Art Gallery of South Australia names first female Director

The Art Gallery of South Australia has announced that Rhana Devenport will be the first female Director in its 137-year history.

Devenport, who will start her new role in October, is the current Director of the Auckland Art Gallery, a role she has filled since 2013.

Having began her career as an art and theatre teacher, and a practicing artist, Devenport has worked at the Queensland Art Gallery, the Sydney Festival and the Biennale of Sydney.

In 2006, she was appointed as Director of the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth, where she led the led the fundraising effort for the development of the Len Lye Centre, New Zealand’s first museum devoted to a single artist.

Her appointment at Auckland Art Gallery also followed a major expansion, for which it was named 2013 World Building of the Year.

Devenport will relocate to Adelaide at a time when plans for a new contemporary art space in the city and a national indigenous gallery are on hold.

However, speaking to the Adelaide Advertiser she said such a project was still very much on her agenda, commenting “the actual nature of what that space might be is still obviously under discussion at the moment.”

The announcement of Devenport’s appointment to the Art Gallery of South Australia comes at its current show, Colours of Impressionism, which closes on Sunda, has broken an all-time record for a ticketed exhibition.

The previous record of 124,000 attendances was set by The Chinese Exhibition in 1977.

The Adelaide Advertiser reported that touring exhibitions will be among Devenport’s priorities in her new role.

For more information go to www.artgallery.sa.gov.au/agsa/home

Image: Rhana Devenport courtesy of the Auckland Art Gallery