The art of belonging
The appointment of Lorraine Tarabay as chairman of the Museum of Contemporary Art signals a welcome shift in representation in our cultural institutions. And this is just the beginning. By Jane Albert.
happened the day Lorraine Tarabay was announced as the new chairman of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) in Sydney last July. She received congratulatory phone calls, emails and text messages from people all over Australia, but that wasn’t the unusual part. In some cases, the callers were in tears.
“I had an incredible reaction on that day and in the days following, from people of different and diverse backgrounds telling me how inspirational they found my story, that finally a person of non-English speaking background had been accepted as chair of one of our leading cultural institutions,” she says. “They’re not used to seeing that and it gave them hope and inspiration with respect to themselves and their children. I think it represents a change in the face of Australia, and acceptance of people from multicultural backgrounds in those positions.”
Not only is this first-generation-born Australian the first person of multicultural background to chair a cultural institution in Australia, Tarabay and MCA director Elizabeth Ann Macgregor represent the first and only female chair-director combination.
To meet the 49-year-old is to understand why she would have been chosen as the chair of such a prestigious museum, given her impeccable corporate background, her broad representation on various diverse not-for-profit boards and her impressive knowledge of contemporary art. It wouldn’t hurt that the home in Sydney’s east where she lives with her husband and two children boasts its own tasteful gallery of contemporary works, 55 per cent of which happen to be by women artists, including Lindy Lee and Tracey Moffatt.
Tarabay is no stranger to breaking down barriers and creating milestones. If her appointment as chairman is inspirational to a broad diversity of Australians, the story of how she got there is equally compelling. The daughter of Lebanese immigrants, Tarabay grew up in working-class inner-southwest Sydney, aware she was an outsider despite the multicultural community she lived among. “We suffered a lot of racism and discrimination, we were always taunted by the neighbourhood kids,” she says with a shrug. Despite or perhaps because of her outsider status she chose to work in the male, typically private school-dominated world of investment banking. One of her first jobs represented the first time that firm, BZW, had appointed a female investment banker in the corporate advisory group. She moved swiftly up the corporate ladder until she landed a posting in 2000 with J.P Morgan in New York, the heart of the financial world.
It was in New York that Tarabay reignited her friendship with her future husband Nick Langley, a funds manager, and it was in her
A STRANGE THING
adopted neighbourhood of Chelsea where she developed her love for contemporary art. This was inspired in part by the proliferation of art that followed the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre, when artists responded to the shock and horror the only way they knew how: through art.
When Tarabay returned to Sydney in 2003 she noticed a buzz surrounding a museum she was unfamiliar with, the MCA. She spent more and more time there, fascinated by its provocative exhibitions and soon became a generous (and initially anonymous) donor. Drawn by the fact it was and is the one museum in Australia dedicated solely to collecting contemporary Australian artists – although it does exhibit international artists – Tarabay stepped up her commitment and joined the foundation council in 2015. A year later she was invited to join the board.
When Tarabay took over as chairman from her friend, mentor and one-time boss Simon Mordant, she used her first staff address to share one of the most profound moments of her life, which occurred at the MCA during a Welcome to Country from Indigenous elder Uncle Ray. “He spoke about how the Aboriginal community were a welcoming community and no matter where you came from, what your race or religion, you were welcome and formed part of the community. Growing up in this country and in the workplace I did suffer discrimination, on many levels, and it was the first time someone had said out loud I was welcome. For the first time I felt I truly belonged. It was quite a moment for me.”
The more you get to know Tarabay the more apparent it becomes how passionately she believes in the positive impact of art in bringing communities together, in educating, in celebrating and in healing. One of the platforms on which she was appointed chair was her dedication to social impact through art, initiating and chairing a specific council and fund to which she and Langley donated $1 million
“Growing up in this country and in the workplace I did suffer discrimination, on many levels, and it was the first time someone had said out loud I was welcome. For the first time I felt I truly belonged. It was quite a moment for me”
to further support this burgeoning area. Nobody could have predicted how relevant this would be in such short order.
“I never would have imagined the circumstances I walked into on my first day as chairman,” she says, shaking her head at the memory. “We were thrown into a situation that happened almost overnight and all the solid ground we thought we were on was ripped out from under us.” She’s referring, of course, to Covid-19 and its sudden and immediate closure of every Australian cultural centre last March. The financial ramifications for the MCA are increasingly worrying, with the museum and its associated venue hires – and essential moneyspinners – forced to cease trading immediately. The MCA is now looking down the barrel of a $5.5 million deficit and although the museum has since re-opened, many of its lucrative function spaces have not. “The major challenge is survival, from a financial perspective. But we can’t let fear paralyse us,” Tarabay says.
If Tarabay’s background has taught her anything it’s to fight back and never give up and so – in conjunction with the indomitable Macgregor – the pair has introduced a raft of measures in response to their financial situation, including reworking the exhibition programs, closing the museum one day a week and closing a gallery floor for six months last year.
Although visitation numbers are still markedly down on what they would expect at this time of year, Tarabay says the amount of time people are spending in the museum and on the website has increased significantly. “Yes we’ve got less people coming through the doors, but they’re more engaged,” she says. “It’s given people a sense of belonging. They’ve felt disconnected throughout Covid and art is a way of reconnecting.”
The planned exhibition schedule was thrown into disarray with international borders closed and their increasingly perilous financial situation, but the MCA has worked with other international museums in rescheduling and Tarabay is proud of the exhibition line-up they now have planned for 2021. “We’ve come up with a schedule we think is exciting, of the times, and that takes some risks, provided we get the financial resources we require from state and federal government,” she cautions.
Some of the highlights of the exhibition program include a large commissioned mural from 2020 Archibald Prize-winning artist Vincent Namatjira that will this month be unveiled by Adam Goodes, who will feature in the painting. In June, the MCA will launch You Can Go Now, a retrospective of cherished Brisbane artist and activist Richard Bell spanning 50 years of his multi-awardwinning work exploring issues such as Indigenous rights and land rights. The biennial exhibition held in conjunction with the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Carriageworks and the MCA, The National: New Australian Art, will run from March 26, featuring the work of 39 exhibiting artists, collectives and collaboratives. “The MCA’s presentation will not only focus on the environment but will be from the woman’s perspective as well, as 12 artists presenting are female,” Tarabay says. NATSIAA (National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award) and Wynne Prize-winning artist Betty Kuntiwa Pumani and 2020 Wynne Prize-winning artist Caroline Rothwell are among those whose new works will be displayed at the MCA, curated by Rachel Kent.
Happily, the museum has managed to reschedule New Era, the exhibition planned for its 2020 Sydney International Art Series of American multimedia artist Doug Aitken, now opening in September. The comprehensive survey exhibition spans 25 years of the artist’s career including works from the late 1990s to more recent large-scale installations. Towards year’s end, Tarabay and her team are looking forward to the MCA celebrating its 30th birthday on November 11 with a series of small public celebrations that will be announced later this year.
Tarabay’s appointment as chair will not be token, if she has anything to do with it. She has already changed the philanthropy model to broaden the museum’s circles and make multicultural communities feel welcome at the MCA. “My hope is it will encourage other people from multicultural backgrounds to engage with the museum at all levels – visitors, patrons and donors,” she says, noting that many donors events and opening nights in the arts in general tend to be attended by an older, white population.
With the potential for up to five more years as chair she is hopeful her influence will create a positive impact. “We’re the only museum female chair-director combination, which is exciting, but it’s about time, too. Our leadership style is different, we empathise at different levels. Diversity is always a great thing,” she says. “There is a fear among multicultural communities that they don’t belong and I’m hoping that by virtue of me being here in this position it tells them they do belong and are encouraged to come and engage with the arts.”
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