Lara Nicholls is a freelance curator, academic and writer. From 2013 - 2020 she was the Assistant Curator - Australian Painting and Sculpture at the National Gallery of Australia where she also held the position of Curator - 19th century Australian Art (2017/18). In these roles she curated a range of travelling exhibitions including Abstraction: Celebrating Australian Abstract Women Artists, The National Picture - The art of Tasmania’s Black War (co-ordinating curator), The World Turns Modern: Art Deco from the National Collection. Lara is completing a PhD at the Australian National University on the professionalisation of British and Australian women artists between 1885 - 1915, where she is a Residential Fellow at Burgmann College. She is also the inaugural Jennifer Strauss Fellow in the Humanities. Lara has specific expertise in sculpture and in 2018 served as the Creative Director/Curator of the Lorne Sculpture Biennale, which featured over forty works from both international and local artists. In 2008 she toured Heilige Stätten, an exhibition of Australian Indigenous art to Zurich, Switzerland. Lara has held senior specialist roles at major fine art auction houses, Sotheby’s and Deutscher and Hackett and was a private art consultant for ten years. Lara’s passion is researching and writing about women artists and she is currently completing a historical novel on the Scottish/Australian artist Catherine Devine, about whom she has written several academic papers.