{"id":24875,"date":"2025-09-02T10:32:32","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T01:02:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/?p=24875"},"modified":"2025-09-04T13:46:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T04:16:13","slug":"in-touch-with-dr-belinda-howden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/2025\/09\/02\/in-touch-with-dr-belinda-howden\/","title":{"rendered":"In touch with… Dr Belinda Howden"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beginning her role as Senior Curator of Flinders University Museum of Art (FUMA) this week, Dr Belinda Howden is looking forward to continuing FUMA’s strong Object-Based Learning program and hosting of timely exhibitions. We chat about the important role artists play in wider society and the works of art that changed her intellectually, emotionally and politically.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What does your role at Flinders University Museum of Art entail?<\/strong><\/p>\n

As Senior Curator, my role involves researching, developing and producing the exhibition program at FUMA, alongside associated public outreach like hosting tours, special lectures, publishing and other promotional events that support the exhibitions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What attracted you to curating?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Curating is as shallow and deep a pursuit as trying to know the world \u2013 an improbable yet enduring task. Works of art are like portals. From one object to the next you can uncover whole realms of knowledge and expertise, from social history to technology to political events to poetry. Curating allows you to bring these worlds into contact with one another, producing a narrative across time and space.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What are you most looking forward to in the new role?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alongside its exhibition programming, FUMA is a leader in Object-Based Learning (OBL). OBL uses the art collection as primary source material, whereby students engage with images and objects as prisms for learning, thinking and understanding fields of study. It is truly a cross-disciplinary pedagogical approach. I\u2019m excited to contribute to FUMA\u2019s OBL program as it is a rigorous method for embedding art and cultural objects in education, and informs the thinking and doing of the next generation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Why do you think it\u2019s important for Flinders to host exhibitions like\u00a0Crosscurrents<\/em>\u00a0and share the broader relevance of art to students?<\/strong><\/p>\n

As the algal bloom crisis has unfolded here in South Australia, Crosscurrents <\/em>has been remarkably timed. A number of the works in the exhibition are now a record of the wonky ecological times we are living through. In this sense, the exhibition reflects the important role artists play in wider society. They can be close observers, radical visionaries, truth-tellers, act independently yet are deeply embedded or reflective of their community. For students to witness this way of being in action is to expand their imagination and thinking, and offers many possible paths in approaching a subject or solving a problem.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Across all galleries and museums, which piece of art has moved you the most?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is tough to answer! I\u2019ve seen and loved so much and have been changed by art in so many ways: intellectually, emotionally, politically. Often you get asked about the first artwork you can remember. Officially, mine was being taken to the big-smoke (Sydney) to see Maria Fernanda Cardoso\u2019s surrealist performance Flea Circus <\/em>(2000). Even as a teenager, it felt foreign yet beguiling. I still feel that way when I encounter new works and practices today.<\/p>\n

But if I\u2019m being honest, something that predates it and I return to again and again is a scene from The Witches, <\/em>the 1990 horror movie adaption of Roald Dahl\u2019s novel. In the foyer of a seaside hotel, the Grand High Witch taps on the figure of a child in a bucolic landscape painting, making the image of the child vanish. In a later scene we find out the young boy has gone missing in real life. As a child at the time, the witch\u2019s act was scary and believable in its indirect power. But as an adult, I\u2019ve realised it captures the magic of images and objects, how art is a powerful facsimile of life. The scene draws on very old ideas regarding the functionality of art as a tool for ceremony and ritual, for transformation, and at the same time captures the enduring iconophilia and belief in images we still hold close in contemporary society today.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tell us about your ideal weekend.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Spending lots of time with my family \u2013 swimming, riding our bikes to the beach, hanging out in the garden or fire side \u2013 and sharing a cheeky night cap with friends to top it off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beginning her role as Senior Curator of Flinders University Museum of Art (FUMA) this week, Dr Belinda Howden is looking forward to continuing FUMA’s strong Object-Based […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4958,"featured_media":24876,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32341,57368],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fuma","category-in-touch-with"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4958"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}