Vale David Hansen (1958–2024)

ABR was greatly saddened to learn of the sudden death on 13 January of art historian David Hansen, aged sixty-five. David held many positions – senior curator, gallery director, and, latterly, associate professor at the Australian National University. He wrote for ABR on several occasions: his articles were reliably stylish and individual. In 2007, he was commended in the inaugural Calibre Essay Prize. Three years later, his essay ‘Seeing Truganini’ was awarded the Calibre Prize and also the Alfred Deakin Prize for an Essay Advancing Public Debate in the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards.

2024 Blak & Bright

The 2024 Blak & Bright First Nations literary festival, will take place in Melbourne from March 13 to 17. The festival’s fourth instalment features eighty First Nations artists across thirty events. Guests include Kim Scott, Melissa Lucashenko, and ABR contributors Tony Birch, Kirli Saunders, and Julie Janson. This year’s theme, ‘Blak Futures Now’, is a ‘call to action’, with Festival Director Jane Harrison inviting people to ‘experience the future of the millennia-old tradition of storytelling’.

Critic of the Month

Among ABR’s most popular features are our five Q&As: Open Page, Critic of the Month, Poet of the Month, Publisher of the Month – and the newcomer, Backstage, where we invite a leading arts professional to nominate the best performance they have ever seen, to proffer advice to young artists, and to reveal what they really think of audiences and arts critics!

Anna Goldsworthy – celebrated pianist, memoirist, festival director, essayist, and much more – is our Backstager this month. Asked to nominate the single biggest thing governments could do for artists, she nominates ‘a universal basic income’. Hear, hear!

Frank Bongiorno – historian, academic, author – is our Critic of the Month. Peter Rose interviews him this month on the ABR Podcast, the first in a series of conversations with some of ABR’s senior critics.

Tours galore

Once again in the first week of March, ABR is off to Adelaide, where the magazine was founded in 1961. We have a full contingent for our third annual Adelaide tour.

Meanwhile, interest in our Vienna tour is strong, but there are still some places left. Christopher Menz – former gallery director and curator, and ABR’s Development Consultant – will lead the Vienna tour. Full details are available on the Academy Travel website.