We’re honoured and delighted to announce the expert judging panel for The Lester Prize 2024.
We are thrilled to present this year’s Main Awards Judges. These experts will select the winners of The Richard Lester Prize for Portraiture ($50,000), the Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize ($5,000) and a Highly Commended Prize (up to $5,000) which will be exhibited at the Western Australian Museum Boola Bardip from 14 September – 17 November 2024.
Alec Coles is CEO of the Western Australian Museum which has branches in Perth, Fremantle, Geraldton, Kalgoorlie, Albany and Carnarvon, and also works in communities throughout WA.
He was, previously, Director of Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, in North East England and before that, the CEO of the Northumberland Wildlife Trust, and environmental charity. He led the development of the New Western Australian Museum in Perth – the WA Museum Boola Bardip; a $400 million project, completed in November 2020, a place where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People’s voices balance those of others.
Mr Coles was also a member of the team that delivered the award-winning National Anzac Centre in Albany. He aspires to create museums owned and valued by their communities and admired by the world. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Western Australia. He has held many non-executive positions and is the current Chair of the Partners’ Council of the Western Australian Biodiversity Sciences Institute. He is also the Chair of the Finance and Resources Committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) and a former Chair of ICOM Australia.
Mr Coles was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2010. In 2021, he was named Western Australian of the Year in the Arts and Culture category.
Rex Butler is Professor of Art History in the Faculty of Art Design and Architecture at Monash University.
He writes about Australian art and his most recent publication is UnAustralian Art: Ten Essays on Transnational Art History with ADS Donaldson (Power Publishing, 2022).
He is one of the founding editors of Memo Review, a weekly art review website in Melbourne.
Hannah Mathews is Director/CEO of the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA). Over the last twenty years she has held key curatorial positions at Monash University Museum of Art, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Next Wave, The South Project and the Biennale of Sydney.
Hannah’s recent curatorial projects include Shelley Lasica: WHEN I AM NOT THERE (2022); Vivienne Binns: On and through the surface (2022); D Harding: Through a lens of visitation (2021); Agatha Gothe-Snape: The Outcome is Certain (2020); Shapes of Knowledge, MUMA (2019); and Alicia Frankovich & Lili Reynaud Dewar (2018).
Hannah graduated with a Master of Art Curatorship from the University of Melbourne in 2002 and has completed curatorial residencies in New York, Berlin, Tokyo and Venice. She has taught in curatorial programs at Melbourne University, Monash University and RMIT University, Melbourne and has held various board positions, including National Association for the Visual Arts, City of Melbourne Arts & Culture and International Art Space, Perth.
Her publication, To Note: Notation Across Disciplines won the inaugural Cornish Family Book Prize for Art and Design Publishing in 2018.
Ph 08 9423 5116
PO Box 1110
Nedlands WA 6909
