About

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MAL is a volunteer-run organisation. We are run by our core Operations Committee and an expanded group of Library Assistants and Library Technicians.

MAL Operations Committee:

Programming and Events Coordinators – Lilly Skipper, Nadia Lazich Harari, Kate McHugh
Grants and Development Coordinators – Jenna Muir, Amelia Saward, Zev Powell
Volunteer Coordinators – Natalie Bocquet, Cooper Motley, Gabby Boyd
Media and Marketing Coordinators – Sophia Matelli, Elin Creese
Collections Coordinators – Liv Moriarty, Levi Shi, Matthew Burns

Administration and Communications Officer - Amelia Saward

Melbourne Art Ephemera Archive - Liam Vaughan

MAL Board:

Linda Mickleborough - Chair
Linda Mickleborough has worked in cultural roles in the private, not-for-profit and government sectors. Her experience includes previous leadership positions as Executive Director, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) and General Manager and Co-CEO Circus Oz, when it was one of Australia’s major international touring companies. She currently works as an arts consultant and executive mentor.

Executive Program for Non-profit Leaders – Arts, Stanford University, USA (Center for Social Innovation Stanford Graduate School of Business Fellowship), Graduate Certificate Art History (First Class Hons.), Master Arts and Cultural Management (First Class Hons), University of Melbourne, (Faculty of Arts Dean’s Honours List for outstanding academic achievement).

Jahkarli Felicitas Romanis - Deputy Chair
Dr Jahkarli Felicitas Romanis is a proud Pitta Pitta woman and artist. She was born and raised on Wadawurrung Country and currently works on Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Boon Wurrung Land. She is a lecturer in the Art, Design and Architecture Faculty at Monash University.

Bachelor of Arts (Photography), RMIT University. Honours (Photography), RMIT University. PhD (Fine Art), Monash University. 

Xiaoran Ma - Treasurer
Dr Xiaoran Ma teaches and researches in organisation studies, with a passion for understanding the seduction of language and the power of art. Before her research journey, she worked successively as a financial journalist in Beijing and as a financial officer in Melbourne. She has over a decade of experience volunteering and working for arts organisations.

Masters of Management (Finance), University of Melbourne, Masters of Arts and Cultural Management, University of Melbourne, PhD in management and organisational theory, University of Melbourne.

Kate McHugh - Board Secretary
Kate McHugh is a client manager at Auspicious Arts Projects and a studio support worker at Arts Project Australia. She has a background in exhibition production, project management, and museum operations, with experience across not-for-profit cultural organisations and public libraries. 

Bachelor of Arts (Art History and Russian) and Graduate Diploma in Arts and Cultural Management, University of Melbourne. 

Gabriella Boyd
Gabriella Boyd is a Gallery Assistant at ARC ONE Gallery, artist/designer and educator. She has a background working in architecture, graphic design, photography and ceramics. She has worked in community arts and charity spaces, including as a gallery coordinator and art teacher (all ages). 
Gabriella is a Volunteer Coordinator at Melbourne Art Library and a general member of the Board. 

Bachelor Design Architecture, University of Sydney, Bachelor of Fine Arts, National Arts School.

Rosemary Forde
Dr Rosemary Forde is a curator and art historian based in Victoria, with a focus on the recent history of contemporary art and discourse in Australia and Aotearoa. She is author and editor of the book Art holds a high place in my life: DAMP monograph 1995- (Melbourne: 3-ply, 2024). Rosemary has taught art history, theory, and curatorial practice disciplines at universities, and worked in cultural roles in local government, contemporary art galleries, and community museums.

PhD Curatorial Practice, Monash University, Master of Arts (First Class Hons), University of Melbourne, Bachelor of Arts (Hons), Otago University. 

Romany Manuell
Dr Romany Manuell is the Research Librarian at the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) Cunningham Library. She has a background in university and TAFE librarianship, and has worked in secondary and tertiary education in Australia and overseas. Romany is a former art librarian.

Bachelor of Arts, Graduate Diploma Education, University of Melbourne, Master of Information Management, RMIT University, Graduate Certificate Education, PhD Charles Sturt University.

Jenna Muir
Jenna Muir is a Meanjin-based arts worker dedicated to supporting the sustainable development of local arts organisations. Since 2018, she has supported the UQ Art Museum team, interned as part of the Special Events team at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, and worked
within the Business Development & Partnerships team at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA). Jenna is currently working with Big Questions Institute (BQI) and STEAMM Studios to establish an art and science prize for creatives pushing the boundaries.  

Bachelor of Arts in Art History (Extended Major), University of Queensland; Certificate IV in Small Business Management, TAFE Queensland; and Perspectives on Art Business professional course, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, New York. 

Fi Wilson
Fi Wilson is a lawyer and creative producer. Fi currently works as a lawyer for the Central Land Council in Mparntwe/Alice Springs, and develops documentary and TV works as co-director of Fillet Films. Fi has previously worked in the advertising and film industries.

Bachelor of Law (Hons) and Bachelor of Commerce (Marketing), Australian National University.

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Libraries do more than just build collections of resources, they build communities. The physical space of an inclusive art and design library allows a space for artists and readers to congregate and exchange ideas. MAL builds bridges between art school and independent studio spaces and residencies, creating a network of peer-support.

For those interested in the arts, specialised resources are often some of the most expensive and are unlikely to be collected at non-specialist libraries. The current best resource for art and design publications in Melbourne are the libraries associated with universities and the National Gallery of Victoria's Shaw Research Library. This group of libraries is important, however their defined internal user groups limit general accessibility. Further, these academic and special libraries are attached to larger parent institutions, which shape their collection development policies and define their target users. Collections are developed to aid the explicit group they are servicing, including internal staff, curators and curriculum developers. The inaccessibility of specialised collections and publications particularly limits the resources that are accessible to artists, especially emerging artists.

Melbourne Art Library began in April 2020, to fill this recognised gap in services. MAL provides an accessible and specialised collection for all interested in the arts, including emerging practitioners, the art-curious, and established researchers and arts professionals. MAL increases access to focussed publications that individuals could not otherwise access or afford. MAL also collects locally-produced and hard-to-find resources that are missing from other public institutions and narratives of arts practice in Australia.

From this initial idea, MAL quickly gained momentum. MAL delivered a contactless delivery service during Naarm-Melbourne’s 2020 COVID-19 lockdown, and opened a bricks-and-mortar reading room within six months of concept. MAL is a Registered Charity, and is recognised as a Public Library with Deductible Gift Recipient status. MAL has grown to a team of over 30 volunteers, and has a strong user group and following.

While MAL began with a focus on physical resources and access – connecting artists and arts workers with a specialised collection of resources; recent activities have focussed on activating the collection through discussion and fostering the development of artistic thought and experimental practice through workshops and forum events. MAL actively invites creatives and communities to engage with the collection in critical ways that challenge and shape the library’s experimental institutional development. MAL has enjoyed collaborations with partners including the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Shepparton Art Museum, Melbourne Art Book Fair, MPavilion, Craft Contemporary, OFFICE, and Blindside. 

Unique in Australia, MAL models creative collaboration and is a new place of exchange. MAL bolsters the work of Artist Run Initiatives and other exhibition spaces, and increase artists’ and designers’ ability to make meaningful contributions to the community, no matter their educational or social backgrounds or the economic environment. Beyond Naarm/Melbourne, MAL has developed relationships with other small scale, independent arts libraries globally, and intends to expand this network, connecting art libraries and other independent like-minded libraries to share best practice, knowledge and ideas.

Read more about the library’s development here.