Lady Denman exhibition opening

Lillian, Sarah-Jane and Phoebe were delighted to have the opportunity to travel down to beautiful Huskisson for the opening of the There’s a War On! exhibition at the very impressive Lady Denman Heritage Complex.

We arrived to the rousing tunes of war time performed by the local choir that was perched up on the deck of the Lady Denman boat! The music really added to the festive atmosphere of the exhibition and surely evoked many memories for people in the crowd.

The exhibition is housed within the main gallery space and exemplifies the possibilities of presenting touring exhibitions such as There’s a War On! with existing museum collections – in this case, a curated display of Lady Denman’s objects in the joint exhibition entitled Down To the Wire! The Bay and Basin in WWII. Interpretative panels, banners and video footage were shown alongside valuable historical objects drawn from the museum’s collection, allowing an interesting mix of factual World War II information while providing a local perspective of wartime experiences from the surrounds of Jervis Bay and Huskisson.



The exhibition also includes several activities catered for varying audiences, such as war costumes for children to dress up in, and laptops with internet access to the There’s a War On! wiki encouraging individual visitors to contribute their stories and memories from World War II to this public forum. After taking in the exhibition (and the delicious home baking on offer) we were very fortunate that the Curator of the Lady Denman, Graeme Hinton could spare the time to show us around the fabulous new collection management facility that the Museum acquired last year, including climate-controlled storage facilities.



Morgan Sant, President of the Lady Denman Committee (and Standards Program reviewer) also showed us the new theatre/conference room and the fascinating permanent maritime collection on display. There were lots of great stories associated with the collection and we all wished we had more time so we could look around the exhibitions some more. A return journey is definitely on the cards! There’s a War On! and Down to the Wire! are currently on exhibition at the Lady Denman Heritage Complex until Sunday 4 September 2011.

Phoebe and Lillian