Object Study with Louise Hamby and Denise Salvestro

Join a conversation focused on fiber artworks and prints from Kluge-Ruhe’s collection with scholars Louise Hamby and Denise Salvestro.

Louise Hamby is currently a Visiting Research Fellow in the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at the Australian National University. She has held a Fellowship at the National Library of Australia and was the Chief Investigator on the ARC Linkage Grant, 50 years of Collecting at the Milingimbi Mission.  Indigenous fiber arts, the material culture of Arnhem Land, Indigenous collection-based research and digital repatriation and re-documentation of museum collections and archival material are her research topics. She has been an honorary associate of Museum Victoria since 2003 Through her research she has developed a number of collaborative curatorial projects working with Indigenous Australians supported by VISIONS grants: Art on a String, Twined Together: Kunmadj Njalehnjaleken and Women With Clever Hands: Gapuwiyak Miyalkurrwurr Gong Djambatjmala. The book, Art on a string: Aboriginal threaded objects from the Western Desert and Arnhem Land, co-authored with Diana Young, is the seminal guide for Aboriginal necklace making. Threaded objects continue to be an area of her research and collection as well as printed fabrics from Australian First Nations Peoples.

Dr. Denise Salvestro has a Ph.D. from the Australian National University on Printmaking by Yolngu artists of Northeast Arnhem Land: a Masters in Art Administration from COFA, UNSW and a Diploma in History of Art from University of London. Denise’s first degree was Dentistry and after working in private practices in Sydney and London, she and her partner were based in Nhulunbuy NT for twelve years where they worked as dentists providing dental services to the surrounding remote communities in Northeast Arnhem Land.  She has her own arts consultancy business and is currently Chair of the Board of a NFP Arts organization, Artback NT; and is involved in field work for a Macquarie University Economics Dept project researching the value of art and cultural practice to Indigenous artists living remotely.