The ICOM Australia Awards acknowledge and celebrate the outstanding contributions made by individuals and Institutions in Australia that have strengthened international relations and enriched the cultural landscape of museum and galleries.

Australian museums and galleries play a vital role in enhancing the cultural, social and intellectual lives of all Australians and contribute to well-informed, tolerant, and cohesive communities. International collaboration and the sharing of ideas and expertise are integral to furthering these endeavours.  The awards were presented last night by ICOM Australia Chair,  Jessica Bridgfoot as part of the opening night celebrations at the 2024 AMaGA conference in Ballarat, Victoria.

The Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney has won the 2024 ICOM Australia Award for an institution. It is the first university museum to receive this award.  The annual prize is given awarded by ICOM Australia to an Australian museum or gallery which has made an outstanding contribution to international engagement. Previous winners include the Western Australian Museum, Bendigo Art Gallery and the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art.

The judging panel said the Chau Chak Wing Museum demonstrated outstanding commitment to working with museums in the Pacific, and leadership in the repatriation of Indigenous culture. They were also impressed by the work that the Museum has done with the local Egyptian community in relation to the display of mummified remains held in its collections.

The Chau Chak Wing Museum was also commended for its staging of the highly successful UMAC conference in 2023 bringing together the global community of ICOM members working in university museums and galleries connecting them in person and online with a thought provoking and impactful program.

The 2024 ICOM Australia Award for an Individual was awarded to Ruth McDougall from the Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art for her work with artists, institutions, and communities across Oceania and her role in caring for stories, artworks, relationships and conversations across the Pacific for more than 20 years.

A key member of the curatorial team for six Asia-Pacific Triennial exhibitions, she has curated major exhibitions and written significant publications on Pacific Art and textiles. A Churchill Fellow in 2013, she was most recently nominated for the 2024 Creative Australia Asia Pacific Art Awards for Innovation in the curation of the APT9 Women’s Wealth project with colleagues Sana Balai and Taloi Havini.

The judging panel praised McDougall’s commitment to working with Pacific communities over many years and her pivotal role in elevating our understanding of contemporary art practice across the Pacific through exhibitions, publications and scholarship.