Merrin Eirth
Courtesy of the artist and Getrude Archive.1983 - 1987
Merrin Eirth is a profiled professional artist and art educator with over 46 years of exhibiting experience in college and university galleries, regional galleries, museums, commercial galleries, and artist run spaces, both nationally and internationally. In 1987 she was awarded an Australia Council artist in residence grant to live and develop her art practice in Long Island City New York for a year. She hosted a Singapore artist exchange in 1999 at VCA, and in 2001 she devised and convened a symposium on Humour in Art, at the Victorian College of the Arts. Merrin wrote and taught in a collaborative drawing workshop with acclaimed performance artist Jill Orr, for BFA and Diploma students, and independent artists. She has also worked collaboratively on publicly and privately funded art projects with VCA (Melbourne University), The Australian Tapestry Workshop and Royal Melbourne Hospital. She was awarded several prestigious art prizes for painting and drawing, also the recipient of a City of Melbourne Arts Project grant for Docklands in 2011.
Merrin has given numerous power point presentations about her art practice at universities and colleges and in the public arena, interstate, in Melbourne and regional Victoria. She has visited major art galleries, museums and cultural sites in the USA, UK, Europe, Scandinavia, and Southeast Asia.
Merrin Eirth has taught a range of visual art practices at all training levels, including working with Primary school children, High School and Diploma students, BFAs, and MFAs, as well as teaching Melbourne University Breadth students, supervising BFA Honours research, and MFA research students. She has judged art prizes for charity including the Berry Street Kids and the New Heartlands Refugee Art Exhibition. She was a guest assessor for Monash University and RMIT, and on several occasions at the Victoria University Diploma course in art practice. Merrin was a panellist on the Prahran College entry folio interviews for 2 years, then at the Victorian College of the Arts BFA entry folio interviews for 20 years.
Merrin Eirth was one of the inaugural studio artists at 200 Gertrude Street. Eirth participated in the Gertrude Street Spaces Artist Collective and Studios at 200 Gertrude Street from 1983 to 1987.