about:
Sue Walker
Sue Walker was appointed as the founding Director of the Victorian Tapestry Workshop in 1976, a position she held until late in 2004.
Through the years of her leadership the art of tapestry achieved a vital presence in Australia's cultural life and with remarkable speed, the VTW became the major provider of public art in the country and an important force in the international world of tapestry.
During her 28 years Sue was responsible for the production of more than 350 tapestry projects including monumental commissions such as Arthur Boyd’s Reception Hall tapestry for Australia’s Parliament House, the Federation Tapestry at Melbourne Museum, and a number of tapestries now hanging overseas.
As well as initiating opportunities for more than 300 artists, she curated traveling exhibitions of VTW tapestries for major world centres including New York, London, Paris, Germany, Denmark, Turkey, Japan, New Zealand, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore.
In 1988 with her colleague Kate Derum, she convened an International Tapestry Symposium in Melbourne that attracted delegates from 23 countries and resulted in the establishment of a worldwide tapestry network.
She has edited and published several full-colour books and catalogues, including her major publication Artists’ Tapestries from Australia, and been a key-note speaker at Study Days and Conferences in world centres including Kyoto, Chicago, Beijing, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
In 2006 she presented the Eighth Annual Lecture for The Gloria F Ross Tapestry Study Centre in America and was subsequently invited to join the Board of the Centre, a position she held untill the Board was disolved in 2009.
Sue has received numerous awards for her contributions to the arts in Australia and has a doctoral degree from the University of Melbourne. See more
