Emeritus Professor Valerie Anne Kirk has been honoured "for significant service to tertiary arts education, and as an artist and curator".
"It is an amazing honour, really. It feels kind of unreal," Professor Kirk, 65, said.
"I feel like I've been lucky to be involved in so many different things in the arts."
Born in Scotland, she was interested in art from childhood and after completing school she studied at the Edinburgh College of Art, focusing on woven tapestry.
"It had the only department where you could study woven tapestry in the whole world."
Australia has made strides in tapestry since then: from 2020, Professor Kirk has been a board member of the Australian Tapestry Workshop (which was formed in 1976).
Professor Kirk moved to Australia in 1979.
She had applied and been turned down for a residency but was offered a job at the Australian Tapestry Workshop in Melbourne, "an amazing opportunity to work on a commission for the Performing Arts Centre in Melbourne".
After four years spent teaching at TAFE in Warrnambool, she came to Canberra in 1990 to become head of textiles at the ANU School of Art.
Professor Kirk spent 27 years there but then other opportunities arose that were too good to miss.
She undertook the Art Gallery of NSW Residency at the Moya Dyring Memorial Studio, France.
More recently she had a residency at Geoscience Australia and the Gudgenby Ready-Cut Cottage in Namadgi National Park where she worked with plant fossils.
"I've loved living in Canberra. It's an amazing cultural centre, because there's so much happening in the arts in Canberra."
The array of artists in the ACT was diverse, she said: "everything from very strong community groups to many artists with international profiles."
One highlight for Professor Kirk came in 2013 with the Centenary of Canberra celebrations.
She organised an event where hundreds of people of varying levels of experience took turns working a loom to create a large community tapestry that now hangs in the ACT Legislative Assembly.
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Another was creating, over a period of 15 years, six tapestries now hanging at ANU celebrating the work of three Nobel Prize winners and other academics.
Professor Kirk has had 13 commissions (1983-2018), nine solo exhibitions (1990-2016) and been part of dozens of group exhibitions (1980-2018).
Additionally, she curated and co-curated many exhibitions.
Among Professor Kirk's awards have been the Canberra Critics Circle Arts Award (2008), the New Work Award, Australia Council (2000), the Inaugural Muse Arts Woman of the Year Award (1999) and the Canberra Times Art Critics Award for Shift (1998).
Collaborating with American indigenous textiles artist Dr Louise Hamby, she worked with many Indigenous artists.
"Our role in working with them was highlighting their work," she said.
Now, she said, she was in "the final throes of a Craft ACT exhibition".
Confluence, with Harriet Schwartzrock, arose from the Namadgi National Park/Geoscience Australia residency.
It will be on from July 7 to August 27, 2022 at Craft ACT.
After that, she was planning a textiles tour to Japan in October and November as well as hoping to undertake other overseas travel.
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