Monday 31 March 2025
6:00pm - 8:00 pm
St Kilda Army and Navy Club
88 Acland Street (upstairs, lift available)
St Kilda
For our second major event of 2025, the Society combines art history and theatre to present a compelling homage to artist Joy Hester.
Against the dramatic backdrop of Hester’s art and controversial life, actor/writer Emma Louise Pursey and art historian/biographer Janine Burke will explore how gender bias can subsume women’s art, and how that is changing.
Born in Elwood, Hester (1920-1960) was the major woman artist in the renowned Heide Circle which included Sidney Nolan, Arthur Boyd, and her first husband, Albert Tucker.Hester’s closest woman friend was Sunday Reed, one of Australia's most influential art patrons. Reed’s home is now Heide Museum of Modern Art. Tragically, Hester passed away from cancer, aged forty. Her son, Sweeney, born when Hester and Tucker lived in Robe Street, St Kilda, was adopted by Sunday and her husband John. Despite critical dismissal during her life, Hester left an extraordinary oeuvre.
- Janine will present an overview of the artist and her art.
- Emma will perform a reading of her solo theatre work WHERE IS JOY? due to premiere at 45 Downstairs in September, under the direction of Susie Dee.
- Followed by discussion and audience Q&A.
Dr Janine Burke wrote Hester’s biography and curated her retrospective at the National Gallery of Victoria. She also edited Dear Sun: The Letters of Joy Hester and Sunday Reed (1995) and wrote The Heart Garden: Sunday Reed and Heide (2004).
Emma Louise Pursey is a critically acclaimed Melbourne-based stage and screen actor, writer and producer who has performed nationally and internationally since 1997. Her latest play - Where is Joy? - is based on Hester’s life.
Tickets are $23 (including booking fee)
*The Society will donate all money raised from ticket sales to ACF BOOST to help fund the production of Where is Joy? ACF BOOST is a crowdfunding platform set up by Creative Australia.