Over two days, commencing
Monday 31 October, 55 regional and
public gallery affiliated professionals, M&G NSW staff and M&G NSW Board members met in Port Macquarie at the 2011 Regional & Public Galleries NSW conference,
titled, Currency: resilience, relevance, resourcefulness.
The conference program
was structured around the theme of sustainability,
with a range of presentations intended to provoke thought and generate
ideas about tackling issues beyond (but also including) environmental concerns.
Biripai Elder, Uncle Bill O’Brien gave a moving Welcome to Country and an
inspired set of speakers was led by Lucy Neal, who ‘skyped’ in from the Outer
Hebrides to deliver a key note based on her landmark Sustainable Ability report
and Happy Museum project (see www.sustainableablility.com
& www.happymuseumproject.org
for more info).
 |
| Welcome drinks at Glasshouse Regional Gallery |
Jason Smith, Director
of Melbourne’s Heide Museum of Modern Art (www.heide.com.au)
spoke about the greening of Heide and his holistic approach to the development
of sustainable practices as they relate to his vision and re-imagining of the
gallery, its collection, gardens and grounds. Alison Clouston gave an artist's
perspective and described a number of projects she has initiated with partner
Boyd, including one in response to the destruction (by lightning and fire) of
their much treasured studio situated in the Burragorang Valley, between Sydney
and Goulburn. Clouston is known for her sculptural installations based on
environmental themes, and carbon audits and offsets are an integral part of her
practice.
The conference was
used as a platform to launch a report commissioned by Museum & Gallery
Services Queensland
(in partnership with RPG NSW) titled: Lighting
and Energy Effectiveness. This report was produced by the engineering firm Steensen
Varming and is soon to be published on the MGSQ website www.magsq.com.au. Following its
presentation, a lively discussion considered a range of questions towards
identifying strategies to achieve sustainability in a gallery/museum context.
Day two centred more
on ideas and models for improved audience engagement with delegates being
somewhat enthralled by Elizabeth Mead’s presentation on the approach Hobart’s
MONA has taken to achieving outstanding (and distinctive) success in such a
short time, since opening earlier this year. Krista Huebner, most recently
employed at Sydney’s
MCA, spoke about the use of social media and artist Jenny Fraser, co-founder of
CyberTribe talked about web based and digital applications she has used to
promote work by Aboriginal artists.
Belinda Hanrahan,
Director of Hazelhurst (and M&G NSW Board member), Tristan Sharp, Assistant
Director of Newcastle Art Gallery and Grainne Brunsdon, representing Arts NSW, spoke about funding in the context of generating partnerships and sponsorships,
Federal Government programs and NSW State Government grant initiatives through
their Arts Funding Program. Tristan also outlined plans for the $21m
re-development of Newcastle
Art Gallery.
Work is expected to commence in early 2012.
In the final session,
M&G NSW’s own Steve Miller spoke
about outcomes of the recent Building
Cultural Futures in NSW summit. He noted that over a long period (since the
European invasion) NSW Aboriginal people had certainly reflected a resilient
and resourceful approach to maintaining their languages, heritage and culture,
and that the summit had firmly placed their desire for cultural relevance and
profile on the agenda (and you can check out the summit’s wiki at www.nswaboriginalsector.wetpaint.com).
New England Regional Art Museum Director, Caroline Downer, gave a fascinating
overview of their Art Alive
initiative, an online education resource based on connecting school audiences
with the extensive NERAM collection, check it out at www.neram.com.au, and Sharni Lloyd finished
proceedings with an overview of A Viet
Life project, a residency and exhibition by Vietnamese artist Dinh Luc.
It was agreed by all
that the conference was an unqualified success, breathing new life into the
collegiate sharing of ideas and experiences across the sector.
You can view a number of the presentations at our website's resources section here: www.mgnsw.org.au/resources/conference_papers/
Michael Rolfe
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