Nici Cumpston

Nicole Jane "Nici" Cumpston is an Australian art photographer, painter, curator, writer, and educator. After being appointed inaugural curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art at the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA) in 2008, she became founding artistic director of Tarnanthi, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts festival held in Adelaide in 2014, while retaining her position at AGSA. In May 2025 she will take up her appointment as director of the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States.

Early life and education Nicole Jane Cumpston Her family background is Barkindji (an Aboriginal people of New South Wales) and Afghan on her mother's side, and Irish and English on her father's.

Early career and further education After leaving school, Cumpston first trained as an enrolled nurse through the Loxton District Hospital and then worked at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. Tarnanthi exhibitions are held at the South Australian Museum as well as other venues such as the JamFactory and the South Australian School of Art.

In January 2025 it was announced that Cumpston would be leaving AGSA to take up a new appointment as director of the University of Virginia's Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection in Charlottesville in the US. She begins her role in May 2025.

Works National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne: Flooded Gum, Katarapko Creek, Murray River National Park, 2007 Nookamka – Lake Bonney Tree stumps, western shoreline – Nookamka

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra: Campsite V, Nookamka Lake

Shepparton Art Museum, Victoria: Wooroo (mouth) Rock Well

Other activities In April 2024, Cumpston served on the jury for the A$60 million revitalisation of the National Gallery of Australia's three-hectare sculpture garden, alongside Philip Goad, Nick Mitzevich, and Teresa Moller.

She is also an educator of, and advocate for, Aboriginal people. She had been nominated by elders from Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands.

Upon the announcement of her departure from AGSA in January 2025, the gallery listed her many achievements, including the growth of its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art collection grew by more than 1,000 works under her 17-year leadership, and many major exhibitions. She was also praised by Minister for the Arts Andrea Michaels.

Personal life Cumpston has a partner called Jon, a surveyor, who was her best friend's brother when she was nursing, but they only got together around 2006.