Betty Churcher - Publications

Arts administrator, born in Brisbane, Queensland, NE Australia. She studied in London at the Courtauld Institute and the Royal College of Art. She held a range of academic positions in Australia, wrote the award-winning book Understanding Art (1974), and was chairman of Australia Council's Visual Arts Board (1983–7) and director of the Art Gallery of Western Australia (1987–9). She was director of the Australian National Gallery (1990–7), during which time the Gallery received critical praise, broke attendance records, and mounted such acclaimed exhibitions as ‘The Age of Angkor’, from the National Museum of Phnom Penh.

Betty Churcher (born 11 July 1931 in Brisbane, Queensland) is best known as director of the National Gallery of Australia from 1990 to 1997. She was the Dean of School of Art and Design, Phillip Institute of Technology, Victoria between 1982 and 1990, and director of the Art Gallery of Western Australia from 1987 to 1990.

Her son, Peter Churcher, was Australia's official war artist in the War on Terrorism.

While director of the National Gallery, she was dubbed "Betty Blockbuster" because of her love of blockbuster exhibitions.

Churcher initiated the building of new galleries on the eastern side of the building, opened in March 1998, to house large-scale temporary exhibitions. She changed the name of the Gallery from the Australian National Gallery to its current title. She also changed the name of the Gallery from the Australian National Gallery to its current title.

During her period the Gallery also purchased Golden Summer, Eaglemont by Arthur Streeton for $3.5 million.

Publications

Churcher has written a number of books on art including:

Churcher, Betty (1973).