Celebrate the launch of 50 Years/50 Works: A MUMA Collection Index

Join MUMA to celebrate 50 Years/50 Works: A MUMA Collection Index, a landmark publication reflecting on five decades of collecting, commissioning and exhibiting contemporary art at Monash University Museum of Art.

To mark the launch of the publication, MUMA hosts an afternoon of rapid-fire five-minute conversations between artists represented in the Collection and the writers who responded to their work, bringing the artworks alive.

Co-published by MUMA and Monash University Publishing, the book brings together 50 significant works from the Museum’s Collection alongside 50 newly commissioned responses by artists, writers, curators, academics and cultural practitioners, offering multiple perspectives on the Collection and its histories.

Program highlights

The afternoon begins with a reflection on the legacy of artist Vivienne Binns from MUMA Curator – Research Stephanie Berlangieri and artist Liang Luscombe, whose contribution to 50 Years/50 Works responds to Binns’ work.

The relay of conversations then commences, pairing artists with the writers who contributed responses to their work in 50 Years/50 Works:

• Maree Clarke / Belinda Briggs
• Hoda Afshar / Myles Russell-Cook
• Darren Sylvester / Amelia Winata
• Atong Atem / Brendan McCleary 
• Kathy Temin / Andrew Atchison
• Hayley Millar Baker / Paola Balla
• Nicholas Mangan / Melanie Oliver
• Kent Morris / Nikita Vanderbyl
• Pitcha Makin Fellas / Maya Hodge

Bringing together leading artists, writers, curators and researchers from across Australia, this special event offers a rare opportunity to hear firsthand reflections on the artworks, ideas and relationships that have shaped MUMA's Collection over the past 50 years.

Special launch discount
Join us at the launch and purchase a MUMA Tote with 50 Years/50 Works: A MUMA Collection Index for $80 (usually $99). 10% off the publication without the tote.

Saturday 5 September, 2–4pm
Free event
MUMA, Caulfield
Register here

Andrew Atchison is an artist based in Melbourne/Naarm who also curates and writes, and has conceptual interests in queer identities, language, public space, and the aesthetics of withholding.

Dr Paola Balla is a Wemba-Wemba and Gundjitmara artist, curator and writer. She is a Principal Research Fellow at Moondani Balluk Indigenous Academic Centre, Victoria University.

Stephanie Berlangieri is Curator – Research at MUMA.

Belinda Briggs is a Yorta Yorta/Wamba Wamba curator working across art, culture and community in the Dungala Kaiela region, including with Shepparton Art Museum, Kaiela Arts, and Kaiela Institute.

Maree Clarke creates multimedia works exploring rituals and ceremony, regenerating cultural practices, and highlighting the strength and resurgence of south-eastern Indigenous culture through installations, photography, body adornment and sculpture.

Myles Russell-Cook is Artistic Director and CEO of ACCA, with a focus on cultural, gender and sexual diversity in Australian and international contemporary art.

Maya Hodge is based on Wurundjeri Country. A Lardil curator and writer committed to First Peoples storytelling, she co-curated Collective Movements at MUMA in 2022.

Liang Luscombe is an artist based in Naarm/Melbourne.

Nicholas Mangan reveals flows of matter, energy and underlying ideologies in sculptures and films that reveal the unstable relationship between culture and nature.

Brendan McCleary is a curator and Public Programs Officer at MUMA. He was previously Curator, PHOTO Australia and Lead Curator for Queer PHOTO at PHOTO 2024.

Hayley Millar Baker is a lens-based artist who draws on Indigenous resilience, matriarchal power and ancestral memory through photography, film and immersive visual storytelling.

Kent Morris is a Barkindji artist who combines technology and nature into new forms that reflect First Peoples’ knowledge systems, reshaping western frameworks.

Dr Melanie Oliver was previously Senior Curator, MUMA, and is Curatorial Manager at UNSW

Pitcha Makin Fellas have different stories to tell. They break generalisations about Blackfellas. They are learning about their past as they go and are making for a better future for all of us.

Darren Sylvester investigates the language between perceived high and low culture, the nature of authenticity, high gloss desirability and inevitable mortality.

Kathy Temin creates synthetic fur sculptures exploring memory, history and loss, balancing monumentality and kitsch, softness and solemnity. She is Professor at MADA, Monash University.

Dr Nikita Vanderbyl is a historian and art historian whose work focuses on histories of Aboriginal art and colonisation. She lives on unceded Barkandji Country.

Dr Amelia Winata is a writer and curator based in Naarm/Melbourne. She is an editor of Memo Review and was most recently Curator at Gertrude Contemporary from 2022–24.