About us

Susan McCulloch is an art writer and commentator, curator, art consultant, judge of art prizes, speaker and publisher.  

Born in London, she  grew up at Shoreham, Victoria, Australia at Whistlewood - a house much-visited by leading international and Australian artists, writers, academics, critics and many others. Long time home of Susan's parents Alan McCulloch, AO - author, artist, renowned Australian art critic and founding director of the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery and Ella Bromley McCulloch, actress and writer, Whistlewood has been the McCullochs' work base, art consultancy, private gallery and home for more than 70 years.  

From 1980 to 2013  Susan combined book publishing with writing on the arts for major Australian press including The Age, The Bulletin, the Melbourne Herald, and many other journals and magazines. She was The Australian newspaper’s visual arts writer 1994-2003 and its national art critic 2003-2004. She is also a regular judge of major art awards and a commentator on Australian art. 

She has managed McCulloch's Encyclopedia of Australian Art since the late 1980s and was its its co-author and publisher for its 1994 and 2006 editions.

Susan has a longstanding and dedicated interest in Aboriginal art and culture. She has written widely on the subject for more than 35 years - travelling as often as possible to the many art-producing communities throughout Australia. Her book, McCulloch's Contemporary Art: the complete guide - now co-authored by Emily McCulloch Childs (1999, 2001, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2017, 2021) has become a classic reference work on the subject.  

In 2011 Susan received the Order of Australia medal (OAM) for services to the arts for writing and publishing. In 2013 she was appointed Adjunct Professor, College of Design and Social Context, RMIT University, and in 2014, Patron of the Friends of the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery.

Emily McCulloch Childs is a gallerist, curator, writer, researcher, publisher and fundraiser. Since 2003 she has been co-director of McCulloch & McCulloch. She is co-author & publisher with her mother, Susan McCulloch, of the 4th edition of McCulloch's Encyclopedia of Australian Art and McCulloch's Contemporary Art: the complete guide. She is the author and co-publisher of New Beginnings: Classic paintings from the Corrigan Collection of 21st Century Aboriginal Art.  

Emily completed a BA (Hons) in English at La Trobe University in 1998, with a special focus on Post-Colonial Studies, which has largely informed much of her curating and writing. She has written for Australian Art Collector, Garland, The World of Antiques & Art, The Scene, Aboriginal Art Magazine and ArtsHub.

In 2011 Emily was awarded a Creative Fellowship at the State Library of Victoria to research Indigenous resistance fighters of Australia’s colonial frontier. This led to an in-depth ongoing project on Australia's north-western colonial frontier, involving extensive research in the Northern Territory Archives, AIATSIS, Wadeye community archives, interviews and oral history with the Wadeye, Pirlangimpi and Larrakia communities.  

 In 2013, she created The Indigenous Jewellery Project (IJP), the first nation-wide Indigenous Australian contemporary jewellery project, working with Indigenous jewellers at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander owned art centres across Australia, comprising research, workshops, photography, films, and exhibitions.  

Emily has been a recurrent judge for awards in the media and art sectors, including the United Nations Association of Australia Media Award for Indigenous Rights and Recognition (2013-19), and the Museums Australia Victoria Awards (2015-19). She has worked in galleries since 1994, with a particular focus on Aboriginal art. Emily has been guest curator for several public and commercial gallery exhibitions, writer in residence, a speaker on panels, exhibition openings and events, and a contributing curatorial catalogue essayist.  

Her articles, exhibition reviews, catalogue essays and artist interviews can be found at emilymccullochchilds.com

Lisa Reidy’s work is driven by typography and colour, with a keen eye for layout. She holds Bachelor of Industrial Design, University of Canberra and during the course of her career has been shortlisted three times for the National Book Design Awards. 

She established her own graphic design practice LISA REIDY in 2008. Lisa began her career as a Junior Graphic Designer in Dubai while Australia was in recession in the early 90s. She then spent 3 years at Saatchi & Saatchi Dubai, working on multinational and local brands with some bilingual projects. Moving to Sydney she worked with old school typographers at The Campaign Palace where she honed her type skills and learned the power of a headline. A desire to work in a cultural institution and a love of exhibition graphics led to a year at The National Maritime Museum, before an offer came to move to London. Lisa worked with a talented team at O2 Design London, where she was able to develop her conceptual skills.

Back in Sydney Lisa joined old friends at Holy Cow!, sharing eight creative years together, culminating in a stint as Creative Director. It was here that she met Susan and Emily working on the extensive marketing and promotional material for the 2006 edition of McCulloch's Encyclopedia of Australian Art. Since, Lisa has designed hundreds of our brochures, invitations, online catalogues, advertising material. She designed the highly distinctive cover of the current edition of McCulloch's Contemporary Aboriginal Art: the complete guide as well all branding for McCulloch & McCulloch and Everywhen Art. Having worked with us as for more than 15 years Lisa has become an indispensable and highly valued member of our team.  

Lisa values strong relationships in her work and loves to use for skills and experience for good. She combines her creativity with an understanding of audience. Recent projects include ABC books’ Dr Karl’s Surfing Safari Through Science, The Tap-Dancing Knife Thrower, Costa’s World and Writing in the Sand (Yothu Yindi’s story). Lisa's work and be seen at lisareidy.com.au and she can be contacted at hello@lisareidy.com.au