18 Facts About Betty Churcher

Elizabeth Ann Dewar Churcher was an Australian arts administrator, best known as director of the National Gallery of Australia from 1990 to 1997.

Betty Churcher was a painter in her own right earlier in her life.

Betty Churcher left school after grade 10 because her father did not think she needed a higher education.

In 1942 as an 11-year-old, Betty Churcher saw Blandford Fletcher's Evicted at the Queensland Art Gallery, which inspired her to become an artist.

Betty Churcher won a Royal Queensland Art Society travelling scholarship to Europe and attended the Royal College of Art in London.

Betty Churcher received a Master of Arts from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, in 1977.

Between 1972 and 1975, Betty Churcher was art critic for The Australian newspaper.

Betty Churcher became Dean of School of Art and Design in 1982, and taught Art History at the progressive Phillip Institute of Technology until 1987, when she was appointed director of the Art Gallery of Western Australia.

Betty Churcher left in 1990 after disagreements with Robert Holmes a Court about the gallery's acquisition of a Pierre Bonnard painting.

Betty Churcher was then appointed director of the Australian National Gallery.

Betty Churcher hosted several television shows in the 1990s and authored several books, including The Art of War about war artists.

Betty Churcher initiated the building of new galleries on the eastern side of the building, opened in March 1998, to house large-scale temporary exhibitions.

Betty Churcher changed the name of the Gallery from the Australian National Gallery to its current title.

Betty Churcher dedicated her time to displaying hidden artworks and lesser known acquisitions of the National Gallery of Australia in a television program called Hidden Treasures on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

In 1996 a portrait of Churcher painted by her son, Peter Churcher, and titled Betty at Home was a finalist in the Archibald Prize.

In 2001, Betty Churcher was inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women.

Betty Churcher died of cancer on 31 March 2015 at the age of 84.

Betty Churcher was married to Roy and had four sons and seven grandchildren.