Our Tour Leaders
All of our tours are led by academics and experts in their field who will share their passion and knowledge with you in lectures, talks and throughout the tour. Click on their profile to find out more about them.
Alan Dodge
Alan R. Dodge AM began his career at the Portland Museum of Art in Portland, Maine…
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Alex McKay
Dr Alex McKay is a fellow at the Royal Asiatic Society in London and the…
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Andrew Wright
Andrew Wright joined The Australian Ballet in 2004 before travelling to Europe in 2007 on…
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Andy Bromberger
Andy Bromberger started her musical career as a professional clarinettist teaching and playing in numerous…
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Ann MacArthur
BA East Asian Studies, M International Management Ann’s passion for the arts of Asia flourished…
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Antony Ernst
Dr Antony Ernst is a director, dramaturg, lecturer and arts administrator who has worked with…
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Brian Ladd
Brian Ladd is a Councillor and former President of the Art Gallery Society of New…
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Christopher Allen
Dr Christopher Allen is an art critic and historian. A graduate of the University of…
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Christopher Lawrence
Christopher Lawrence is a writer, broadcaster, public speaker and artistic consultant best known for his…
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Claudia Chan Shaw
Claudia Chan Shaw is a vibrant, energetic woman of many talents – fashion designer, television and…
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Claudia Hyles
For Claudia Hyles, it was love at first sight when she visited India in 1968….
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Damien Beaumont
Damien Beaumont joined the ABC in 1999 after completing music studies in Australia and England…
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Donna Cusack
Donna’s association with ballet began before she was born! Her grandmother worked at the iconic…
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Elizabeth Swane
Elizabeth Swane is a member of one Australia’s best-known nursery and rose-growing families. As an…
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Frédérique Barbier
With New York City flowing through her veins, and readily admitting that opera and the…
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Genevieve Jacobs
Genevieve Jacobs has been a prize-winning newspaper journalist as well as a freelance writer for…
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Gitte Weise
Gitte Weise was founder and director of Gitte Weise Gallery Sydney / Berlin and ROOM…
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Guy Sturt
Guy Sturt is both a landscape architect and an arborist and has been principal of…
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Halim El Mansouri
Halim El Mansouri joined the Moroccan Ministry of Tourism in November 2011 and is an…
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Heath Lees
Heath Lees is Emeritus Professor of Music at Auckland University, and divides his year equally…
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Helen Young
Horticulturist, garden writer, presenter and author, Helen Young has led more than 20 garden tours internationally and in Australia. She is…
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Hugh Hallard
Founder and former director of Renaissance Tours, Hugh Hallard has enjoyed a varied career in arts…
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Iain Shearer
Iain Shearer FRAS is an archaeologist who has worked in the UK, Afghanistan, Caucasus, North…
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Irina Dunn
Born in Shanghai, Irina Dunn is of Russian, Irish, Portuguese and Chinese descent and has…
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Jaime Tsai
Dr Jaime Tsai is an art historian who is a lecturer in modern and contemporary…
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James Cao
Born in Inner Mongolia, James Cao holds advanced degrees in hospitality and tourism and has…
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Jane Hutcheon
Jane Hutcheon is the host of One Plus One on ABC TV, a weekly chat show where…
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Jean Wethmar
Born in South Africa, Jean Wethmar immigrated to Australia in 2002. Her passions range from…
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Jennifer Stackhouse
Jennifer Stackhouse made the big move from New South Wales to a Federation house in…
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John McBride
After studying in Japan and Australia, John McBride began his career at the Australia-Japan Research Centre, ANU,…
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John McDonald
John McDonald is best known as the art critic of the Sydney Morning Herald. He…
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Jonathan Biggins
Jonathan Biggins is an actor, writer and director, perhaps best known as one of the…
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Joyce Morgan
Joyce Morgan is a journalist and author. She has written on arts and culture for…
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Julian Droogan
Dr Julian Droogan is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Arts at Macquarie University…
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Julie Kinney
Julie’s love affair with travel began during a stint at London’s Cordon Bleu School of…
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Kate Kangaslahti
Kate Kangaslahti left Australia twenty years ago to pursue her love of European art and…
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Kathryn Hunyor
Kathryn Hunyor is a Japanese-speaking curator and lecturer with a Masters in Japanese literature. Kathryn also…
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Kenneth Park
Kenneth W Park works as a freelance lecturer, curator, tour leader, presenter and fundraiser. He is…
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Liz Gibson
Liz Gibson was for many years a Senior Co-ordinator of Public Programs at the Art…
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Lorraine Kypiotis
Lorraine Kypiotis (MA; BA; Dip.Ed.) is passionate about art, life and travel. She is equally…
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Louise Owens
Louise Owens completed a Bachelor of Design (Interior Design) with First Class Honours at the…
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Mairi Nicolson
Mairi Nicolson’s long and varied career as a broadcaster for the ABC and BBC has…
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Marshall McGuire
Acclaimed Australian harpist Marshall McGuire has performed as a soloist with the Australian Chamber Orchestra,…
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Martine Anstett
Born in France, Martine Anstett began her career as a magazine and radio journalist. Whilst…
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Mary Jo Capps
Mary Jo Capps AM has worked in the Australian cultural industry for more than 30…
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Melanie Pitkin
Dr Melanie Pitkin is an Australian Egyptologist and museum curator. She received her PhD on…
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Michele Hill
Michele Hill began her quilting journey in 1986 and has been addicted ever since. An…
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Mikala Tai
Mikala Tai is a curator, researcher and academic specialising in contemporary Asian art and Australian…
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Peter Bassett
Dr Peter Bassett was Dramaturg and Artistic Administrator for the 2004 Adelaide Ring and is a regular…
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Peter Bourne
Universally known as ‘The Wine Man’, Peter Bourne has been involved in the Australasian wine…
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Phillip Sametz
Phillip Sametz is currently the Alumni Co-ordinator at the Australian National Academy of Music. Throughout…
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Renaissance Tours
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Richard Mendis
A local of Colombo, Richard Mendis has been leading tours of his native Sri Lanka…
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Robert Reason
Robert Reason has worked in the Australian art museum sector for more than twenty years…
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Rodney Phillips
Rodney Phillips is a seasoned international performing arts specialist, having worked in Australia, the United Kingdom…
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Ron Ramsey
After three years at the National Gallery of Victoria and 14 years at the National…
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Rosamund Bartlett
Rosamund Bartlett is a biographer of Tolstoy and Chekhov, and also a musicologist who has…
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Sandy Pratten
Sandy Pratten trained at Ryde College of Horticulture and has recently retired from managing her own Landscape…
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Scott Curry
Scott Curry studied piano and violin at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, and piano at…
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Sebastian Smee
Sebastian Smee is an art critic for The Washington Post and winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize…
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Steven Miller
Steven Miller is currently head of the National Art Archive at the Art Gallery of…
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Thomas Abbott
Specialist in architectural history from the Baroque to the 20th century with a wide knowledge…
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Trisha Dixon
Trisha Dixon is a writer and photographer with a passion for landscape, literature, music, art,…
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Wally Caruana
Wally Caruana is an independent curator, art historian, valuer and consultant specialising in Indigenous Australian…
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Wendy Sharpe & Bernard Ollis
Wendy Sharpe is one of Australia’s most awarded artists. Her awards include The Sulman Prize,…
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