Rate My Professor Frances Barrett

Frances Barrett is a Lecturer in Contemporary Art at Adelaide University. She holds a PhD in Curatorial Practice from Monash University, awarded in 2021 for her thesis entitled Meatus: A Curatorial Passage. Additionally, she earned a Bachelor of Art History and Theory and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Art History and Theory, Performance and Theatre Studies from the University of New South Wales in 2008. Her academic interests center on queer performance, queer theory, queer curating, voice, and performance art, informing her practice-led research and teaching.

As an artist, Barrett bridges sound and performance art through immersive sound installations and live performances that position audiences within explorations of embodiment, listening, and touch. She is a key member of the artist collective Barbara Cleveland, alongside Diana Baker Smith, Kate Blackmore, and Kelly Doley, with projects presented at major venues such as the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the 20th Biennale of Sydney, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, and the Hayward Gallery in London. Solo and collaborative highlights include Meatus at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art in Melbourne (2022), Cry as part of The National 4: Australian Art Now at Carriageworks (2023), and A Song for Katthy, which toured nationally across Araluen Arts Centre, Goulburn Regional Art Gallery, Maitland Regional Art Gallery, and Redcliffe Art Gallery (2023). Curatorial endeavors feature VERS: On Pleasures, Embodiment, Kinships, Fugitivity and Re/Organising (2022, with Monash University Museum of Art, Samstag Museum of Art, and Ace Open), Into My Arms at Ace Open in Adelaide (2018), and FM[X]: What Would a Feminist Methodology Sound Like? with Liquid Architecture (2015-2016). Her achievements include the Suspended Moment: The Katthy Cavaliere Fellowship (2019), Mollie Holman Award from Monash University (2021), Arts NSW Emerging Visual Arts Fellowship nominee (2016), and grants from Creative Australia, Arts SA, Create NSW, and the Australia Council for the Arts. Residencies encompass the Carriageworks Clothing Store Studio (2021) and Goulburn Regional Art Gallery (2018). Barrett's work contributes significantly to contemporary discourses on queer curatorial practices and performance methodologies in the field.