Dr Caroline Turner

BA (Hons), MA ANU, PhD UQ
Adjunct Senior Research Fellow and Associate Professor
ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences

Areas of expertise

  • Museum Studies 210204
  • Asian Cultural Studies 200202
  • Art History 190102
  • Visual Cultures 190104
  • Multicultural, Intercultural And Cross Cultural Studies 200209
  • Art Theory And Criticism 1901
  • Visual Arts And Crafts 1905

Research interests

Contemporary Asian and Pacific Art (especially Japan and Indonesia); Museums and museology; Art and Human Rights; Cultural Diplomacy.

Biography

Dr Caroline Turner is an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow and Associate Professor in the Research School of Humanities and the Arts, ANU. She was Deputy Director of the Humanities Research Centre ANU from 2000-2006.As a senior museum professional and Deputy Director of the Queensland Art Gallery from 1982-1999 she played a key role in  the Gallery's international programmes.

Dr Turner was co-founder and Project Director for ten years for the Asia-Pacific Triennial Project which, over three exhibitions in 1993, 1996 and 1999, attracted audiences of 60,000, 120,000, and 155,000. Turner was also the scholarly editor of the three major catalogues in the 1990s and the book Tradition and Change: Contemporary Art of Asia and the Pacific, University of Queensland Press, 1993 and has written extensively on contemporary Asian art as well as lecturing on this subject internationally, including in China and Japan. Recent publications include a jointly written book with Jen Webb Art and Human Rights: Contemporary Asian Contexts, Manchester University Press, 2016.

Her book of essays Art and Social Change: Contemporary Art of Asia and the Pacific, Pandanus Books, 2005 is a survey of developments in Asian and Pacific contemporary art. She  has held four ARC grants including "The Limits of Tolerance" which explored the links between art and human rights and is also working on several research projects related to museums, museology and human rights. Her most recent ARC grant "The rise of new cultural networks in Asia" (with Dr Michelle Antoinette) explores cultural changes in our region. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, London (FRSA). She was appointed to the Board of Cultural Facilities Corporation by the ACT Government 2003-2009.

The Australian Government appointed Dr Turner to the Australia-China Council in the 1980s and the Australia-Indonesia Institute in the 1990's.She was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2009 for contributions to the visual arts and to the establishment and fostering of cultural relationships in the Asia-Pacific region.

Publications

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Updated:  19 March 2024 / Responsible Officer:  Director (Research Services Division) / Page Contact:  Researchers