News: The Countess Report

Written by: Amy Prcevich, Elvis Richardson and Miranda Samuels

The Countess Report is Amy Prcevich, Elvis Richardson and Miranda Samuels – an independent artist run initiative that publishes data on gender representation in the Australian contemporary art world.

Published 30 October 2019 its results indicate: ‘the representation of women has significantly improved. We counted over 13,000 artists across 184 institutions. This is undeniably a healthy sample size. The category of non-binary artist was included for the first time, and we now have a benchmark for non-binary representation within the sector. We can report that: – 71% of art school graduates are women. – There was an increase in the representation of women artists of between 10-20% across artist run spaces, commercial galleries, contemporary art organisations, public galleries, major museums and university galleries. – State galleries and museums continue to significantly under-represent women in their collections and exhibitions. – In State galleries and museums the representation of women decreased from 36.9% to 33.9% from 2016 to today. – Non-binary artists were represented at 1-2% across the sector, with no non-binary artists recorded in curated state gallery exhibitions in 2018. – 52% of art prize winners were women, with the top ten prizes (in dollar value) being a 50/50 split’. However, the authors ‘remain cautious that the 2019 results are not just a spike; and so they ‘will continue to track statistics in coming years to watch for evidence of dwindling representation.‘

For the full colour and light download below: