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The University of Melbourne’s Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) and the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity (Doherty Institute) have launched the Lionel Gell Foundation Art in Science Initiative, an innovative residency program binding art and science.

The new initiative honours the legacy of longtime VCA and Doherty Institute donor Lionel Gell by combining his dual passions of art and science. It aims to foster creative, interdisciplinary exploration at the intersection of artistic expression and scientific endeavours.

The Lionel Gell Art in Science Initiative will support five residencies from 2025 to 2028, each awarded to an established, VCA-trained visual artist. Selected artists will receive $50,000 each to develop new works inspired by their immersive experience at the Doherty Institute. During their nine-month residencies, the artists will observe, respond to and draw inspiration from the Institute’s pioneering work in infectious diseases and immunology and its people.

"Lionel was a firm believer in the power of both science and art to improve lives globally," said Doherty Institute Director, Professor Sharon Lewin.

"By combining this with his passion for nurturing artistic talent, we have created an exciting new platform that encourages reflection and creative engagement among scientists and artists, sparking new ways to communicate, collaborate and deepen our work.”

"We're excited to launch this groundbreaking program that fosters a dynamic exchange between art and science, made possible by the generous support of the late Lionel Gell and inspired by his passion for interdisciplinary exploration," said VCA Director, Professor Emma Redding.

"By bringing alumni artists from the Victorian College of the Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music into the Doherty Institute, we're creating a space where creative artists and world-leading researchers in infectious disease and immunology can engage. We anticipate seeing exciting, boundary-pushing works emerge."

The first artists selected for the inaugural nine-month residency are Nusra Latif Qureshi, a painter known for her reflective, cross-cultural works, and John Meade, a sculptor interested in the transformation of ideas into material form.

The Lionel Gell Foundation hopes that the initiative will spark dialogue and foster innovative ideas that will shape and benefit both the artistic and scientific communities for years to come.  

“Lionel was always inspired by the potential for art to offer new perspectives on the world and he found it rewarding to see how the Doherty Institute adapts and changes to the new and emerging health concerns both in Australia and globally. He would have been proud to see this initiative unite those two fields in a unique and novel way,” said David Satori, Trustee of the Lionel Gell Foundation.

The Lionel Gell Art in Science Initiative selection panel included members from both the VCA and the Doherty Institute and artworks from the inaugural residencies will be publicly exhibited at the Doherty Institute in late 2025. This cross-disciplinary residency exemplifies how Australia’s leading institutions in disparate sectors can unite for bold new collaborations.