Margo Smith at the Jefferson Literary & Debating Society
Join Kluge-Ruhe director Margo Smith AM for a talk on Friday, February 21 at 7:29 pm at Jefferson Hall (Hotel C on the West Range of the University of Virginia). Titled Your Aboriginal Art Journey Begins Now, this lecture explores three concepts that will better equip listeners to understand and appreciate UVA’s most unique and valuable art treasures.
This event is free and open to the public and is part of the Distinguished Speaker Series at UVA’s Jefferson Literary and Debating Society.
Margo Smith AM (PhD, MA Virginia; BA William & Mary) has served as the founding director of the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia since 1998. From 1995-97, she worked as the curator for John W. Kluge’s private collection of Australian Aboriginal art. As a graduate student in Anthropology at the University of Virginia, Smith conducted fieldwork in central Australian Aboriginal community of Finke, Northern Territory, researching the topics of birthplace and identity.
Smith has organized more than 60 exhibitions at Kluge-Ruhe and other venues in the US and abroad. She served as consulting curator on Dreaming Their Way: Australian Aboriginal Women Artists at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC in 2006 and Lignes de Vie (Lifelines) at the Musee de la Civilisation in Quebec, Canada in 2015.
She started many of Kluge-Ruhe’s signature programs including residencies that bring Indigenous Australian artists and curators to engage directly with the University of Virginia and the local community.
Smith was named an honorary Member of the Order of Australia in 2015 and received the Thomas Jefferson Award for Service in 2023.
Upon retiring this spring, Smith will happily relinquish her role to Nici Cumpston OAM, who is of Barkandji, Afghan, English and Irish heritage. Cumpston will be the first Indigenous Australian to direct a museum outside Australia.