Biography
Marie Sierra has held numerous solo exhibitions within Australia, and has participated in over thirty group shows in Australia, the US, and France. She has won several grants and awards, including four Australia Council Grants. Her most recent awards were the major prize at the Yarra Array Sculpture Festival, hosted by the City of Melbourne in 2002, and the Highly Commended Award in the Helen Lempriere National Sculpture Prize in 2004. In 2004 she was also awarded a residency at the Arthur Boyd trust property Bundanon in NSW. Marie is active in visual arts advocacy, and has represented the interests of practising visual artists through roles on the boards of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Gertrude Street Contemporary Art Spaces (Deputy Chair), the Public Art Committee for the City of Melbourne (Chair), and the Cultural Affairs Committee for the City of Melbourne (Deputy Chair), as well as the committees for WestSpace and Linden. She also performs consulting work to local government and industry in relation to commissioning and strategic planning for public art. Active as an arts writer, Marie regularly presents papers on her research at conferences, and has authored numerous essays and reviews for magazines such as Art Monthly, Agenda, Kerb and Meanjin. She was the art critic for the Herald Sun newspaper for two years. In her academic career, Marie has been Associate Dean for Research at the RMIT Faculty of Art, Design and Communication, and is currently the Graduate Research Coordinator and Head of Sculpture & Spatial Practice at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne. She holds a Masters of Fine Art from the University of Tasmania School of Art, completed in 1985 after migrating from the United States. She completed a PhD (by thesis) at the School of Architecture and Design at RMIT University, focusing on how the idea of nature is socially constructed. Research in this area is central to her art practice, which primarily takes form as spatial, public, and temporal interventions.
Research Expertise and International Linkages
Research Expertise
Qualifications, Honours, Fellowships and Other
Awards
Qualifications
| Title |
Institution |
Date Awarded |
Abbreviation |
| Masters of Fine Art |
University of Tasmania |
19-Apr-1986 |
|
| Graduate Diploma in Education |
Victoria College |
08-Dec-1987 |
|
| Doctor of Philosophy |
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology |
22-Jul-2004 |
|
| Bachelor Fine Art (cum laude) |
University of Tulsa |
31-Dec-1983 |
|
| Associate of Art |
Tulsa Community College |
31-Dec-1981 |
|
Memberships
| Membership Type |
Membership Body |
Description |
Start Date |
End Date |
| Member |
National Association of Visual Arts |
Ordinary Member |
30-Jun-2000 |
30-Jun-2008 |
Other Awards
| Award Type |
Awarding Body |
Comments |
Date Awarded |
| Other (Award) |
Helen Lempriere National Sculpture Award |
Highly Commended |
28-Feb-2004 |
| Other (Award) |
Australia Council for the Arts |
Professional Develoment Grant to visit Venice Biennale |
12-Sep-2006 |
| Other (Award) |
Bundanon Trust |
Studio Residency at Bunadanon, NSW |
01-Feb-2004 |
| Other (Award) |
Australia Council for the Arts |
Professional Development Grant, Studio Residency in Barcelona |
01-Mar-1993 |
| Other (Award) |
Australia Council for the Arts |
Professional Development Grant, to develop exhibition in Brisbane, with C Reaney and A Reaney |
01-Mar-1990 |
| Other (Award) |
Australia Coucil for the Arts |
Desiderius Orban Youth Art Award |
01-Mar-1987 |
| Scholarship Prize |
Netherlands Design Institute, Amsterdam |
Netherlands Design Institute scholarship to attend Doors of Perception 3 Conference in Amsterdam |
20-Nov-1995 |
| Scholarship |
RMIT University |
Australian Postgraduate Research Award |
01-Feb-1992 |
| Scholarship |
University of Tasmania |
Postgraduate Course Award |
01-Feb-1985 |
| Other (Award) |
Yarra Array Sculpture Festival |
Major Award for Exhibition |
20-Oct-2007 |
Government Research Classifications
Research Fields, Courses and Discipline Classifications
Socio-Economic Objective Classifications
Grants and Contracts
Research Grants, Contracts and Consultancies awarded to the University of Melbourne as the administering institution (since 2003) as recorded in Themis Agreements.
Additional Grant and Contract Information
2006 Australia Council Visual Arts/Craft Board, Professional Development Grant to visit 2007 Venice Biennale as an arts educator; 2004 Bundanon Artist in Residence Program, Bundanon Trust, NSW; 2004 Helen Lempriere National Sculpture Award, Highly Commended, Judges Dr Gene Sherman, Peter Clemenger, Ron Ramsey; 2002 Yarra Array Sculpture Prize, Judges Jason Smith, Prof Paul Carter, Bala Starr, exhibition Yarra Array organised by City of Melbourne; 1995 Netherlands Design Institute scholarship to attend Doors of Perception 3 Conference in Amsterdam; 1993 Australia Council Visual Arts/Crafts Board, Overseas Studio Grant, Barcelona (residency for November 1995-March 1996); 1992 Australian Postgraduate Research Award, RMIT University, Melbourne; 1990 Australia Council Visual Arts/Crafts Board, Professional Development Grant; 1987 Australia Council Visual Arts/Crafts Board Grant, Desiderius Orban Youth Art Award; 1985 Postgraduate Course Award, University of Tasmania.
Publications
Publications produced at the University of Melbourne and reported in the Annual Publications Collection and 'Research Report' since 2001. The Themis Publications module, released in November 2006, allows additional publications from previous institutions and publications from past years to be entered.
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