 | New Head of the School of Music and Drama in UOW’s Faculty of C... New Head of the School of Music and Drama in UOW’s Faculty of Creative Arts, Professor Sarah Miller |
Appointment a significant leap for the arts
15 Oct 2007 | Renee Criddle
UOW’s Faculty of Creative Arts has just appointed a Professor and Head of the School of Music and Drama recognised nationally and internationally for her outstanding professional background in the arts.
Professor Sarah Miller has worked in the arts for more than 20 years as a performer, writer, producer/curator, and artistic and executive director working across the visual, performing, hybrid and new media arts.
Successive directorships of Performance Space, Sydney (1989-1993) and the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA) Ltd (1994-2006), have seen her producing and presenting exhibitions, seasons, festivals and events locally, nationally and internationally. In recognition of her contribution to the arts, Professor Miller was awarded a prestigious Sidney Myer Facilitator’s Prize in 2003. As Executive Director of PICA for more than 12 years, Professor Miller was responsible for all aspects of the company’s operations. She has seen PICA emerge as one of Australia’s most respected and high profile contemporary art spaces.
Professor Miller has extensive project management experience and has produced and presented performances, exhibitions, and symposia in partnership with several Australian festivals, as well as for London’s International Festival of Theatre (LIFT).
She has worked in association with many professional arts organisations and companies ranging from Artist-run-spaces to State Galleries in NSW, Queensland and Western Australia, ABC Radio, 2SER FM, universities throughout Australia, local, state and federal funding agencies, as well as festivals in Perth, Adelaide, Sydney and London.
Internationally, Professor Miller has developed strong relationships with artists and arts professionals particularly throughout Asia and the Pacific/Indian ocean regions. In 1997, she was a delegate on behalf of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade representing Australian arts and culture to agencies and organisations to several cities in Japan. In 1998 she was the inaugural recipient of an Australia Japan Arts Network (AJAN) residency that saw her spending three-months at the Spiral Wacoal Art Centre in Tokyo. In 2004, Professor Miller was the recipient of an Asialink grant that involved her undertaking a residency with the Hong Kong Institute of Contemporary Culture.
Professor Miller is a current member of the Theatre Board of the Australia Council, the Australian Government’s arts funding and advisory body and the SPARK national young artists mentoring program’s 2007 Advisory Committee. Previous committee and Board positions include Chair of Strut Dance WA; member of the Board of Directors, Black Swan Theatre, WA’s state theatre company; ARX management committee, Australia’s first Asian Australian artists’ exchange project; the London based Live Arts Development Agency, Celebrate WA, Citizen of the Year, Arts, Culture & Entertainment judging committee, the Australia Council’s Drama and Hybrid Arts committees, and both the Edith Cowan and Curtin University Art School advisory committees.
A literature graduate, Professor Miller maintains a strong interest in writing for, and about, the arts and has written extensively about the arts and cultural policy for specialist art journals, magazines, catalogues, and for government. She was a state-based editor and writer for Real Time, a national arts broadsheet (1994-2006) and a columnist for the London based Contemporary Magazine. In November 2007 Professor Miller will present the keynote address at the annual Museums and Galleries NSW conference in Penrith, NSW.
The Dean of the Faculty of Creative Arts, Professor Andrew Schultz, said that UOW was one of very few places that has strong and developing courses in theatre performance on a practical and innovative academic level. He said Professor Miller’s appointment would help strengthen the already strong student demand for this field.
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