ALANA KUSHNIR

DIRECTOR AND FOUNDER

Alana is an art lawyer, advisor and curator based in Melbourne, Australia.

In addition to being the Founder and Director of Guest Work Agency and Guest Club, she is the Principal Investigator of the Serpentine’s Legal Lab, which investigates legal issues and prototyping accessible legal solutions for the arts technologies field. She is also a Board Director of the Jewish Museum of Australia, an arbitrator for the Court of Arbitration for Art (CAfA) and a member of the Art, Cultural Institutions and Heritage Law Committee of the International Bar Association.

Alana is a finalist for ‘Innovator of the Year’ at the Australian Law Awards 2024. She has been recognised by Best Lawyers as ‘One to Watch’ in Entertainment Law and Intellectual Property Law for 2023 and 2024, and by Lawyers Weekly as ‘Sole Practitioner of the Year’ at the Women in Law Awards 2022. She was also a finalist in Blockchain Australia’s ‘Blockies’ Awards for Educator of the Year in 2021 and 2022 and for ‘Sole Practitioner of the Year’ and ‘Innovator of the Year’ at the Australian Law Awards in 2022.

Alana was previously a sessional lecturer at The University of Melbourne, teaching subjects on curating, contemporary art and art law, a writer on art news and exhibition reviews for Broadsheet Media and the General Counsel and Cultural Program Executive for the Melbourne Fashion Festival. Prior to this, she worked at one of Australia’s leading commercial law firms, King & Wood Mallesons. She holds a Masters of Fine Art (Curating) from Goldsmiths, University of London, a Bachelor of Arts (Art History) (Hons) and a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) from The University of Melbourne. She is a former Board Director of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), the Lyon Foundation, which operates the Lyon Housemuseum & Galleries, Invisible Inc, which produces Runway, an independent Australian experimental art journal and Bus Projects, Melbourne.

Alana has presented her research and writing in a wide range of contemporary art and legal publications, academic journals and books, as well as at conferences, lectures and public talks in Amsterdam, Kristiansand, London, Osaka, Singapore and around Australia. Alana has curated exhibitions in Australia and internationally, including at the ICA, London, Zabludowicz Collection, London, the Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, Sydney and at Aesop, Sydney. A selection of curatorial projects are viewable here.

Image Credit: Justin Ridler