She's of the city, of the scene and of the site.
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Katherine McMahon, the new capital-born-and-bred director of the National Museum of Australia, is about as Canberra as it's possible to be.
Which is refreshing, in a sector that tends to look outwards when searching for new people to take the helm of its most important cultural institutions.
Ms McMahon will take over the role left vacant by Mathew Trinca at the end of last year, and said it was one of the best times to be leading a museum.
"It's a fantastic time to take over as the leader of the institution mainly because of the great funding investment made by the government in the museum and more broadly, the national cultural institutions," she said.
Mr Trinca stood down in December after a 20-year career at the museum, and 10 as director.
"The National Museum of Australia tells the story of who we are - bringing uniquely Australian stories to life through its collection, displays and exhibitions," Minister for the Arts, Tony Burke said in a statement announcing the appointment.
"Katherine's record shows her dedication to doing just that.
"I look forward to the museum telling more of those stories under her leadership."
It's a job that's been a long time coming; Ms McMahon has been working at the museum since 2017, becoming deputy director a year later, and has worked closely with exhibitions and collections for six years.
Before that, she had a 15-year stint at the Australian War Memorial, another national institution that has seen vast changes over the past two decades.
She began her career there directly after graduating from the Australian National University with a degree in art history.
She had made her way through the capital's public school system and was even born at the old Canberra Hospital, which once stood on the very site that's now the home of the museum on Acton Peninsula.
I just hope that I can inspire young people, young women particularly, to follow a course into arts and culture.
- Katherine McMahon, new director of the National Museum of Australia
"I am from exactly this place," she said.
Her family had come from Darwin, from where they were evacuated to the capital after Cyclone Tracy in 1974.
"I always talk about my history like it is a history lesson," she said, adding that attending the Enrico Taglietti-designed Giralang primary school had "inspired a lifelong love of interior design and architecture".
She said it was important for young women to see another woman at the helm of a major institution, and to understand that a career in the arts could mean many things.
"On a personal level, I was a young, young female person coming through university thinking, should I be an artist? And realised, actually, I'm much better working in the arts," she said.
"I just hope that I can inspire young people, young women particularly, to follow a course into arts and culture.
"We really need people in the sector to sustain us moving forward and to help us with all the challenges that come, particularly in making yourself available more broadly, in a digital sense.
"So, hopefully, seeing a woman at the helm of a national institution will inspire a lot of other young women."
She said her strength was working with collections, which was at the heart of every museum.
"Sharing that with more people on site and off site and online will be a key focus for me," she said.
And she hinted at more major overseas exhibitions of ancient artefacts to come.
"We've got Ancient Egypt on at the moment, and people still have a really strong fascination with the ancient world and cultures," she said.
"I've led that program over the last seven years and there is certainly more to come.
"I'm really excited about bringing some incredibly bold and interesting exhibitions to Canberra."
Museum council chair Ben Maguire congratulated Ms McMahon on her appointment, which he said had the unanimous support of the board.
"Katherine McMahon will provide the leadership, ambition and vision to build on the institution's successes to date and drive the organisation through its next pivotal phase," he said.
"We can't wait to see where she takes the museum in the years ahead."
In his official announcement this week, federal arts minister Tony Burke said Ms McMahon had overseen the acquisition of the much-sought-after Trevor Kennedy Collection, one of the largest and most significant, privately owned holdings of Australian decorative arts and historical objects.
"The National Museum of Australia tells the story of who we are - bringing uniquely Australian stories to life through its collection, displays and exhibitions," Mr Burke said.
"Katherine's record shows her dedication to doing just that. I look forward to the museum telling more of those stories under her leadership."
Ms McMahon will be the fifth director of the museum since it moved to its permanent digs on the Acton Peninsula.
She follows Dawn Casey, Craddock Morton, the late Andrew Sayers and Mathew Trinca.