Emily McCulloch Childs is a gallerist, curator, writer, art historian, researcher, publisher and fundraiser.
Since 2003 she has been co-director of McCulloch & McCulloch, and since 2009, co-director of Whistlewood, a home gallery, now Everywhen Artspace in Flinders, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. Everywhen Artspace represents over 300 artists from more than 40 communities across Australia, and 40 NFP Aboriginal owned art centres. The gallery has worked annually on art fundraising exhibitions with a particular focus on Aboriginal causes, raising funds for organisations such as the Indigenous Literacy Foundation, Purple House and Elisabeth Morgan House.
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. From 2003-2008 Susan and Emily ran art book company Aus Art Editions, working with institutions and Aboriginal art centres.
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 in leading public galleries and contemporary jewellery events.
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.