Artistic tradition

April 2010

Photo: Marcel Aucar

In 1983, Monash Visual Arts student Winsome Callister (PhD 2008) donated an annual prize to fellow Monash scholars. Twenty-seven years on, the passionate researcher continues to support the Winsome Callister Prize for Fourth Year Honours Thesis in Visual Culture.

Dr Callister was inspired by her own experience, as a Masters Prelim student in the 1980s, to fund the Faculty of Art & Design Prize.

“For most of my life I’ve been, and still am, passionate about the possibilities in the interaction between teaching and learning,” Dr Callister says.

“I recognised the excellence of fellow students but realised that not everyone would go on to complete their course. I saw the prize as a form of encouragement for these students.”

The Winsome Callister Prize gave high-achieving research students, like Professor Anne Marsh, the chance to excel in their field of choice. Professor Marsh won the Prize in 1987and is now a professor in the Department of Theory of Art & Design.

“I was extremely proud to have won this award. Winsome's prize gave me the courage to continue my research and I went on to complete a Masters,” Professor Marsh says.

“In fact, the Prize marked the beginning of my career because I won it for a Melbourne-based study on performance art. I then went on to write a history of this experimental art form that was subsequently published by Oxford University Press.”

For Dr Callister, research is a lifelong passion and extends beyond financial support. In 2008, she graduated from Monash with a Doctor of Philosophy. The results of her research, focusing on 1950s and 1960s architecture of Melbourne firm Chancellor & Patrick, will form the basis of an exhibition at Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery next year.

“I thoroughly enjoy my research work. It’s like a good detective novel,” she says.

It seems that persistence and a commitment to learning runs in the family. Three generations of the Callister family are alumni or current students of Monash including her daughter Gill Callister (BA 1981, BSocWk(Hons) 1982), son-in-law Matthew Ricketson (BA(Hons) 1981, PhD 2010), and her three grandchildren; Gemma, Hayley and Josh (all current students).