Meet a Member

Joey & Daniel Hespe, Maitland Members since 2021

Tell us a little about yourselves and how you came to live in the Maitland area.

My husband, Daniel, and I both spent our formative years by the ocean in Sydney. We’d been dreaming of a tree change and moving out of the city for a few years however, due to work commitments, it wasn’t a reality for us. The silver lining of the pandemic meant that Daniel was able to pivot his construction business and work predominantly from home. Falling pregnant with our daughter at the beginning of 2020 was the catalyst we needed to move. We’d both always felt a strong connection to the Hunter region and have familial links to the area. Daniel is maternally related to a pioneer of the Hunter, Thomas Adam (who Adamstown is named after), and my 5 x Great Grandfather was Chief Constable of Maitland Mounted Police in the late nineteenth century. I’m certain there are some distant relatives floating around Maitland that I have yet to meet! We feel so lucky to be able to raise our daughter in such a beautiful place surrounded by a wonderful community.

What inspired you to join the MRAG Members community? For me, art has and always will be something I value – socially, culturally and emotionally. I think it’s natural to want to support a cause that’s so inherent to my philosophy. Understanding that regional galleries are so important to the cultural fabric of the areas they exist in, but also that gallery membership is integral to the endurance of culture in a small community, it was an easy decision to become an MRAG member.

In your previous role at the Art Gallery Society of NSW, what were some of the ways you made Members feel special? Years before I was employed by the Art Gallery Society, I was an active and involved member of the Gallery. I got so much out of being a member that I went on to volunteer with the Young Members events program (targeted to young professionals) and then sat on the Young Members Committee as Volunteer Coordinator.

Before working for the Art Gallery Society, I saw the Art Gallery of NSW as being an impenetrable fortress, a well-oiled machine with staff hidden away behind inaccessible wings of the building. I wanted each visitor to feel as though the Gallery was theirs, so I strove to create transparency between the Gallery and members and provide a space for them to feel welcome. If that meant making time for a cuppa in the members lounge or a friendly chat at events, I always made time to make members feel special. Do you have a highlight from your career to date?

I have two… being in the room to watch the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes awarded to winners in 2018 and 2019, and in 2018 I was awarded an Art Gallery of NSW staff scholarship, which allowed me to attend the World Federation of Friends of Museums (WFFM) general assembly in Montreal in 2019. I met international colleagues, visited cultural and historic institutions, and was part of a panel discussion on future proofing membership organisations in the arts. You’re now working as a writer and creative? Could you recommend a good book? I tend to have a few different books on the go at the one time. I have a real weakness for historical fiction and recently finished William Boyd’s Love is Blind. I’ve just started The Missing Sister, which is book seven of Lucinda Riley’s The Seven Sisters books. I’m also reading Erin Lovell Verinder’s Plants for the People, which was a gift from Daniel from the Gallery Shop at MRAG.