Amanda Lawson
Dean of Creative Arts
The University of Wollongong
Faculty of Creative Arts
Wollongong NSW
Australia
Amanda was formerly the foundation Head of School of Art and Design in 2004 and a spent a period acting as Director of Museum Studies at the University of Sydney. Amanda has 25 year's experience in the cultural industries, with a track record in funding policy, strategic planning and marketing, enterprise development, exhibition, collection and creative project management.
Senior management roles for Prof. Lawson include CEO of craft/design organisations, regional gallery director, program manager at the Australia Council and cultural services manager in local government. From 1994-97 Amanda managed the NSW Cultural Industry Development Program, a state/federal partnership; she has also been an independent consultant, specialising in arts planning, marketing and research. Amanda has played a leadership role in regional arts development in NSW and while based in the central west between 1998 and 2003 was instrumental in establishing the Australian Minerals and Fossils Museum in Bathurst, the Chifley Home House Museum and the Hill End Artists-in-Residency program. Various industry appointments include 10 years as a committee member and later Chair of Arts NSW Visual Arts/Craft Committee, more recently Chair of the steering committee for the Creative Industries Innovation Centre.
Amanda has a doctorate in Australian literature from the University of Sydney. Her current research is focused on contemporary issues in museum management and interpretation, audience development and curatorship in contemporary art and craft. She has developed several successful research partnerships with cultural organisations and is chief investigator on two ARC Linkage Projects. One is studying audiences for contemporary art and craft with Museums and Galleries NSW and Object: Australian Centre for Craft and Design; the other is the Virtual Museum of the Pacific project, which brings together a cross-disciplinary team for UOW with the Australian Museum in an innovative collection management and access initiative.
Amanda will demonstrate The CollectionWeb Digital Ecosystems: A Semantic Web and Web 2.0 Framework for generating Museum Web sites. [Demonstration]
