About Me

I’m a research-centred artist, curator and scholar based in Ngunnawal Country (Canberra) in the Australian Capital Territory. My practice explores people’s relationships with the non-human world. focusing most often on how creative responses to place might evolve better care for waterways and their communities. My projects span disciplines, including visual works, sculptural installations, place interventions, participatory experiences and accessible writing, often incorporating responses to artefacts, collections and museum practices.

I was the 2024-5 M16 Artspace Environmental Artist-in-Residence, the University of Canberra/Belconnen Arts Centre Artist-in-Residence for Cross-sector Engagement in 2022, and in 2015 a Fellow at the Rachel Carson Centre for Environment and Society in Munich, Germany. I’ve exhibited in solo and group exhibitions, and contributed widely to curatorial and design projects in Australia and overseas.

From 2022-25, I was the James O. Fairfax Senior Fellow in Culture and Environment (2022-25) at the National Museum of Australia, and was formerly Head Curator, People and the Environment (2011-16), and Content Director, Museum Enhancement Program (2005-2011) at the same institution. From 2018-2022, I was Director, PhotoAccess, the ACT region’s centre for contemporary photographic arts.

I’m an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Centre for Creative and Cultural Research at the University of Canberra and a member of the Advisory Committee for the B.A. in Arts and Cultural Management at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts (Edith Cowan University). I’m Co-Chair of the Board of the Cad Factory, an artist-run organisation based in Narrandera, NSW, contribute to the committee of Plumwood Mountain, a unique cultural and conservation property near Braidwood, NSW, and was a founding Co-Director of Catchment Studio, an ACT-based independent creative platform transforming people’s relationships with waterways.

Kirsten Wehner’s CV

Please contact me via email at: hello@kirstenwehner.com