National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) chief curator Gayle Lake has announced she will retire next year after more than a decade with the organisation.
Having joined the NFSA in 2012 before becoming chief curator in 2018, Lake has guided the archive collection through a period of significant growth, during which it has expanded from 2.3 million items to more than 4 million.
Her accomplishments include establishing and still overseeing the NFSA Restores program, which digitises, restores, and preserves Australian films so they can be seen in today’s digital cinemas, as well as helping realise its ambition of collecting and preserving Australian games – a collection which has grown to 500 games in under two years.
Following the Federal Government’s announcement earlier this year of increased funding for the National Collecting Institutions, including the NFSA, Lake also redesigned and substantially increased the NFSA’s curatorial and accessioning workforce, enabling it to bolster signature programs like NFSA Restores and broaden collecting activity.
The former Sydney Film Festival director said her enjoyment of the role has come from not only exploring the collection’s “enormous diversity of material”, but also working with “such a dedicated, smart, and talented group of people”.
“The national audiovisual collection is not only a record of our past, but also a signpost to our future,” she said.
“Honouring our responsibility not only to the collection but to the people who have entrusted it to us has been a privilege and a pleasure.”
NFSA CEO Patrick McIntyre said Lake had chosen to retire on an “unequivocal high”.
“It’s hard to overstate Gayle’s contribution to the NFSA and the national audiovisual collection,” he said.
“The remarkable breadth of her career prior to joining the institution means that she was as adept at teasing out the nuances of a forgotten silent classic as she was hammering out a commercial deal with a hardnosed studio exec. Her commitment to the continuing preservation, collection and interpretation of Australia’s audiovisual collection has been extraordinary and is reflected in the strength of the institution.”
The NFSA will commence a recruitment process before the end of 2023 with more details to be announced in the coming months.