Currency House

A man with wide experience of the responsibilities of public life, former Justice Spigelman will pay tribute to the arts boards he has known; and recall the effort they required, the challenges with which they faced him and the enrichment they have given him over a lifetime.
James Spigelman served as Lieutenant Governor and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of NSW 1998–2011. He has had a long association with the arts, and received his AC in recognition of his services to law, in pursuit of a fairer and more equitable society, and to the visual arts. Since 2010 he has been Chair of the National Library of Australia.He emigrated from Poland with his family at the age of three, and is a graduate of the University of Sydney in Arts, Government and Economics, and later Law. As a student he participated in the 1965 Freedom Ride on behalf of Indigenous people in NSW. From 1972–75 he was Senior Advisor and Principal Private Secretary to Prime Minister Whitlam. In 1976 he was admitted to the NSW Bar and for three years was a member of the Australian Law Reform Commission.Besides the National Library, his community appointments include Councillor of the Australian Film, Television and Radio School 1975–8, Deputy Chair of the Art Gallery of NSW 1983–8; Board member 1995–98 of the Brett Whiteley Foundation, the National Gallery and the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences. He was also Chair of the Film Finance Corporation 1990–92.