Meet a Member

Gerry Bobsien

MRAG Director since May 2020 | Lives in Newcastle

Please tell us a bit about yourself and your family.

I was brought up in Blacktown in the Western suburbs of Sydney and then moved all over the place for study, work and adventure.

I now live with my two daughters, Pollyanna (17) and Skip (24), Skip’s partner Anthony, and two dogs, all of us crammed into a little old timber terrace in a chaotic mess of fun.

Despite my yearning to be a sideline mother (preferably AFL), my kids just wanted to dance and paint. Skip (Willcox) is a dance artist and, after working for a few years in a contemporary dance company in Germany, is now home juggling University study with independent dance projects.

Pollyanna loves art and right now she is fangirling hard over Italian artist Nicola Samori. She also loves surfing (like her mother).

What have been some of your career highlights so far?

I have an eclectic work history and that makes this question really hard! This list may seem odd: working as a blacksmith in an industrial forge in Melbourne; getting my first book published; taking part in an artist residency/surfing adventure on Manus Island; finally getting my PhD; working at the National Gallery of Australia; and, I would have to add, the first day I walked through the doors as Director of MRAG.

What are you enjoying about your new role?

Seeing people return to the Gallery, learning from the fantastic team here at MRAG and meeting people in the community. I am also getting to know the MRAG Collection and working on ways to bring this to life and refresh the building a bit.

I started this role during a Gallery closure, which has been a sobering experience, with so many people and livelihoods impacted by this crisis.

We’ve worked hard to connect with the community in a meaningful way during the COVID-19 experience, especially online, where we’ve found we can be more expansive and part of a wider conversation nationally and internationally. I’m also looking forward to how the arts and cultural sector in Maitland and the wider area can continue to evolve and grow. MRAG can play a pivotal role in this, if we continue to collaborate and provide the space, and audiences, for artists to make and present new work.

There is space in this City for all forms of creative gesture, from the visual arts in all its shape-shifting guises, to performance, music and writing.

What are you enjoying reading, writing, watching and/or listening to at the moment?

I’m reading 'Phosphorescence: On awe, wonder and things that sustain you when the world goes dark' by Julia Baird and 'Kulinmaya! Keep listening, everybody!' by Mumu Mike Williams. And I’m watching The Bureau (spunky French spies) on SBS On Demand and the Michael Jordan doco The Last Dance on Netflix.

What are some of your most treasured items?

I have so many treasures this is impossible. A list?

My zippy little surfboard made by John Scollay; a pair of callipers that came out of the forge when BHP closed (I was lucky enough to walk out with the last shift and hang around the forge shop in the weeks leading up to closure); another pair of callipers that I made as part of my industrial blacksmithing trade certificate; a work by John Turier; a vase made as a portrait of my dog Ziggy by American designer and artist Katie Kimmel; and my Pee-wee Herman porcelain doll.

Most of these are clustered on my mantelpiece, as is the diary I kept while I was doing my HSC in 1987. It is a torturous and hilarious account of an earnest and misunderstood young woman and I read it out to guests for their amusement.

Gerry with her daughters Polly and Skip at the Levee in Maitland.