Nici Cumpston has played a transformative role at the Art Gallery of South Australia. Over the past 16 years she has driven First Nations curatorial practice to new heights, shaping what began as a biennial exhibition into a festival of contemporary Indigenous art that surveys artmaking across the continent.

As Tarnanthi reaches its tenth anniversary, Nici has accepted a new challenge overseas — becoming the first Indigenous director of one of the world's great collections of Aboriginal art housed at Kluge-Ruhe at the University of Virginia.