring program taking MCA exhibitions to regional and international locations.

Macgregor is also committed to taking the work of the Museum out to new audiences as well as attracting more visitors to the Circular Quay site. She initiated a new programme called C3 West working with businesses in Western Sydney to employ artists. The Museum has toured exhibitions drawn from its collections and MCA staff have gone out to work with regional colleagues on the installation on these exhibitions.

Macgregor is a regular contributor to conferences, seminars, radio and television programs on arts issues. She is currently on the board of the Australian Children’s Music Foundation and the Council of Art Museum Directors. In 2003 she was awarded the Centenary Medal for services to the Australian public and contemporary art and in 2007 she won the Significant Innovation category in the Equity Trustees Not for Profit CEO awards. She was recently awarded the 2008 Veuve Clicquot Business Woman Award.

MCA Board

ANDREW LOVE
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD, MEMBER OF THE FINANCE COMMITTEE

Andrew Love has been a partner of Ferrier Hodgson Chartered Accountants since 1978. The firm is the largest specialist insolvency and reconstruction firm in Australia. Andrew is also Chairman of a public company and a director of several other public companies in the resources, financial services and international real estate sectors . The positions include Chairman of ROC Oil Company and Director of PUMA Finance Limited and POLAR Finance Limited

Andrew Love has a passionate interest in Contemporary Art. He is a foundation supporter of the Museum of Contemporary Art and a Foundation Member of the Committee for Contemporary Benefactors with the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

PROFESSOR LARISSA BEHRENDT

Prof. Larissa Behrendt is Professor of Law and and Director of Research at the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning at the University of Technology, Sydney. Larissa is a Judicial Member of the Administrative Decisions Tribunal, Equal Opportunity Division and the Alternate Chair of the Serious Offenders Review Board. She has published on property law, indigenous rights, dispute resolution and Aboriginal women’s issues. Her book, Achieving Social Justice: Indigenous Rights and Australia’s Future was published by The Federation Press in 2003. She won the 2002 David Uniapon Award and a 2005 Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for her novel Home.

Larissa is a Board Member of the Museum of Contemporary Art and a Director of the Sydney Writer’s Festival and the Bangarra Dance Theatre.

CATHERINE HARRIS AO PSM

Catherine Harris PSM is the Executive Director of Harris Farm Markets Pty Ltd. Australia’s largest chain of fresh produce supermarkets. Catherine is active on several boards including the University of New South Wales, the Australian Catholic Commission for Employment Relations, the Sydney Cricket & Sports Ground Trust, The Australian Defense Force Academy, the National Gallery of Australia Foundation Board and is Deputy Chairperson of the Australia Japan Foundation.

Catherine is the Honorary Consul for Bhutan and has received the Public Service Medal in 2000 and the Centenary Medal in 2002.

MIKALA DWYER

Mikala Dwyer is a Sydney-based artist. She began studying art at the Sydney College of the Arts in 1981, and continued on to complete her Masters in Fine Arts at the College of Fine Art, University of New South Wales, in 1993. Over the past two decades, her works have been exhibited in numerous exhibitions, in Australia and overseas, working along side well known curators. In December 2000 a large exhibition of Mikala’s work was mounted in the level 4 gallery space at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. In 2004, Mikala was awarded the Anne & Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship and was given a commission by Docklands.

Mikala has written for numerous journals and exhibition catalogues. Her works are included in museum and private collections in Australia and New Zealand.

SUE CATO

Sue Cato is a corporate communications professional and is the principal of Cato Counsel, a firm with deep experience in the planning and execution of the media side of corporate transactions and public affairs campaigns for leading Australian and international companies and entities.

She has worked on business-critical issues and transactions with many of Australia's top 100 companies including matters such as energy industry consolidation, waterfront reform, property trusts, gaming and wagering industry consolidation, national petrol strikes, the building industry, banking and financial sectors and the media.

She is one the Board of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, the Foundation of the National Gallery of Victoria, and is on the Council of the Sydney Theatre Company. Sue has also been an Executive Director of the National Gallery of Australia Foundation.

LISA PAULSEN

Lisa completed a Bachelor of Arts at the UNSW in 1979. She has since raised a family while nurturing her burgeoning passion for contemporary art. From 2002-2004 Lisa was the Coordinator of the Photography Collection Benefactors group for the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Lisa is an avid art collector and supporter of various arts institutions in Australia. She is currently instrumental in coordinating the Art AM event at the MCA each season. Lisa brings her enthusiasm and passion for contemporary art to the MCA and in turn helps to broaden the MCA’s audience through her involvement in other committees and groups.


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