RAHS Day Lecture – Celebrating Joan Kerr’s Legacy

Event Date & Time: Wednesday, 3 December 2025 @ 1.00 pm – 2.00 pm

Event Location: History House, 133 Macquarie St, Sydney NSW 2000

Cost: Free

Event Description:

Joan Kerr AM FAHA (1938–2004) was an Australian academic and cultural preservationist whose passion for safeguarding architectural heritage expanded to encompass art history and culture. Joan was a powerful force in the world of art history for several decades, encouraging many younger women historians to make their marks in the public arena. Joan taught nationwide, contributed to preservation societies, and authored significant works, including Heritage: The national women’s art book, 500 works by 500 Australian women artists from colonial times to 1955, which was launched 30 years ago.

About the speaker:

Dr Susan Steggall has written a memoir: Alpine Beach: A Family Adventure (1999); a biography: A Most Generous Scholar: Joan Kerr, Art and Architectural Historian (a successful PhD thesis and winner in the 2013 Society of Women Writers NSW Book Awards); plus novels: Forget Me Not (2006), It Happened Tomorrow (2013),‘Tis the Doing Not the Deed (2019), The Heritage You Leave Behind (2021) and To Carve Identity (2024). Susan also writes art-related articles, exhibition and book reviews, chapters and essays.