Who we are

This site offers research infrastructure that provides an open and collaborative space for research communities to share and analyse data about Australian art and design history.

Who can contribute?
Anyone with accurate information about an Australian artist, designer, curator or craftsperson can sign up and submit content. Our members are academics, researchers, gallerists, curators, librarians, students, family historians and creators themselves.

What kind of information will I find here?
This site presents information about the life and work of Australian artists, designers, craftspeople and curators. See our What we collect page for more information on how these groups are identified.

Where does the content in this site come from?
The information on people, works, exhibitions and images comes from cultural partners, academic research projects and, importantly, our community of contributing members and moderators.

Cultural institutions that have contributed to, or interoperate with, us are:
• National Library of Australia
• Powerhouse Museum
• Historic Houses Trust (NSW)
• National Gallery of Australia
• Queensland Art Gallery
• Art Gallery of South Australia
• Ian Potter Museum of Art
• Melbourne University Cultural Collections
• RMIT Design Archives
• Papunya Tjupi Arts
• East Gippsland Aboriginal Arts Corporation
• Mungart Boodja Art Centre
• Arts Northern Rivers
• Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
• Australian Network for Art and Technology

Commercial galleries that have contributed to, or interoperate with us are:
• Eva Breuer Art Dealer
• Karen Woodbury Gallery
• Stella Downer Gallery
• Sherman Galleries (Twenty: Sherman Galleries 1986 – 2006)
• Chalk Horse Gallery

Funded research projects working with or contributing to Design & Art Australia Online:
• Scanlines, College of Fine Arts, UNSW
• The Storylines Project, College of Fine Arts, UNSW
• Survey Exhibition Linkage Project, Tasmanian School of Art, UTAS
• See our Projects Page for other research projects using Design & Art Australia Online’s infrastructure.

Design & Art Australia Online’s foundation biographies come from:
• The Dictionary of Australian Artists: painters, sketchers, photographers and engravers to 1870, edited by Joan Kerr
• Heritage: The National Women’s Art Book, also edited by Joan Kerr
• Aboriginal Artists of the Western Desert: A Biographical Dictionary, by Vivien Johnson
• and batches of biographies from collecting institutions and fine arts academics.

Honour role:
• Dr Dorothy Erickson – contributor of some 1000 biographies from her research into artists, artisans, designers, makers and manufacturers of cultural heritage for Western Australia 1829 to 1959.