Dr Donna Leslie

Position title

ARC Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Theory of Art and Design

• PhD (Art History) University of Melbourne
• PostGrad Dip (Art Curatorial Studies) University of Melbourne
• Dip Ed (Art/Craft) Melbourne College of Advanced Education
• BA (Fine Art) Chisholm Institute of Technology

Statement

Donna Leslie is an art historian whose writing is inspired by Australian indigenous and contemporary art. She is also trained in art curatorship and teaching.

Donna’s research interests are reflected in her ARC funded projects to write two books: Sacred Ground: New Dimensions in Australian art, and Spiritual Journeying and Cross-culturalism: The Art of Tim Johnson. Both explore Australian contemporary art and its relationship to the sacred and cross-cultural. Donna has a book currently in press with Macmillan Art Publishing entitled, Aboriginal Art: Creativity and Assimilation (2008), which is based on her doctoral research.

Donna is also a painter who has worked on exhibitions and creative projects for over twenty-five years. These have included commissions, artist residencies, designs, cartoons, and children’s book illustration. In 1993, Donna won the ‘Crichton Award for Children’s Book Illustration’ for a series of paintings that illustrate Alitji in Dreamland (1992), an interpretation of Alice in Wonderland in an Aboriginal context. She has held 9 solo exhibitions and has contributed to more than 100 group exhibitions. She enjoys exploring a range of materials and techniques and her paintings often express themes of life, the natural world, and spirituality. Donna’s work as a visual artist contributes to her insights about the creative process, which also helps shape her contribution to the research field.

Research/Professional activities

Books

• Leslie, Donna, Aboriginal Art: Creativity and Assimilation (South Yarra: Macmillan Art Publishing, 2008).

• Briggs-Pattison, Sue, and Bev Harvey, A Mob of Kangaroos, (Australia: Scholastic, 1998);
• Briggs-Pattison, Sue, and Bev Harvey, Damper (Australia: Scholastic, 1998);
• Sheppard, Nancy, Alitji in Dreamland, (Australia: Simon and Schuster, 1992). A bilingual Pitjantjatjara/English adaptation of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.

Selected writings

• Leslie, Donna, ‘Coming home to the land’, Eureka Street: A magazine of public affairs, the arts and theology, vol. 16, no. 2,  (March-April, 2006), 30-31.
• Leslie, Donna, ‘Imitating Art’, Exh. Cat. essay on Tim Johnson, in: Melbourne, Tolarno Galleries, Imitating Art (Melbourne: Tolarno Galleries, 2005).
• Leslie, Donna, ‘Aboriginal Art and Healing’, Chapter One, in Colette Rayment, ed., Sighs too deep for tears, (Sydney: RLA Press, 2002), 1-32.

Recent conference presentations

• ‘Sacred Country: Ancient Footprints, New Pathways’, in ‘The Sacred Across Cultures’ session, Crossing Cultures, 32nd Congress of the International Committee of the History of Art (CIHA), 2008. The proceedings of this conference are planned for publication with Melbourne University Press in 2009.
• ‘Lin Onus and Leslie Griggs: Painting Histories’, New Visions: Histories of Art in Australia, Symposium, National Gallery of Victoria, 2006.

Teaching

Over the past twenty years, in addition to visiting lectures at the university level, Donna has also taught classes in visual art, studio practice, and art history in various educational environments.

Museum Victoria: Learning Adviser (1997-9):

Donna has worked as a Learning Adviser in the Indigenous Cultures program at Museum Victoria. This role contributed to the development of indigenous exhibitions planned for the first opening of Melbourne Museum in 2000.

Other

Collections representing Donna’s art:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, ACT;
• Brunswick City Council (now Moreland City Council) VIC;
• Caulfield City Council (now Glen Eira City Council) VIC;
• Carey Baptist Grammar School, Kew, VIC;
• Flinders University of South Australia, SA;
• Koorie Heritage Trust Inc., Melbourne, VIC;
• Museum Victoria, Melbourne, VIC;
• Smith Kline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, ‘New Horizons Collection’ Corporate Headquarters, UK;
• Tandanya (National Aboriginal Cultural Institute), Adelaide, SA;
• The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC;
• Wilderness School, Adelaide, SA;
• World Congress Centre, Melbourne, VIC;
• Private collections in Australia and internationally.