Kluge-Ruhe
Nici Cumpston Appointed Director of the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection!After an international search, a committee of faculty, staff, and volunteer leaders selected Australian artist and curator Nici Cumpston OAM to be the new director of the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia (UVA). She will succeed Kluge-Ruhe’s founding director, Margo Smith, upon Smith’s retirement in May after 27 years of service. Cumpston is of Barkandji, Afghan, English and Irish heritage. She is a descendant of the Indigenous people from the Barka (Darling River) of western New South Wales. Cumpston has served as the inaugural curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art at the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA) since 2008 and has also been the artistic director of the internationally renowned Tarnanthi Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art since 2014. Tarnanthi is held annually and features artists from across the country in dozens of exhibitions and events, a major exhibition at the Art Gallery of South Australia, and the Tarnanthi Art Fair where artists are fully supported to sell works of art directly to the public.
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Spring '24 UVA Arts
As we enter another busy fall season for UVA Arts, we am reminded of the various ways what we do here at UVA connects to the arts world at large.
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