STAFF PROFILE
Dr Amy Spiers
Amy is a Vice Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellow at RMIT School of Art. She is a practicing artist, curator, writer and researcher in the field of public and socially engaged art.
Amy's socially engaged, critical art practice and research aims to prompt questions and debate about present society particularly about the gaps and silences in public discourse where difficult histories and social issues are overlooked or smoothed over.
As an artist, Amy has been commissioned to present numerous art projects across Australia and internationally, including at Fremantle Arts Centre, Monash University Museum of Art (Melbourne), the Museum für Neue Kunst (Freiburg), MONA FOMA (Hobart) and the 2015 Vienna Biennale. Additionally, Amy has curated and produced a number of symposia, exhibitions and public engagement programs including "Counter-monuments: Indigenous settler relations in Australian contemporary art and memorial practices" with Genevieve Grieves and hosted by Australian Centre of Contemporary Art (ACCA) in March 2021.
Amy has also published work widely in academic journals, exhibition catalogues and art magazines, including writing for Artlink, Public Art Dialogue, Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Journal of Arts and Communities. Most recently she co-edited "Let's Go Outside: Art in Public" with Charlotte Day and Callum Morton for Monash University Museum of Art (Monash University Publishing 2022) and co-authored "Art/Work: Social Enterprise, Young Creatives & the Forces of Marginalisation" with Dr Grace McQuilten, Associate Professor Kim Humphery and Professor Peter Kelly (Palgrave Pivot, forthcoming 2022).
1 Masters by Research Completions4 PhD Current Supervisions
- Spiers, A. (2022). Introduction In: Let's Go Outside, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, Australia
- McQuilten, G.,Spiers, A.,Humphery, K.,Kelly, P. (2022). Art-Based Social Enterprise, Young Creatives and the Forces of Marginalisation, Palgrave Macmillan, Cham Switzerland
- McQuilten, G.,Spiers, A. (2022). Takeover In: Takeover Melbourne, Australia
- McQuilten, G.,Spiers, A. (2021). Joining my Future: Art, Work, Inequality and Crisis In: Bus Projects Melbourne, Australia
- McQuilten, G.,Warr, D.,Humphery, K.,Spiers, A. (2020). Ambivalent entrepreneurs: arts-based social enterprise in a neoliberal world In: Social Enterprise Journal, 16, 121 - 140
- McQuilten, G.,Spiers, A. (2020). ‘Art is different’: Material practice, learning and co-making at The Social Studio In: Journal of Arts and Communities, 10, 19 - 33
- Spiers, A. (2020). Communication Failure: Protesting Publics And The Politics Of Listening In Socially Engaged, Dialogic Public Art In: Public Art Dialogue, 10, 245 - 262
- Spiers, A. (2019). #MirandaMustGo: Contesting a settler colonial obsession with lost-in-the-bush myths through public and socially engaged art In: Art & the Public Sphere, 8, 217 - 234
- Spiers, A. (2019). Our Future In: Climarte Poster Project II, as part of ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE 2019 Festival Melbourne, Australia
- Badham, M.,Hill, K.,Purves, T.,Cockrell, S.,Spiers, A. (2017). Forms for encounter and exchange: Field school as social form at Laughing Waters Artist Residency In: Unlikely: Journal for Creative Arts, , 1 - 2
- Truth-telling Australia's colonial past with art by non-Indigenous artists. Funded by: ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) 2024 from (2024 to 2027)
- The Platform: Emerging Artists Take Over. Funded by: City of Melbourne Arts Grant from (2022 to 2022)
- Takeover: An ecstatic celebration of young peoples’ agency and creativity after COVID lockdowns. Funded by: Australia Council for the Arts Research Grant from (2021 to 2022)
- Joining my future - Art, Work, Inequality and Crisis. Funded by: Australia Council for the Arts Research Grant from (2020 to 2020)