Olivia Welch

Olivia Welch is an emerging curator and arts professional living and working on Gadigal Country, Sydney. Recently she worked as the Exhibitions Manager for Museums & Galleries of NSW on tours including: proppaNOW | OCCURRENT AFFAIR presented by University of Queensland Art Museum, Primavera: Young Australian Artists curated by Talia Smith and presented by Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, and Dennis Golding | POWER - The Future is Here curated by Kyra Kum-Sing with Carriageworks and Blacktown Arts, among numerous other projects. Olivia served on the Firstdraft Board  (2023-2024) and was a Co-Chair with James Little (2023-2024). In 2022 Olivia co-curated Slow Churn at The Condensery with Rachel Arndt.

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Olivia worked as an Exhibitions Assistant and then a Curatorial Assistant at the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum - Modern Collection, Lisbon, Portugal, from 2015 - 2018. This role primarily involved developing exhibitions through research and practical planning, as well as editing and proofreading English translations. She worked closely with the curators in developing a number of exhibitions and their catalogues for both Portuguese and English-speaking audiences, including The Delaunay Circle; Hein Semke: A German in Lisbon; I do not evolve, I travel. José Escada retrospective; Portugal em Flagrante; José de Almada Negreiros- a way of being modern; and Post-Pop. Beyond the commonplace. From 2009 - 2018, Olivia worked for MAY SPACE (formerly Brenda May Gallery) in varying capacities. In 2019 she curated Our Common Bond for MAY SPACE, an exhibition that looks at the omissions present in the Australian Citizenship booklet of the same name that eliminate diverse histories and experiences from the Australian narrative.

Olivia holds a First-Class Honours degree, Art History and Theory (2013) and Master of Curating and Cultural Leadership (2022) from the University of New South Wales.