Last Word: Suzanne Cotter, Director, MCA

Newly appointed Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA), Suzanne Cotter chats to Alex Pedley about her plans for the venerable institution and contemporary Australian art more broadly.

By Alex Pedley

Alex Pedley (AP)/ You have led institutions in various cities and countries around the world, having grown up in Australia, does your new appointment coinciding with a ‘homecoming’ of sorts feel different to previous directorships?

Suzanne Cotter (SC)/ Returning to Australia to take up the role of director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia (MCA) would be a milestone in any museum director’s career. Being Australian-born and having grown up here, my appointment is infused with, dare I say, a certain life poetry.

AP/ What are your greatest passions or drivers when taking over leadership of a major institution?

SC/ Ensuring that art, artists and their presence in our world and as part of everyone’s lives, drives everything we do. If the content is good, the rest follows.

AP/ How would you describe your relationship to the Australian arts scene, and what you bring to it?

Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (2020). Featuring artist Lindy Lee, Secret world of a starlight ember, 2020.

Courtesy the Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo: Anna Kučera

SC/ As a relative newcomer to the current Australian arts scene, I would like to think that I can bring fresh perspective on what is being produced here, particularly in relation to artistic production elsewhere in the world.

AP/ What distinguishes the Australian arts from other places, pre- or post-pandemic? What is uniquely exportable about Australian contemporary artists?

SC/ I think what is happening across arts sectors in Australia reflects what is happening in other parts of the world. Financial models are under pressure: artists, performers, musicians and cultural producers find themselves in even more precarious situations because of cancellations and postponements and a move towards even greater digital engagement due to the pandemic and concerns for the world climate crisis. Australia is, however, also a privileged country in that there is very clear public support and appreciation for the arts and a recognition of its importance for communities—and as a reflection of who we are as a nation. Australia also has enormous potential to contribute even more than it already does to world conversations in which Indigenous thinking and its expressions through art are becoming increasingly important.

MCA by night (quay side)

Courtesy the Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo: Brett Boardman Photography

AP/ You are uniquely placed to advocate for contemporary artists on an international stage, any major international partnerships on the horizon you can tell us about? Building on or beyond the Tate and the MCA’s various partnering institutions?

SC/ It is a little early to share news after just over 2 months in post, however, there is the ambition to build upon the MCA’s impressive history of international partnerships. Watch this space!

AP/ What do you consider are some of the major challenges ahead?

SC/ I am still in the early phase of euphoria about leading such a brilliant institution. Addressing challenges are an everyday part of every museum director’s work— we gain great satisfaction from responding to them with intelligence, passion and creativity. Keeping an eye on the reason we are doing the work we do, to bring art and the ideas of artists into the lives of as many people as we can inspires and guides us.

AP/ A favourite moment since taking the role?

SC/ Arriving by ferry to the MCA and MCA team members coming to welcome me in my new office in early January in the midst of the Omicron wave in Australia. Their warmth and enthusiasm were exhilarating.

AP/ Something you have missed, and something you will miss now being back in Sydney?

SC/ I realise that I have missed the cosmopolitan nature of this city and, it is a trope but true, the easy-going nature of people and expressions that I remember from when I was younger. My current favourite is: ‘I had a seagull’s breakfast (a sip of water and a look around)’.I am too busy thinking about the present and what we might do in the future to have time to miss things from the past.