Virginia Spate

{{Short description|Australian art historian (1937–2022)}}

{{Use Australian English|date=August 2022}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Virginia Spate

| image =

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| birth_date = {{Circa|1937}}

| birth_place = United Kingdom

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2022|8|12|1937|df=y}}

| death_place = Sydney, Australia

| occupation = Historian

| education = University of Melbourne (BA)
University of Cambridge (MA
Bryn Mawr College (PhD)

| employer = Power Institute of Fine Arts of University of Sydney
Australian Academy of the Humanities

| award =

| parents =

| relatives =

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}}

Virginia Margaret Spate {{Post-nominals|country=AUS|AC|FAHA}} ({{nee|Obione}}; 1937 – 12 August 2022) was a British-born Australian art historian and academic.

Spate was born in the United Kingdom in 1937. She lived in Burma as a child until her family was evacuated during the Pacific War.{{Cite web |title=Virginia Spate |url=https://pyrmonthistory.net.au/people/spate-virginia/ |website=Pyrmont History |access-date=11 June 2018}} In 1951, she settled in Australia, where she studied a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and fine arts at the University of Melbourne, graduating in 1961.{{Cite web |title=Degrees and Diplomas Conferred 1961 |url=https://digitised-collections.unimelb.edu.au/bitstream/handle/11343/23410/108743_UMC196217_Degrees%20and%20Diplomas%20Conferred.pdf?sequence=18 |website=University of Melbourne |access-date=11 June 2018}} She studied and lectured in art history at the University of Cambridge, receiving a Master of Arts. She then received a PhD from Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, United States.{{Cite web |title=Spate, Virginia (1937 – ) |url=http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE6204b.htm |website=Australian Women's Register |publisher=Australian Women's Archives Project |access-date=11 June 2018}}

In 1978, Spate was appointed J. W. Power Professor and Director of the Power Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Sydney. She retired in 2004, and became a professor emeritus of the institute.{{Cite web |title=Papers of Virginia Spate |url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/4935005 |publisher=National Library of Australia |access-date=11 June 2018 |date=195}} She was elected fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 1981{{Cite web |title=Virginia Spate |url=https://www.humanities.org.au/our-fellows/fellows/?find_contact_id=3325§ion_select=117&fellowType_select=0&bio_search&name_search=spate&year_election&country_search=0&state_search=0 |website=Australian Academy of the Humanities |access-date=11 June 2018}} and appointed Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Cambridge in 1998–99.{{Cite web |title=Virginia Spate |url=https://www.hoart.cam.ac.uk/aboutthedept/sladeprofs/sladeprofs/vs234@cam.ac.uk |website=Department of History of Art, University of Cambridge |date=3 May 2012 |access-date=11 June 2018}}

Spate was made a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC)—Australia's highest civilian honour—on 11 June 2018, for eminent service to higher education, particularly to art history and theory and to the advanced study of the contemporary arts, as an academic, author and curator, and as a role model for young art historians.{{Cite web |title=SPATE, Virginia Margaret |url=https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/2001944 |website=It's an Honour |publisher=Australian Government |access-date=11 June 2018}}

She died on 12 August 2022.{{Cite web |title=Vale Virginia: Professor Virginia Spate AC FAHA, 1937–2022 |url=https://www.glamatsydney.org/post/vale-virginia-professor-virginia-spate-ac-faha-1937-2022 |website=GLAM at Sydney |date=12 August 2022 |publisher=University of Sydney |access-date=13 August 2022}}