Inside the MCA board’s historic high-stakes battle to save the ship

Detailed summary

Elizabeth Ann Macgregor’s memoir of her time at the Museum of Contemporary Art’s helm could have been titled Making a Nuisance and Smashing Through.

The thing to know about Elizabeth Ann Macgregor, director of Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art from 1999 to 2021, is that she is Scottish. There is nothing genteel, reticent, or measured about her. Her directness and feisty personality infuse everything, including her recently published memoir.

This account of her time at the MCA is a vivid, readable story. It settles some scores, and suggests audacity can triumph over grey men, bureaucrats, and other enemies of contemporary art. The subtitle could easily be Making a Nuisance and Smashing Through.

Opening of the article, excerpted from Australian Financial Review. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.