Ms Jessica Bridgfoot
Ms Jessica Bridgfoot trained as an artist, studying Visual Arts (Painting) at Monash University (2003) and later went on to complete a Masters of Arts Management at The University of Melbourne (2009). Ms Bridgfoot has enjoyed an extensive career across the public and private sector, including time working internationally.
After graduating, Ms Bridgfoot worked as a project manager for a contemporary performance organisation in Glasgow, Scotland, and returned to Melbourne to work in the commercial gallery sector in Melbourne also running her own Gallery in Bendigo. In 2011, she joined The Substation as the inaugural Visual Arts Program Manager supporting the establishment of the Substation as a premier destination for contemporary art in Melbourne.
Returning to her home town, Ms Bridgfoot was appointed Director of Bendigo Art Gallery in 2019 after three years in the curatorial team curating and delivering contemporary exhibitions including New Histories and Gothic Beauty: Victorian Notions of Love, Loss and Mourning; Myuran Sukumaran: Another Day in Paradise; and Balenciaga: Shaping Fashion.
Under Ms Bridgfoot’s Directorship, the Bendigo Art Gallery has produced and delivered the first major survey of contemporary Indigenous Fashion and amassed the most significant global collection of Australian Indigenous Contemporary Fashion. In 2022, the exhibition Piinpi – Contemporary Indigenous Australian Fashion commenced an International tour to Paris and Taiwan and is still touring domestically to be staged at Melbourne Museum in 2024. Bendigo Art Gallery emerged from the pandemic with the exhibition Mary Quant Fashion Revolutionary (with V&A, London) and SOUL Fury – a survey of contemporary women artists of Islamic heritage co curated by Nur Shkembi and Bendigo Art Gallery.
In 2022, Bendigo Art Gallery presented the major blockbuster Elvis: Direct from Graceland, an exclusive exhibition curated by Bendigo Art Gallery in collaboration with the Graceland Archives. Elvis attained record breaking visitation with over 223,000 visitors during the four-month long exhibition. To secure Bendigo Art Gallery’s future, over the last four years Ms Bridgfoot has developed plans for a major redevelopment including a second level dedicated blockbuster exhibition space, a major Learning Centre and Traditional Owner Place of Keeping. The $50+M redevelopment of the Bendigo Art Gallery is scheduled for construction in 2025.
Ms Bridgfoot has also held a number of professional appointments, and is currently serving as the Chair of the International Council of Museums (ICOM Australia) as well as a member of the La Trobe University Regional Advisory Board.
Ms Bridgfoot has a vision for the Bendigo Art Gallery to build its national and international reputation as a major destination for art design and international exhibitions alongside an ambitious program of contemporary Australian art and design. She is passionate about education equitable cultural experiences and returns to founding motto of the Gallery ‘Art for the People’.