holly Williams

Co-Founder and Director of The Curators’ Department, Holly Williams is an innovative curator, writer and researcher with a focus on the unnoticed or overlooked aspects of contemporary living. Working closely with artists, she is a skilled creative producer specialising in interdisciplinary practices, Holly is adept at initiating and delivering complex exhibitions, site-specific projects in public spaces, cross-institutional collaborations, dynamic public programs and developing successful audience engagement strategies. With more than 20 years of experience in all areas of exhibition production, she has worked on projects across contemporary art, design, architecture, science, archival collections, time-based and digital media for a diverse range of settings and audiences.

Holly is currently developing public art projects for Lendlease, Stockland and recently a permanent commission by Lindy Lee for Woollahra Council. She has recently completed a number of exhibitions for the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House, Canberra including the permanent exhibition Truth, Power and a Free Press (2019), Behind the Lines - the year in political cartoons: 2020, A Dog’s Breakfast (2020) and Prophecy & Chance (2021) as well as the permanent exhibition about the Australian Public Sevice, For the Government of the Day (2021). Beyond The Curators’ Department, she is also Associate Director, Creative Programs at the Australian Design Centre.

Holly completed a Masters of Visual Arts from Sydney College of the Arts, The University of Sydney in 2005. Though she chose to withdraw from the program prior to completion, she was in the first cohort of Monash University’s Curatorial Practice PhD program led by Tara McDowell.