Please note the MHM will be closed on Thursday 26 March 2026 due to power works in the street. Please email reception@mhm.org.au if you have prebooked tickets and we will arrange a refund for you or you can arrange an alternate time. We apologise for this inconvenience.
Memories are often felt before they can be articulated. Though frequently ineffable, they come to us as abstract images, dreams, or almost cinematic snapshots that flash before our mind’s eye. A memorial is intended to evoke this strange process of remembering, to generate a space and time of contemplation that allows us to build a new relationship to things at risk of forgetting. In this conversation, world-renowned artist Kathy Temin and award-winning architect Kerstin Thompson will consider the purpose, meaning, and importance of memorials in our time. Joined on stage by gallerist Anna Schwartz, this program will also provide exceptional insight about the enriching and challenging process of creating memorial works of art and architecture. This will undoubtedly be an evening to remember.
Please note this event may be recorded for our institutional archive, and photos may be used for marketing purposes.
Kerstin Thompson is Founding Principal and Design Director of Kerstin Thompson Architects (KTA), established in Melbourne, Australia 1994. A pracademic committed to practice and design-based research and education, she is an Adjunct Professor at RMIT and Monash Universities and Professor of Practice at Abedian School of Architecture, Bond University.
Kerstin has oversight across all projects undertaken by KTA, supported by a dedicated and skilled team. The design excellence of these has been awarded at national and international levels. In recognition of her work and contribution to the profession and tertiary education Kerstin was elevated to Life Fellow by the Australian Institute of Architects in 2017. In 2022 she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) and in 2023, she was awarded the Gold Medal, the Australian Institute of Architects highest honour. In 2025 she was made an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.
A passionate defender of civic space and advocate for extracting new life from our built heritage KTA’s portfolio encompasses projects diverse in scale and program. Key projects include Bundanon Art Museum & Bridge, awarded an RIBA International Award for Excellence in 2024; the Melbourne Holocaust Museum, the Eva & Marc Besen Centre, TarraWarra and Broadmeadows Town Hall.
Anna Schwartz AM has worked closely with leading Australian and international artists and has been committed to the development and promotion of contemporary art within Australian culture for more than forty years.
Having directed a private gallery in Melbourne since 1982, Schwartz has developed significant international projects, bringing renowned artists to an Australian audience, as well as supporting Australian artists in overseas endeavours. She has supported the acquisition of significant works by Australian and international artists in Australia’s most important collections, both public and private. Schwartz has represented eight artists in the Australian Pavillion at the Venice Biennale, the world’s most significant art exhibition, and numerous of her international artists have also exhibited.
In 2008, Schwartz opened a second gallery – Australia’s largest commercial space – in Sydney. Working as an ambitious project-based gallery Anna Schwartz Gallery Sydney challenged the distinction between the public and the private gallery. In 2016, the gallery evolved into a non-profit collaborative project, SCHWARTZ CARRIAGEWORKS, which contained to realise large scale commissions by international artists.
In partnership with Schwartz Media, Anna Schwartz Gallery has published landmark monographs under the Schwartz City imprint. Schwartz City realises substantial texts by leading writers on artists. Cultivating close ties between the Gallery, the imprint, and the broader arts industry, Schwartz supports Australian writers, fashion designers, performers and filmmakers, through ongoing dialogue and patronage.
The book, ‘PRESENT TENSE; Anna Schwartz Gallery & 35 Years of Contemporary Australian Art’ by Doug Hall, was published in 2018.
Anna Schwartz AM now operates Anna Schwartz Projects in Melbourne.
