(MENAFN- The Conversation)

• Research Associate - Creative Industries, Flinders University

Profile Articles Activity

Heather Robinson is a writer and researcher specialising in the cultural history of the twentieth century. Her book, Beyond the Books: Culture, value, and why libraries matter, was released July 2025 through Wakefield Press.

She is also a creative producer with thirty years of experience across the Australian GLAM sector and public service. Robinson completed a PhD at Flinders University, exploring the creative industries policy impacts on cultural institutions and their communities. She is an avid reader, Darwinian gardener, and passionate motorcyclist.

Robinson is an Honorary Research Associate for the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County in support of her biography of silent Hollywood actress and much-loved Melbourne philanthropist, Claire Adams Mackinnon. This work was shortlisted for the 2023 Deep Creek Writers Residency. In 2012, it was shortlisted for the inaugural Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship for unpublished Australian biography.

Robinson completed her PhD at Flinders University in 2020, as part of the Laboratory Adelaide Project, exploring the impact of creative industries policy on cultural institutions and their communities, presenting a case study of the State Library of South Australia. A book based on her thesis will be published by Wakefield Press in late 2024 as "Beyond the Books: Culture, value and why libraries matter."

From 2015-2020 she was a Board member of Adelaide Festival of Ideas Association Inc., presenting the 2013 and 2016 festivals as Executive Producer.

Her career began in Melbourne with heritage collections and events management with the National Trust of Australia (VIC), membership and events with the National Gallery Society of Victoria and later as Program Coordinator for the Australian Centre for Youth Literature at the State Library of Victoria.

After delivering the Anne Frank Australian Exhibition to six locations across Australia in 2000-2001, Robinson relocated to Perth as the Visual Arts Manager for the 2003 Perth International Arts Festival. She also worked for the Holmes a Court Gallery, the Western Australian Museum, Lotterywest, Museum Victoria and the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. She spent three years in Los Angeles associated with the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles Country researching the cultural history of the silent film industry and the lost story of Claire Adams Mackinnon.

Robinson has a BA (Hons.) in Fine Art and Film History as well as a Graduate Diploma in Museum Studies from the University of Melbourne.

Experience

• 2010–present Hon Research Associate, History Dept, Los Angeles Natural History Museum
• 2020–present Adjunct associate, Flinders University

Education

• 2020 Flinders University, PhD
• 1993 University of Melbourne, Graduate Diploma, Museum Studies
• 1992 University of Melbourne, Bachelor of Arts (Hons) Fine Art and Film Theory

Publications

• 2019 What's the Story? Credible Narrative in the Evaluation of Arts and Culture, Journal of Arts Management Law and Society, August 2019, DOI: 10.1080/10632921.2019.1646176
• 2015 When a Good Girl Goes to War: Claire Adams Mackinnon and Her Service During World War 1, Refractory

Professional Memberships

• Australian Society of Authors

Honours

Hon Research Associate, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

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