Sue Walker (b. 1936) is a weaver and arts administrator. After studying fine arts in Melbourne she began her professional career as a weaver in London. When she returned to Australia she started weaving classes at the Melbourne CAE and workshops at Melbourne and Monash universities. In 1976, when she had been weaving for about 15 years, she took up an appointment as founding Director of the Victorian government's new Victorian Tapestry Workshop. One of only seven such workshops in the world at the time, it won its first international commission in the first months of its operation. Since then Walker has been credited with creating a highly profitable international export market for Australian tapestries, and she has become a highly respected arts executive, holding senior positions on a number of boards and committees. She is shown here with a tapestry based on paintings by Richard Lartner, in a photograph Morley took for POL to accompany a piece entitled 'Success looms for Victorian Tapestry Workshop'.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
© Lewis Morley Archive LLC
Accession number: 2003.59
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Lewis Morley (49 portraits)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves: who we read, who we watch, who we listen to, who we cheer for, who we aspire to be, and who we'll never forget. The Companion is available to buy online and in the Portrait Gallery Store.
An interview with Victorian Tapestry Workshop artists Sue Walker and Christopher Pyett.
Magda Keaney speaks with Lewis Morley about his photographic career and the major retrospective of his work on display at the NPG.
Explore portraiture and come face to face with Australian identity, history, culture, creativity and diversity.
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