Ivana Jirásek is a strategic and rigorous arts manager.
She specialises in grants and fundraising +
curatorial projects with contemporary studio glass.
FUNDRAISING
Ivana works with artists, arts organisations, individual philanthropists and philanthropic trusts and foundations to facilitate strategic giving. She has skills and experiences gathered over 35 years with:
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney’s flagship public art museum
Creative Australia (formerly Australia Council for the Arts and its entity Artsupport Australia)
Culture at Work: an Art/science research hub based in Pyrmont, Sydney
Beyond Empathy - Regional community arts
Arts and Cultural Exchange - Western Sydney community arts (formerly Information and Cultural Exchange)
GLASS
Born in the Czech glass-making heartlands of Bohemia, Ivana is committed to celebrating the creative potential of glass and those who work with it . A rigorous curator and writer, she has been engaged in many diverse roles and projects including:
CURATORIAL
Curator of Diplomacy: Translations in Glass for Canberra Glassworks (2015)
Development and implementation of exhibitions for Australian craft and design centres (1996-2002)
Development of exhibitions at Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, including Transparent Things in partnership with the National Gallery of Australia, curator Geoffrey Edwards and The Thomas Foundation (2000-2002)
Curator of 10 Australian Glass Artists exhibition for Gallery Enomoto, Osaka, a satellite event of the
Glass Art Society conference in Seto, Japan (1998)
COLLECTIONS
Ivana catalogued the National Art Glass Collection at Wagga Wagga Art Gallery in 1995, and worked on the decorative arts collections at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum.
ENGAGEMENT
Board Director Ausglass - the Australian glass artists’ association (2022) and honorary roles (1990-2001)
Judge of the Ranamok Glass Prize for Australian and New Zealand Contemporary Glass on several occasions during its 20 year span 1995 - 2014
Presentation at the ICOM Glass Committee conference, Prague, Czech Republic (2002)
Work at Glass Artists’ Gallery, Sydney (1989-1991)
Work at Coleridge Gallery, London (1987-88) a private gallery specialising in British contemporary glass
CRITICAL WRITING
Ivana has many published articles and reviews about artists working with glass, exhibitions, books and conferences for Craft Arts International, Glass Quarterly (US) magazine, Neues Glas (Germany) and Object (Australia).
For her Master of Art Administration degree she completed a research paper titled: ‘Contexts for Contemporary Australian Glass: Strategies for public collections and curatorship’ (1997).
QUALIFICATIONS
Teriary study completed at University of New South Wales, Sydney includes:
Master of Art Administration
Graduate Diploma in Gallery Management, and
Bachelor of Science (Marine Geology major)
Click here to contact Ivana to discuss your next project
Kultura is Czech for ‘culture’.
Allied link: czlink
Banner photograph © Greg Piper.
Artists: Ben Edols and Kathy Elliott – Emerge 2005 (detail).