Art

Laura Webster, Head of Art

Laura Webster has worked in the Art section of the Australian War Memorial since 2006 and was appointed Head of Art in 2018. Her major projects have included Angelica Mesiti’s First World War Centenary Commission A hundred years; the Anzac Centenary Print Portfolio which included 10 prints by 5 Australian and 5 New Zealand artists; official War Artist commissions including: Megan Cope to the Middle East; Susan Norrie to Iraq; Ben Quilty to Afghanistan; Jon Cattapan to Timor-Leste; key exhibitions include Ben Quilty: After Afghanistan, Perspectives: Jon Cattapan and eX de Medici, Sidney Nolan: the Gallipoli series and co-curator of the 'Art in Conflict' touring exhibition. At the Memorial she has been part of the transformation of the art commissioning and acquisition program including the Memorial sculpture garden and regularly commissions contemporary works of art and publishes on the collection.

Dr Anthea Gunn, Senior Curator of Art

Dr Anthea Gunn was awarded a PhD in art history for her thesis Imitation Realism and Australian Art in 2010 at the ANU. She worked as a social history curator at the National Museum of Australia (2008-13) and joined the Memorial's art section in 2014. She has published in the Journal of Australian Studies and the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art, amongst others. She has curated contemporary commissions and exhibitions. She was lead curator of the online showcase of the First World War art collection, Art of Nation: Australia’s official art and photography of the First World War and the touring exhibition of the contemporary collection, Art in Conflict.

Alexandra Torrens, Senior Curator of Art

Alex Torrens has been employed in a curatorial capacity in the GLAM sector for more than 20 years. A graduate of the Australian National University and the University of Canberra Alex was previously Curator at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery and played a leading role in the development and expansion of the Hill End Artist in Residence program. Since joining the Art Section in 2009 Alex has curated contemporary art commissions, public art works and exhibitions including the official war artist commissions of Tony Albert to NORFORCE (2012), Alick Tipoti to Charlie Company, 51st Far North Queensland Regiment (2016) and Stanislava Pinchuk to Operation Kudu (2023).

Elise Routledge, Curator of Art

Dr Lara Nicholls, Curator of Art

Lara Nicholls is a curator and art historian with expertise in nineteenth-century Australian, British and European art with a specialisation in women artists. After joining the Memorial in 2022, Lara has researched both the official and unofficial women war artists and recently made a documentary on the Memorial’s significant collection of war work by Australia’s first official woman war artist, Nora Heysen, who was stationed in New Guinea and North Queensland during the Second World War. Lara was previously a curator of nineteenth-century Australian art and an assistant curator of Australian painting and sculpture at the National Gallery of Australia. She recently completed a PhD on Anglo-Australian women artists and the imperial art world from 1885 to 1907 at the Australian National University. Lara is an expert examiner under the Federal Government’s Moveable Cultural Heritage Act and a Commonwealth Valuer for the Cultural Gifts Program.

Hollie Gill, Assistant Curator of Art

Hollie Gill is a Gunggari woman from the Saunders family of the Maranoa region of South-West Queensland. Hollie has been the Indigenous Assistant Curator of Art at the Memorial since 2020 where she manages and supports the development of commissions and acquisitions and the management of the art collection more broadly. Hollie has been working in the museums sector in Canberra since 2017 and is a 2022 graduate of the National Gallery of Australia’s Indigenous Leadership Program. Hollie is currently a member of the ACT Government’s Minister’s Creative Council and the arts artsACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Network and is passionate about caring for Country, culture and community.

Jessica Benter, Assistant Curator of Art

Jessica Benter holds a Masters of Art Curatorship from the University of Melbourne, and a Bachelors of Art History and Curatorship (Honours) from the Australian National University. In 2024 Jessica presented a paper titled ‘The Shadow in the Studio: Waller House and the Artist’s House as Museum’ at the Art Association of Australian and New Zealand (AAANZ) conference. Jessica joined the Memorial in 2023 and has previously worked as an Assistant Curator of Private Records. In the past she has volunteered at the National Trust of Victoria researching the collection at the Waller House, and completed internships at the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice.