Media Release – Attorney-General – Appointments to the National Cultural Heritage Committee, 28 October 2014

Today I announce the appointment of six distinguished Australians to the National Cultural Heritage Committee which supports the operation of the Protection of Movable Cultural Heritage Act 1986.

The committee plays a role in the protection of Australia’s movable cultural heritage. It advises the Minister on the maintenance of the National Cultural Heritage Control List and the operation of the National Cultural Heritage Account.

Dr J Patrick Greene OBE has been appointed as chair of this important committee. Professor Duncan Chappell, Mr Joseph Eisenberg, Professor Marett Lieboff, Ms Tina Baum and Dr Graeme Were have been appointed as members.

Each committee member brings considerable professional experience and expertise in their respective field to the role. Together they will work to maintain a robust system for the protection of Australia’s movable cultural heritage.

My department will work with the committee to streamline its operations so it can take a more strategic focus on the critical national and international issues that impact the sector.

The committee’s recommendations on the export and protection of Australia’s movable cultural heritage will continue to be informed by the advice of registered expert examiners.

For the past 26 years, expert examiners have assessed the cultural significance of thousands of objects in a voluntary capacity. I am also pleased to announce a new payment system for expert examiners in recognition of the critical role they play in the protection of Australian movable cultural heritage.

Dr J Patrick Greene, OBE

Dr Greene is highly regarded in the cultural heritage and collections sector internationally.

In 2002, he was appointed as CEO of Museums Victoria, the largest museum organisation in Australia, with a collection of nearly 17 million items.

Dr Greene has held senior positions in a number of key cultural heritage organisations, including as Chair and member of the Council of Australasian Museum Directors, the Council of the National Collections Advisory Forum, and the Industry Advisory Panel of the Centre for Cultural Materials.

In 1983, Dr Greene was appointed the inaugural Director of the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, England. The ambitious project resulted in the creation of the largest museum of industry housed in historic industrial buildings in the world. During this period he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) and was Chairman of the Heritage Lottery Fund Expert Panel on Museums Libraries and Archives.

Ms Tina Baum

Ms Baum is the curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art at the National Gallery of Australia, where she worked on the new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Gallery and on both National Indigenous Art Triennials. Miss Baum has worked as a curator at the National Museum of Australia, Queensland Museum and the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory and was on the judging panels of the 2014 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Art Award and numerous state/territory art awards.

Professor Duncan Chappell

Professor Chappell is an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Sydney, and one of Australia’s pre-eminent experts in the field of illicit trafficking in cultural property. A former Director of the Australian Institute of Criminology, he has published widely on art crime and the illicit trade in cultural property. In 2013, Professor Chappell was awarded the Eleanor and Anthony Vallombroso Award for Art Crime Scholarship by the Association for Research into Crimes against Art.

Mr Joseph Eisenberg OAM

Mr Eisenberg is a well-respected and longstanding cultural heritage mentor in regional Australia. After 20 years as Director of the New England Regional Art Museum in Armidale, Mr Eisenberg joined the Maitland Regional Art Gallery in 2004 as Cultural Director overseeing the planning and redevelopment of the new $8.6 million heritage building. In 1996 Mr Eisenberg was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for services to the visual arts; he has also received two National Trust Heritage Awards.

Associate Professor Marett Lieboff

Associate Professor Marett Leiboff holds the position of Associate Professor Legal Intersections Research Centre, Faculty of Law at the University of Wollongong. Prior to this, Associate Professor Marett Leiboff was an academic in the Faculty of Law at QUT in Brisbane. Her research has centered on the practices of jurisprudence and legal conceptions of culture. Associate Professor Marett Leiboff is Vice President of the Law Literature and Humanities Association of Australasia and a Member of the Law and Society Association of Australia and New Zealand, the American Society for Law Culture and Humanities, the European Network for Law and Literature and an associate of the Associazione Italiana di Diritto e Letteratura (AIDEL).

Dr Graeme Were

Dr Were is the senior lecturer and convenor of the Museum Studies postgraduate programme at the University of Queensland. Dr Were led the Mobile Museum project to produce 3D digital scans of objects from the UQ Anthropology Museum and the Queensland Museum collection selected by the community of origin in the Pacific. In 2012, he was awarded the University of Queensland Foundation Research Excellence Award for his research into digital heritage and cultural revitalization in Melanesia.

More information at www.arts.gov.au/movable