2011 IMAGinE Individual Achievements

The 2011 IMAGinE award nominations have closed and as always we have been inundated with entries from throughout NSW. Over the next four weeks we'll highlight the nominees in each category as we warm up for a glamorous night of canapes, wine and awards at the Australian Museum's Terrace Room.

A strong category this year is Individual Achievements celebrating specific people in our sector who have tirelessly sought excellence and innovation for their museum, gallery or keeping place. Whether volunteer or paid, these ladies and gentlemen have proved to be invaluable and irreplaceable for their organisations and the sector as a whole. 

And the nominees are . . . 


VOLUNTEER STAFF

Glen Johns contributed tirelessly to the museum sector across NSW from the late 1990s through to his death on 31st January 2011. Glen's contribution to the museum sector began with his work with the Boorowa museum in the late 1990s when he moved to Boorowa.

Within museum circles, Glen is probably best remembered as the man behind the Working Spaces  conferences held at St Clements, Galong. As a man who believed anything was possible, Glen approached Museums & Galleries NSW in 2006 with an idea for a volunteer museums conference with "no talking heads" and plenty of practical workshops. In no time, Glen had convinced the major cultural institutions in Canberra to contribute staff to run the various workshops and the Working Spaces conference was born.

Gillian Kelly has shown great leadership as a volunteer Curator working with QDHMS (Society) members and CIT Museum Studies Students with the support of QCC in transforming the Queanbeyan Museum's displays over the last 8 years. Amongst a great deal of work, Gillian has researched, developed, consulted on, planned for and led a team that has set up an average of two new exhibitions in the Museum each year.

Led by Gillian, the volunteer team  has transformed Queanbeyan Museum into a high quality and accessible community facility that tells the many stories about Queanbeyan and its history. Gillian is also a local historian and received an OAM for her contribution to the history group Lacemakers of Calais.

In April 2002, Jill Madew, a long term resident and business woman of Adaminaby, heard the heavy machinery previously used in the construction of the Snowy Hydro-Electric Scheme in NSW would be offered at auction. Under Jill's leadership, a group of Adaminaby residents formed a fundraising committee and in a frantic scramble before the auction, the committee raised $40,000. The money raised by the committee enabled the purchase of eight of the ten items earmarked as most historically important.

With the beginnings of a collection in hand, Jill converted the fundraising committee into a museum committee and set about the long and arduous task of convincing Governments through grants applications and other fundraising endeavours, that the proposed museum was needed as a tribute to one of the engineering wonders of the modern world. Next month, Snowy Scheme Museum Adaminaby opens to the public. 

On moving to Grafton in 1976, Pam Fysh became an active committee member of the Jacaranda Art Society. The society established and presented the annual Jacaranda Art Prize and founded the Grafton Art Gallery which in 1988 became the Grafton Regional Gallery. Since then, Pam's guidance and actions in developing and supporting the gallery in its programs, collections and support groups, and its facilities and equipment has always been positively and diplomatically given.

Pam Fysh has been and continues to be an active advocate for museums and galleries in the Clarence Valley and beyond. Over the last year Pam has worked with the Grafton Showground Trust to upgrade the kitchen of the Barn, a heritage listed pavilion. Pam has been instrumental in gaining a grant of $100,000 through the Community Building Partnership of the NSW Government, gaining the services of an architect pro bono and having the project completed on time.

Christina Webb has had a significant impact on the community-based Thredbo Historical Society since she joined in 2000.

From 2001 Christina undertook the duties of Honorary Secretary/Treasurer. Her work involved correspondence, minutes, membership, accounts, banking, transcription of oral histories, 3 newsletters annually, publicity and archiving of printed material. Between 2000 and 2009 the Society membership increased from circa 60 members to 200. By 2009 the volume of Secretary/Treaurer’s work had increased so much that it was necessary to split the position in three, and Christina was appointed Honorary Museum Administrator/Publicity Officer.

Christina drives half hour drive from her home in Jindabyne to Thredbo in order to open the Museum, an activity which she combines with a ski prior to opening the museum during the winter months.


PAID STAFF

Gavin Fry has been Director of Newcastle Museum since 1999. Since then he has conceived, developed, supervised and brought to completion the redevelopment of the former Newcastle Regional Museum, bringing it firmly into the 21st century as an institution of which the community and the state can be justly proud. Year after year he systematically put in place the building blocks of the project, including the sale of the former museum site, acquisition of the new Museum Storage Facility and successful application to the Commonwealth which resulted in an $8.5 million grant. This was the largest made under the RLCIP nation building program and completed a $23.5 million funding package. 

Gavin is coming to the end of a 30 plus year career in Australian museums, having worked steadily up through a range of significant roles including Senior Curator of Art at the Australian War Memorial, Deputy Director of the Australian National Maritime Museum and Museums Review Consultant for the Department of Defence.

Julie Baird has been Curator of Newcastle Museum since 2002 and Acting Deputy Director since November 2010. Since the closure of the old museum in 2007 Julie has been developing a new suite of exhibitions for the revamped museum and has recruited and led an enthusiastic team to work towards the 2011 reopening. Recruited to Newcastle from her previous role as senior curator at the Australian National Maritime Museum, Julie has become an integral part of the Hunter region museums scene, reorganising and invigorating the Hunter Chapter of Museums Australia, acting as a leader and mentor for the smaller museums in the area.

The new museum's feature exhibition, Newcastle Story, is Julie's work from conception to completion. She provided the brief, worked closely with the architects and designers and led the installation team. The outstanding result achieved in the new Newcastle Museum could not have been achieved without her knowledge, enthusiasm, commitment and passion.

In 2009, Rebekah Schulz, Manager of the Library, Museum & Entertainment for Hurstville City Council, undertook a restructure of the Hurstville Library and Information Services, Penshurst Branch Library and St George Regional Museum to meet 21st century community needs. Rebekah converged the facilities into Hurstville City Library, Museum & Gallery (LMG), a centre of cultural excellence which aims to educate, inspire and engage.

Rebekah has worked on the following major initiatives including the development of Councilor education program, Hurstville’s Community Strategic Plan 2021, The Begin-Again, a Sydney-wide art event with C3West and MCA staff and a successful campaign for the Museum & Gallery to double its opening hours.

Rebekah’s impact on our organisation is evident of her being announced the inaugural winner of HCC's Leader of the Year Award in 2010.

Gary Corbert's twenty-three year career in the museum & gallery sector commenced at Broken Hill Regional Gallery where he worked as an Education Officer. Upon the then Director's resignation, he was subsequently appointed Director - continuing to work towards establishing a strong profile for the gallery, its collections and programs. He also contributed to the museum and gallery sector in various roles including his position as Museums and Galleries Manager at Broken Hill City Council. 

In 2002, Gary instigated the Border Art Prize, which is held at the Gold Coast City Art Gallery and the Tweed River Art Gallery in alternating years. The prize aimed to showcase the wealth of local talent in the Tweed/Gold Coast regions, has become one of the most popular in the region and continues to grow in size each year.

Who will win? Book now for the 2011 IMAGinE awards presentation event!

Vale Glen Johns

Glen Johns with Bob Williams at Working Spaces 3

Museums & Galleries NSW is deeply saddened by the news of Glen John's death on Monday 31st January. Since the late 1990s, Glen has played a significant role with the museums of the Lachlan Chapter of Museums Australia (NSW). Always ready to challenge the status quo, Glen's enthusiasm, thoughtful insight and wry sense of humour were always appreciated.

Glen became involved with the Boorowa and District Historical Society in the late 1990s and was instrumental in obtaining a grant from the Commonwealth Federation fund to refurbish the museum. The funding led to the redevelopment of the museum's exhibitions to highlight the local wool industry and the introduction of new technology through a DVD about Boorowa. Always keen to learn and improve the museum, Glen approached the Powerhouse Museum and M&G NSW to run a workshop focused on the museum's Hamilton Hume textile collection. And so began Glen's enthusiasm for coordinating workshops.

Hearing that M&G NSW had begun a standards program, Glen approached us about running the program with the museums of the newly formed Lachlan Chapter of Museums Australia (NSW). Along with others from the chapter, Glen's willingness to participate and capacity to encourage everyone else to join in made for a great year with the Standards program.

Within museum circles, Glen will probably be best remembered as the man behind the Working Spaces workshop based conferences held at St Clements, Galong. As a man who believed anything was possible, Glen approached us in 2006 about an idea for a volunteer museums conference with "no talking heads" and plenty of practical workshops. Before we knew it, he had convinced the major cultural institutions in Canberra to contribute staff to run the various workshops and the Working Spaces conference was born. The conferences are live in over a weekend and provide opportunities for museum workers to get together not only to learn but to have a good time. Trivia nights, Q&A sessions and Postcards from home have given those involved the opportunity to have some fun along the way. With four conferences under their belt, Glen has left the Lachlan Chapter and the volunteer museum community of NSW with a wonderful legacy.

Our thoughts are with the Lachlan Chapter, especially Glen's wife Elizabeth at this difficult time. Glen's unique and enthusiastic approach to life will never be replaced but I feel his legacy will allow a little of him to stay with us into the future.

Working Spaces 4 Conference

Sarah-Jane and I drove down to Galong last Friday to attend the famous Working Spaces 4 conference at St Clements Monastery. This is the fourth year this highly popular conference for museum volunteers has been put on, organised by the Museums Australia Lachlan Chapter.

St Clements Monastery is located about 20 minutes from Harden in the Southern Tablelands. It is a huge red brick building surrounded by farmland, complete with a grotto and a rather filmic gothic cemetery. It even has a small museum which tells the fascinating story of the original residents of ‘Galong castle’.

Around 40 participants from as far as Orange and Victoria were there and it was great for Sarah-Jane and I to catch up with some old friends and put some new faces to names. Treacherous weather meant some attendees had a somewhat interesting journey, with several people delayed by the conditions.

The conference covered many areas of museum practice such as paper conservation, writing Oral Histories, Significance, working with schools and graphic design; and aimed to provide volunteers with “hands-on” practical experience.

We presented a morning session on the Art of Winning and Writing Grants. We were lucky to have a really great group of enthusiastic volunteers from places such as Willoughby, Liverpool, Temora, Queanbeyan and Lambing Flat, who were clearly dedicated to their organisations and keen to develop different projects to keep their museums thriving. We discussed different funding avenues they could try, went through our Grants & Funding booklet and detailed the VIM grants now available from M&G NSW.

We gave them some tips on what makes a great grant application (and not so great ones!). More resources here.

A highlight of the weekend was ‘Postcards from Home’, held after dinner on Saturday night. Representatives from each museum presented for 2 minutes (precisely timed by a cow bell!) on what they felt was their most interesting collection item. It was then put to the vote, decided by the participants and also the presenters. There were so many captivating and intriguing stories, provoking a lot of debate during the deliberation! Winners were the Lambing Flat museum, who took the prize for ‘People’s Choice’ with a photo of the highly significant “Roll Up” banner, from the Lambing Flat riots of 1861,

and Cootamundra Heritage Centre taking out the ‘Presenter’s Choice’ with their unique set of 163 handmade dioramas depicting aspects of Cootamundra’s social history.

Big congratulations to the MA Lachlan Chapter, organisers of Working Spaces on another hugely successful conference, in particular to Glen Johns who is stepping down from the committee this year.

Sarah-Jane, Glen Johns and Phoebe