Archive for July 2011
Artists, historians, galleries and museums think outside the box and beyond the institutions walls. This can be to reach a new audience, get communities involved, and sometimes to interpret historical items, events and sites. Craig Walsh is one such artist who has thought deeply about the possibilities for technology based art forms in public spaces and how current technologies allow for new forms of public art and sustained engagement with audiences.
Craig Walsh: Digital Odyssey commenced in 2010 as a national, multi-venue tour and artist residency bringing the artist, Craig Walsh, to rural and remote locations throughout Australia. The project enabled regional audiences the opportunity to not only view but also become involved in the production and presentation of unique and Read the rest of this entry »
At M&GSQ’s State Conference, 11- 13 August, Friday’s Plenary session Changing Nature of Collections provides perspectives on managing collections for the future. Graeme Were, now Lecturer in Museum Studies, School of English, Media Studies and Art History, University of Queensland prompts delegates to challenge the bounds of normally acceptable practice. He will draw on his co–edited forthcoming publication Extreme Collecting (Berghahn Books, 2012) and a collaborative series of workshops with University College London and the British Museum. Graeme Were explores the key points of a series of public debates held at the British Museum in 2007-8 that centred on discussing objects that resist being collected for reasons of their size, scale, materiality, marginality, legality, mass production or for their political or ethical nature. The debates intended to foster a critical debate about museum collecting practices and to move towards identifying priorities for collection policies which are inclusive of acquiring ‘difficult’ objects. Read the rest of this entry »
Jo Besley: Friend of The Ration Shed
Posted on: 5 July 2011
Jo Besley, Senior Curator Social History, Queensland Museum, and Churchill Fellow 2009 was named one of the Friends of The Ration Shed at the NAIDOC celebrations in Cherbourg in recognition for her pro-bono work.
Sandra Morgan, Chairperson of Cherbourg Historical Precinct, thanked the Friends of the Ration Shed for assisting with their vision:
‘to give our community a strong clear picture of their history and a sense of pride in that history, to engage and to educate the people of Queensland and Australia about what life was like living under the Aboriginal Protection Act and to offer a positive vision of the future’.
See http://www.magsq.com.au/_dbase_upl/Artery2010.pdf for Jo’s article on worldwide examples of Contentious Histories: Museums as Site of Healing. Jo is a keynote speaker in the Agents of Change plenary at M&GSQ’s State Conference in Mackay which will feature public art, galleries, museums: Museums as ‘crucible’ for identity, healing and recovery
For more on Cherbourg’s celebration at The Ration Shed, see https://magsq.wordpress.com/2011/07/05/caroline-tennant-kelly-exhibition-opens-at-cherbourg-ration-shed-museum/
Day one of the NAIDOC events at the Cherbourg Ration Shed Museum was a wonderful celebration on a beautiful sunny day, with Cherbourg Historical Pecinct looking great, lots of positive community energy, the new Ration Shed high school mentors in attendance and plenty of good will from invited guests.
University of Queensland anthropologists Kim de Rijke, Tony Jefferies and their families were amongst those made special Friends of the Ration Shed at the opening of Caroline Tennant-Kelly exhibition that their donation of digital research materials had made possible. Peter Trail designed the exhibition complete with magnifying glasses for community members to write on the blackboard labels the names of the people they recognised in her photos from the 1930s. Read the rest of this entry »
Lydia Egunnike – Qld Disaster Hero
Posted on: 5 July 2011
Lydia Egunnike, Senior Conservator at the State Library of Queensland, has also been honoured as a Queensland Disaster Hero for her exceptional efforts to help restore items from the flood damaged collection of Ipswich photographer and photographic historian, Sandy Barrie. Read the rest of this entry »
Museums & Galleries Qld 