Caroline Phillips volunteered with the Women’s Art Register from 2014 to 2024. She was Secretary from 2017-2023 and Convenor from 2023-2024. Her role spanned various portfolios including collection management, volunteer management, archive and research, membership, communications and publishing, special projects, and grants & development. She developed and collaborated on a number of projects including Art+Feminism Edit-a-thons, curatorial projects and participatory public programming. She conceived and led the Women's Art Register Preservation Project (2018-2023) to upgrade and conserve the entire collection and enhance access to the archive.

​

The Women’s Art Register (W.A.R) is Australia’s living archive of women’s art practice (cis, non-binary and trans inclusive) and a national, artist-run and not-for-profit community and resource. Assessed as a ‘Collection of National Significance’ through the Heritage Collections Council in 2009, this unique archive houses the images, catalogues, posters and ephemera of over 5000 Australian and International artists.

​

Since 1975 the Women's Art Register has provided an inclusive, independent platform for research, education, advocacy and support for its members and the Arts, Education and GLAM sectors, enhancing the status of women artists and addressing issues of equity, professional practice and cultural heritage.

​

​

Selected Women's Art Register Projects 

​​

2024 NEST Network for Empowerment, Solidarity and Transregionality

November 10 // NEST gathering // AWARE // Villa Vassilieff, Paris

November 11 // A Story Named Joy // Palais de Tokyo, Paris

​

A two day convening of NEST, a transnational network of non-profit organizations, collectives, and independent structures working at the intersection of visual arts, activisms, and gender studies, created at the initiative of AWARE archives of women artists, research and exhibitions.

​

Caroline Phillips co-moderated Round Table 2: Feminist Archiving and Transmission at the Palais de Tokyo on November 10. The panel explored the many NEST structures that have constituted new archives of women and non-binary artists that have not been considered by institutions. Their practices, sometimes self-taught, include conserving, organizing, digitizing, transmitting, and curating the materials to challenge dominant narratives in art and uncover the stories they hide. In this round table, participants, including Merren Ricketson from the Women's Art Register, presented these practices and highlighted new ways of activating the archive.

​...

​

​​​2022 Leaving Your Legacy, A Guide for Australian Artists

June 25 // Siteworks, Melbourne

​

A one day forum with presentations and accompanying Advice Hub, designed to unpack the complexities of estate planning for artists. Leading industry specialists presented comprehensive information on tax, law, archiving and conservation. 

​

The program of presentations introduced complex terrain in a straightforward fashion, to support and guide participants to define their own legacy and lessen the burden for those who will be left to manage and care for it. It provides a supportive platform to address the barriers and issues specific to women artists.

​

This forum is accompanied by a special publication Artists’ Workbook: Leaving Your Legacy, A Guide for Australian Artists, written by Caroline Phillips. The workbook is designed to help artists work together with their family and/or representatives, to find their Champions and leave a successful creative legacy.

​

Forum participants:

Financial and Legal Frameworks
Tax, costs, bequests, trusts, supporting charities, future income streams, wills, executors, powers of attorney, copyright, IP, licensing, disputes

• Evan Lowenstein—Director, Lowensteins

• Jennifer Tutty—Principal, Studio Legal

​

​

Advice on storage, conservation, archiving and documentation

• Robyn Ho and Eleanor Vallier—Conservators, c/o Studios

• Mar Cruz—Digital Preservation Technician, ACMI

​

Gallery and Museum Advice—Your work in context
Finding your champion, selling and gifting your work, arranging a representative, valuations, donations, managing and building your reputation, shaping your intentions.

• Kate Nodrum—Gallery Manager, Charles Nodrum Gallery

• Catherine Asquith—Director, Catherine Asquith Art Advisory

​

Conceived and developed by Caroline Phillips. Presented by the Women's Art Register and And Also Presents.

​

Workbook available via the Women's Art Register.

...

​

2022 Setting up Shop in the GPG

16–27 May // George Paton Gallery, University of Melbourne

As a fitting farewell to the George Paton Gallery in its Union House location, the Women's Art Register took part in the exhibition When you think about feminism, what do you think? George Paton Gallery, Feminisms, 1975-2022. The show, curated by Sandie Bridie and Emma Shaw, with Caroline Phillips, mapped 50 years of feminist exhibition and projects in the gallery. Alongside the incredible artworks, W.A.R. reinhabited the iconic gallery space by setting up shop with a mini working archive where we continued to document the work of women artists and shared stories with visitors.

...

​

2022 Distribution Series #2: Alternative Collections

Panel discussion // 9 February // Australian Centre for Contemporary Art

​

Caroline Phillips spoke about the Women's Art Register and the challenges faced by community archives, on this panel convened by Melbourne Art Library. Joined by Nell Fraser (Melbourne Art Library) and Nick  Henderson (Australian Queer Archives), this event was part of the public program for the exhibition Whose Afraid of Public Space?

Audio via Soundcloud available here. 

...

​

2021  Preserving Your Future

18 March // Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne

 

Presented for the exhibition Flesh After Fifty, Changing images of older women in art, the event focussed on legacy planning and unpacking the barriers faced by women artists, with A/Prof Kate MacNeill from the University of Melbourne's School of Culture and Communication, and artists Frances Tapueluelu and Denise Keele-bedford.

...

​

2020 Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon

8 March // National Gallery of Victoria

On International Women's Day W..AR joined forces once again with our friends at Wikimedia Australia and WikiD to host our annual Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon. Part of a collaborative program with the National Gallery of Australia's #knowmyname campaign, there were seven Edit-a-thons around Australia.

​

Supported by the NGV, WAR's event topped the national list of editors, words and new articles created. Our group of 33 editors—artists, librarians, academics, curators, designers, architects and WAR members—generated substantial results: 25 articles created, 138 articles edited,  462 total edits, 33 editors, 44K words added, 364 references added.

...

​

2018 Conspicuous Presence

Exhibition + Edit-a-thon // 21 February–10 March 2018 // Trocadero Artspace

W.A.R collaborative curatorial project including an Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon. Conspicuous Presence makes visible the work of five Australian Women Artists of Colour. Through the heightened material presence of their work, the artists’ deploy conspicuous methods of commanding our attention; accentuating materiality, embracing a highly charged and embodied physicality, and gleaning our sensory reactions through their processes of making. The contemporary politics of feminist art demand that women of colour are given a platform.

​

W..AR, historically inclusive of a wide range of cultural and political identities, shares this special International Women’s Day platform with these five contemporary artists who make known their powerful identities and intersectional experiences through their materially charged practices. Conspicuous Presence recognises their visibility, acknowledges their presence and respects their voices. 

​

Co-curated for W..AR by Caroline Phillips and Juliette Peers for Trocadero’s Guest Curator Program for International Women’s Day 2018

​

ARTISTS

Sofi Basseghi, Georgia MacGuire, Ema Shin, Khi-Lee Thorpe, and Su Yang. 

...

​

2018 The Great Divide: Feminist Art Practice across Generations and Geography

MEL&NYC live discussion event + zine poster project // August 2018

As part of MoMA at NGV: 130 Years of Modern and Contemporary Art, National Gallery of Victoria, an extensive program of events was presented by leading Melbourne organisations and communities exploring culture, politics, business and the everyday experience as seen through the eyes of New Yorkers and Australians. W.A.R (MEL) and (RE)Present (NYC) connected in an intergenerational dialogue and a collaborative feminist zine poster.

 

LIVE EVENT

An interactive session at the Richmond Theatrette on 11 August 2018 addressed the need to communicate more broadly with each other about our different ages and experience as feminists and artists. Speakers included: Vanessa Godden, Tassia Joannides, Juliette Peers and Caroline Phillips from W.A.R, in conversation with Nancy Azara, Rachel Steiberg and Emily Harris from (RE)Present.

​

POSTER / ZINE

Responses to our online call-out asking 'What’s Your Feminism?' were meshed with text from RE/PResent (NYC) to create a collaborative Poster Zine (designed by Lisa Mansfield). This was pasted up in 100 locations across inner Melbourne and distributed in New York to members of the (RE)Present collective. The poster is part of the the Jessie Street Women’s Library (Sydney) collection; FARC (QLD), a new feminist collective, were inspired by our poster and created their own workshop based our 'What’s Your Feminism' theme. 

​

SUPPORTED BY

MEL&NYC was generously supported by the Victorian Government.

...

​

2015 AS IF: Echoes from the Women's Art Register 

Exhibition + Events // 2 October–2 November 2015 // West Space

AS IF: Echoes was a collaborative project showcasing the depth and quality of Australian women artists held in the Women’s Art Register. Curated by Juliette Peers, Caroline Phillips and Stephanie Leigh, a projection program was installed at West Space alongside posters and audio interviews with prominent Australian women artists. The galleries became a multi-use space for listening, viewing, thinking and writing—creating links between the archives and contemporary practices.

 

AS IF: Echoes was part of the larger program curated by Sally Northfield for AS IF: 40 years and beyond—Celebrating the Women’s Art Register, a program of 13 visual art events across Melbourne and winner of the Best Visual Art Event at the 2015 Melbourne Fringe Festival.

​

SELECT PUBLIC PROGRAMS

AS IF: Slide Night // 13 October 2015, 6–8.30pm
Drawing on the immense collection of over 20,000 images WAR has collated since 1975, Slide Night displaying over 400 slides and included speakers/artists Ross Coulter, Eleanor Butt, Anne Marsh, Elizabeth Gower, Danielle Hakim, Jill Orr and Clare Rae.
 

AS IF: Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon // 31 October 2015, 11am–4pm
Art+Feminism is a campaign to improve coverage of women and the arts on Wikipedia, and to encourage female editorship. The first Edit-a-thon was held in New York City in 2014 and since then over one hundred events have been held globally. Through a collaborative process of learning and support, feminist communities around the world are filling in the gaps, writing new histories and sharing new knowledge. This event was the first Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon held in Melbourne. Facilitators: Caroline Phillips and Juliette Peers.

View the full AS IF program

​

Reviews
Art Almanac
Natty Solo blog
Contemporary Art & Feminism

​