How Yesterday Remembers Tomorrow opens at the new Blue Mountains City Gallery

How Yesterday Remembers Tomorrow exhibition opening night at Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, including Ms&Mr’s installation, Frame Drag 1988/2009/2024 (front) and Tony Schwensen’s Attempting to approach fanaticism-Red Sox (back).

How Yesterday Remembers Tomorrow opened last Friday night to much success at the Blue Mountains City Art Gallery, part of the new Blue Mountains Cultural Centre. The Centre, which opened on 17 November 2012, joins the growing network of regional art galleries in NSW and will feature quality curated, local, regional and national touring exhibitions in addition to educational programs for the community.

Officially opened by Dr Blair French, Executive Director, Artspace with Paul Brinkman, Director of the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, How Yesterday Remembers Tomorrow was well received by the diverse audience in attendance on the night - from toddlers to seniors and all in between. In positioning the exhibition within this new space, Artspace and How Yesterday Remembers Tomorrow curator, Mark Feary makes a poignant reflection upon how an art practice shifts and changes over time.

Featuring work by six contemporary Australian artists and artist partnerships who are past recipients of the Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship for emerging artists, the exhibition presents early works alongside more recent projects and includes work by Lauren Brincat, Claire Healy & Sean Cordeiro, Todd McMillan, Ms&Mr, Tony Schwensen and Sam Smith.

The exhibition highlights how artists’ practices develop over time through sustained research, experimentation and refinement - a theme particularly relevant to the large population of emerging and established artists the Mountains boasts.

Accompanying the exhibition is Close to Home, curated by the Centre’s Rilka Oakley, which showcases the work of contemporary artists residing in the Blue Mountains region, working in a variety of media including digital animation and embroidery.

How Yesterday Remembers Tomorrow is on at the Blue Mountains City Gallery until 17 March from where it will tour to its final venue, Redland Art Gallery in Cleveland, QLD from 10 April.

There’s A War On! tour comes to an end

Image: Victory Vanities theatrical troupe image courtesy of AlburyCity Collections.

After travelling widely across regional New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland the There’s A War On! World War II at Home exhibition has finally come to an end. Concluding at Orange City Library last week, the touring exhibition was first shown in August 2009 at the Museum of the Riverina in Wagga Wagga. 

Featuring stories, images and objects held in individual and community collections from all over New South Wales, the exhibition traveled from the Albury LibraryMuseum to the Cowra Regional Art Gallery. Items of intrigue included early ephemera such as ration and identity cards as well as scrapbooks and a pocket journal offering personal accounts of daily life on the home front. Other items included specific tools used and made for the time including the ominous black out covers for vehicle headlights, a tatting shuttle used for weaving camouflage nets, helmet head wear of the National Emergency Services Wardens, and the much admired 1940s wedding dress and wedding dress book.

On March 1 2011 the tour continued its momentum with the official launch of the There’s A War On! wiki website at Chifley Home Education Centre in Bathurst, showcasing the sites and collections across regional New South Wales, which tell us stories about life during World War I and World War II.

Later in 2011, the exhibition continued its journey on a smaller scale tour from the Lady Denman Heritage Complex in Huskisson to Orange City Library. In total, the There’s a War On! tour covered a total of 16 venues across 3 states, and received over 78,000 visitors during its journey.

While no longer on the road the community involvement with the There’s A War On! project continues with the contribution of stories, images and objects on the There’s A War On! wiki website. In addition, significant pieces from the original exhibition have found their way to collections across NSW from Huskisson, Wellington and Cowra.

M&G would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the partners and contributors who made There's a War On! possible:

1. Australian Government Department of Veterans’ Affairs

2. Australian War Memorial

3. Sue Hodges Productions

4. Arts NSW

5. Planning NSW

6. Heritage Council of NSW

7. The Australia Council for the Arts

8. The contribution and participation by public and community collections including: AlburyLibrary Museum and AlburyCity Collection, Brunswick Valley Historical Society, Cowra City Council and Cowra Family History Group, Hurstville City Library Museum & Gallery, the Museum of the Riverina Wagga Wagga, and the Charles Sturt University Regional Archives, as well as the generous contributions by Meg Sheaffe, Jack Ellis, Mrs Maureen Taylor, Graham Apthorpe and Doug Hunter.

9. And the significant work, project planning and original research by Sarah Jane Rennie.

2012 Archibald Prize winner announced!

Announcement of the 2012 Archibald Prize winner
Courtesy Lillian Lim

Winner of the Archibald Prize 2012
Tim Storrier The historic wayfarer (after Bosch)
Courtesy Art Gallery of NSW

 The 2012 Archibald Prize winner was announced at midday today at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. This year, the 91st anniversary of arguably Australia’s most popular award saw 389 entries and increased prize money from $50,000 to $75,000. The room was filled artists, subjects, friends and family members, all gathered with baited breath to see who would be the lucky one of the 41 finalists to enter the prestigious Archibald Prize hall of fame alongside winning names such as William Dobell, Margaret Olley, John Olsen and last year’s Ben Quilty. After much anticipation, Tim Storrier was announced as the winner for his self-portrait painting, The histrionic wayfarer (after Bosch). 

Congratulations to the artist who graciously accepted the award and even brought his pet dog, Smudge, up to the stage (you can find Smudge featured in the painting). 

Winner of the Packing Room Prize 2012
Raelene Sharp, A Strength of Character
Courtesy Art Gallery of NSW

The Packing Room Prize was awarded to Raelene Sharp for her portrait of actor John Wood, and Jenny Sages' painting, After Jack, was highly commended by the Trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. 

The 2012 Archibald Prize will be showing at the Art Gallery of New South Wales until 3 June 2012. Museums & Galleries NSW will be touring the exhibition to 6 regional galleries across NSW: 

Newcastle Art Gallery
14 July 2012 - 26 August 2012

Cowra Regional Art Gallery

1 September 2012 - 14 October 2012

Western Plains Cultural Centre

20 October 2012 - 2 December 2012

Grafton Regional Gallery

7 December 2012 - 20 January 2013

Hawkesbury Regional Gallery

25 January 2013 - 10 March 2013

New England Regional Art Museum

15 March 2013 - 28 April 2013

For more information about the exhibition, please visit the AGNSW website: http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/archibald/2012/

For more information about the 2012 Archibald Prize regional tour, please visit our website: http://mgnsw.org.au/exhibit/archibald_prize_2012/

Story by Lillian Lim, M&G NSW's Gallery Programs and Touring Exhibition Coordinator.

How Yesterday Remembers Tomorrow at Orange Regional Gallery

This week was filled with busy preparation for the launch of our new touring exhibition, How Yesterday Remembers Tomorrow. Opening at Orange Regional Gallery on Friday 23 March, the exhibition features the works of six contemporary Australian artists and collaborative partnerships who are all past recipients of the Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship for emerging artists, presenting their early works alongside recent projects to exemplify how an artist's practice develops over time through research, experimentation and refinement.


With the artworks ranging from drawing to complex sculptural installations with multi-channel video projections, this proved to be a challenging task for the installation team consisting of myself, Mark Feary (Curator) and tech guru Paul Greedy from Artspace, and the staff at Orange Regional Gallery. The day commenced with laying out the works in the gallery space, taking into consideration sound and light isolation between the various video works while still encouraging a smooth flow for viewers to grasp the progression between the works of each artist.


Once the space had been clearly mapped out, we started tackling the installation of the exhibition and accompanying equipment. It began relatively easily with the hanging of framed drawings and photographic prints, followed by the assemblage of Sean Cordeiro & Claire Healy's 1st Draft composed of 16 corkboards with coloured drawing pins inserted to form the central image. Then came the wall mounting of 3 plasma screens for digital video works, 3 more data projectors, media players and speaker sets, 2 sculptural installations with plasma screens attached for Ms&Mr's Frame Drag, and finally Todd McMillan's traditional overhead projector with a twist (featuring an incorporated video device and media player inside). Did I forget to mention Lauren Brincat's fantastic taxidermy cobra as part of her work The Quick and the Dead? Needless to say, there was plenty of drilling, connecting of cables, connecting of more cables, and screen testing.

After some final testing and the addition of theatrical like lighting, the exhibition looked fabulous and was all ready for the launch that evening. Orange Regional Gallery friends, patrons and public gathered to view the exhibition, have a drink and a delicious canapé. Brenda Gray, Assistant Director of the gallery welcomed all and introduced Blair French, Executive Director of Artspace who gave an erudite explanation of the show's concept and an insight into the curator's thinking. Blair outlined the impact the Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship and similar opportunities afford younger artists and how this can be witnessed in their practice. After a round of thanks, in particular to the artists Ms&Mr who were in attendance guests once again viewed the exhibition but this time with renewed interest.


How Yesterday Remembers Tomorrow is showing at Orange Regional Gallery from 23 March 2012 - 6 May 2012 before travelling to 6 other venues in NSW and QLD.

For more information, visit the M&G NSW website: http://mgnsw.org.au/exhibit/how_yesterday_remembers_tomorrow/

How Yesterday Remembers Tomorrow is supported by the NSW Government through Arts NSW as a result of the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy. An Artspace exhibition toured by Museums & Galleries NSW.
A story by Lillian Lim, M&G NSW's Gallery Programs and Touring Exhibition Coordinator.

Image one: Todd McMillan, after the deluge, 2010
Installation view, courtesy of the artist and Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney

Image two: Claire Healy & Sean Cordeiro, 1st Draft, 2009
Cork board, drawing pins, 160 x 120 cm, courtesy of the artists and Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Sydney

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

There's a War On! opens at Cowra

There's a War On! opening at Cowra Art Gallery

Michael Rolfe and Brian Langer

Vanda Cassim with curried eggs

Along with M&G NSW staff members Sarah-Jane Rennie and Andrew Brettell, on Friday 3^rd June, I traveled to Cowra to speak at the official opening of M&G’s There’s A War On exhibition.

With support from the NSW Heritage Office, There’s A War On focuses on telling stories about the home front during World War I and World War II. Its presentation has been designed to allow host venues to complement the touring component with local stories about contributions to the war effort.

Cowra of course had a very direct connection to hostilities as the location of the Prisoner of War Camp made famous by the breakout of Japanese prisoners in August 1944. The Camp also housed prisoners of other nationalities, in particular a contingent of Italian prisoners whose remarkable art work and handicraft feature prominently in the exhibition.

Director of the Gallery, Brian Langer, has assembled items that clearly define the relationship, beyond that of adversaries, which existed between local residents and the prisoners. A large crowd enjoyed the evening’s proceedings, which were made all the more pleasing; through the quality of catering provided by the Friends of Cowra Regional Gallery (I must get that stuffed curried egg recipe Brian)!

On the Saturday morning, Sarah Jane presented a talk on the development of the exhibition and in the afternoon she introduced those present to the related wiki, giving them the opportunity to contribute their own stories to the growing data base of war related narratives generated by the exhibition.


Michael Rolfe

Sarah-Jane Rennie presents There's A War On! to delegates from around NSW

There's a War On! Website Launch

On Tuesday 1 March, M&GNSW launched our new wiki website There's a War On! at Chifley Home Education Centre, Bathurst. The website has been developed as a follow on to the earlier thematic studies on collections and sites associated with World War I and World War II activities in NSW which led to the travelling exhibition There's a War On!

Launching the wiki website at Chifley Home Education Centre, gave people the added opportunity of viewing the exhibition There's a war On! and visiting Chifley Home. Ben Chifley's significant contribution to the Australian community during World War II, first as Treasurer, then as Minister for Post War Reconstruction and finally as Prime Minister following Curtin's untimely death in July 1945.

The website provides an opportunity for users to look at sites and collections associated with the homefront during WWI and WWII across NSW. Utilising google map technology, the sites and collections are mapped out on a map of NSW with the capacity to zoom into particular locations and view the map in either satellite or map mode. Each entry has a "pin" on the map, clicking on the "pin" takes the user to a page for that particular object or site. These pages provides information about the object or site which can include description, location, history and an image.

It is hoped that the information on the site will expand over time as users are invited not simply to visit the site but to become contributors adding information about their own collections or sites associated with World War I and World War II in NSW. The site also invites contributors to include their memories of particlar sites or object. We hope that this will allow people to share their thoughts about sites such as air training bases, POW camps or Women's Land Army Hostels.

Thank you to Bathurst Regional Council for hosting the event, in particular Sam Malloy, Grant Weatherstone and the other Chifley Home Staff. Thanks also to Carah's Bakery for the marvelous catering. It was also great to have Ian Rufus, heritage re-enactor from Lithgow, reveal the inner secrets of the .303 rifle and its dispersed production in feeder factories across the central west of NSW during World War II.

Excessory opens at Rockhampton Art Gallery

 

I have just returned from a short journey to Rockhampton Art Gallery in Central Queensland to assist with the installation of our touring exhibition, Excessory: Contemporary Australian Jewellery. Shane Fitzgerald (Exhibitions and Collections Officer at Rockahmpton) and I spent a day in the gallery preparing the exhibition for presentation which included planning and preparing the appropriate exhibition space, unpacking and condition reporting all of the individual works, and arranging the incredibly delicate jewellery pieces for display.

Excessory brings together the work of six contemporary artists – Jeanette James, Emily Valentine, Rebecca Ward, Zoe Jay Veness, Mark Vaarwerk and Vernon Bowden – who challenge traditional notions of value associated with jewellery by transforming everyday and found materials into precious objects. I am pleased to report that the installation went smoothly and Excessory is now open and showing at Rockhampton Art Gallery until 20 February 2011.

For more information on this and other touring exhibitions visit www.mgnsw.org.au/exhibit/now_touring/

You can view online videos featuring artist interviews from Excessory at M&G NSW’s YouTube channel

I was also fortunate enough to catch the Ergon Energy CQ Art Award that just opened last week; a $10,000 acquisitive biennial art award that selects a different form of artistic practice to celebrate each time. This year, the nominated genre is ceramics and both exhibition rooms on the ground floor of the gallery are filled with beautiful and diverse ceramic artworks, from fluid sculptural forms to installation pieces and even some items that have incorporated lighting effects. The Ergon Award will be on display at Rockhampton Art Gallery until the end of February 2011.  

Lillian