I recently spoke at the MGNSW event Bricks
and Mortar: Foundations for the future addressing issues of sustainability
for regional museums and galleries.
The focus of my talk was about regional museums and galleries acting as
advocates for sustainability by promoting their sustainable actions as an
organisation and also by addressing issues such as the projected effect climate
change could have on their local area via exhibitions or programs.
In addition to this, museums and galleries can create a more essential meaning
of sustainability for the communities they serve when you consider one
definition for the verb ‘to sustain’ which is “to support the spirits,
vitality, or resolution of; encourage”[i]. This
idea of where science and culture intersect is being addressed by the research
group Hot Science: Global Citizens, a collaborative project between the University of Western Sydney
and various museums in Australia.
You can find out more about what they do at www.hotscienceglobalcitizens.net.
Giving the concept of sustainability meaning and value in our lives is a role
museums can embrace. Rather than it being just about bricks and mortar, which
is undeniably important, museums can embrace the spirit and vitality of
‘sustainability’ and encourage communities to value and own the concept.
For other interesting approaches to the culture of sustainability happening
around the place you can check out these websites: www.brokenhillartexchange.com, www.postcardsfromthefuture.co.uk. And for more practical advice on green museums,
have a look at the research paper by Rachel Byers from the University of Oregon
called Green Museums + Green Exhibits – communicating
sustainability through content and design (type “green museums” in the search
box at www.scholarsbank.uoregon.edu).
Sharne Fielder
The Creative Consultant
Exhibition Designer
Sustainability Consultant
sharnefielder@hotmail.com
Below short videos that showcase winners of the 2011 IMAGinE awards and recipients of the 2011 IMAGinE highly commended certificates.
In our first video, IMAGinE award winners share their stories of excellence and innovation with us.
In our second video we talk with M&G NSW board member and gallery director, Belinda Hanrahan, about the significance of Special Achievement recipient Edmund Capon AM, OBE to our sector.
Bob McKillop from Willoughby District Historical Society talks about their winning exhibition, 'The Tales of Flat Rock Creek' that explores the impact of urban development on a pristine natural environment since the European settlement, through the eyes of Willoughby residents.
The Bundanon Trust briefly explain their digitisation project for which they won the IMAGinE award for Collection Management- 5-20 paid staff.
Sharni Lloyd from The Glasshouse Regional Gallery discusses the exhibition People Of the First Sunrise, winner of the IMAGinE award Exhibitions and Public Engagement 1-4 Paid Staff. This exhibition was made in partnership with Port Macquarie TAFE, MCA and the Gallery.
To download a special brochure on the winners and highly commended click here.
If you've published anything electronically about the 2011 IMAGinE awards we'd love to post it!
To see the article on the posthumous honour of Glen Johns click here:
Last Thursday Andrew Brettell and I attended
a day of conversations and presentations on how the new digital worlds could
feed into, and be integrated into, the new cultural policy.
Organised by Senator Kate Lundy and her
office, this was the third public sphere conversation. These conversations
happen online and also in a real word meeting - usually supported by live presentations
that are streamed. There is the use of hashtags on twitter and a wiki to
collate and capture ideas before, during and after the event. Though the biggest trending story on Twitter
that day was the passing of Steve Jobs, #publicsphere
was ranked third – showing a wider engagement than those who were just in the
room. There were presentations from 5 key areas
followed by group discussions. They were:
Games
Development - the future of games development in Australia
from independent to major studios and publishers.
Film
& Animation - the future of film and animation in Australia
within the context of digital culture.
Media & Music
- the future of music and media culture creation in a digital world.
Digital
Arts - looking at digital arts, how they contribute to our national
culture landscape.
Cultural
Institutions - exploring how cultural institutions right across
Australia, from regional galleries, libraries, archives and museums to
national institutions can collaborate on public access and participation
in our culturally diverse heritage through digitisation, online engagement
such as crowd sourcing and emerging technologies such as augmented
reality.
Key issues that came up in the discussion
with the participants from the GLAM sector were:
the role that digitisation plays in building engagement at a local
level
the provision of services to assist the small to medium
organisations in Regional Australia who may have the will but not the
resources
the need for an over-arching peak-body for the GLAM sector,
as a balance to the roles Screen Australia and The Australian
Council for the Arts play for their sectors as a policy advisor to
government and research voice for the sectors.
the change in organisations’ roles as part of this process from
Keepers to Sharers to Distributors to Facilitators.
You can read the collated notes at http://digiculture.wikispaces.com/
and contribute to the discussion until the 15th October when it will be closed
and finalised as a submission to the National Cultural Policy consultation by
the 21st October 2011. Just a reminder that if you haven’t already
commented on the National Cultural Policy, submissions for that close on Friday
21 2011 http://culture.arts.gov.au/discussion-paper/developing-a-vision
Over 50 people gathered on Friday to hear a range of speakers talk about tourism and marketing in our increasingly digital world. If you weren’t able to make it, here are some links and points from each of the speakers.
Our first Speaker Elizabeth Rogers, from Regional Arts NSW reinforced issues with regards to getting the language right when speaking to ‘tourism people’. She also reminded us that museums and galleries can be part of the part of the regional tourism picture and that the easier you can make it for the tourist, the greater the chance you have to engage with them. She emphasised the importance of customer service and “other business” referrals to help build a diverse visitor experience.
Next up was Barbara de Rome from the recently formed Destination NSW, who encouraged museums and galleries to clearly define the unique experiences they offer. By identifying the unique “thing” - be that the “biggest” or “best” or “only” item in the collection or exhibition - this could then give the tourist visitor a reason to come. She also shared some of the resources available including the Tourism Ekit and the VisitNSW.com and emphasised the importance in keeping this information current. You can find the Ekit at http://corporate.tourism.nsw.gov.au/Tourism_e-kit_p3313.aspx
After morning tea we were joined by Sally Basser from the Office of the Arts, who took us though the draft National Cultural Policy. You can read more about the policy and give feedback up till 21 October 2011 at www.culture.arts.gov.au There are clear places for both museums and galleries to have a role in this conversation, especially around goal 3.
This was followed by a discussion of Bridget Jones’s visual arts audience data from the Connecting Arts research, recently undertaken by the Australia Council. You can read about the full project at http://connectarts.australiacouncil.gov.au/ and find out how arts audiences are using the internet and digital devices at all stages of the digital journey. They are:
Awareness – First hearing about the event through a friend or other media
- Four in ten find out about the event through online media
- Word of mouth and print media are still the biggest drivers of awareness
- E-newsletters are the best way to create awareness online
- Social media provides a lot of opportunity, and many young people are already on board
Research - Finding out more about the event and deciding whether to attend
- Three quarters of people use the internet to research the artist or event
- Search engines are the most popular way to seek information
- Videos, photos and audio give a taste of what to expect
- Online reviews and recommendations help with the decision
Booking – Buying a ticketto the event ahead of time
- Most of those who booked tickets did so online
- Ticket outlet websites were mainly used
- Seating plans enable audiences to choose their own seats
- Audiences are interested in mobile ticketing solutions
Preparation – Anticipating the event and getting organised
- Almost three quarters of people use the internet at the preparation stage
- ‘Hyping up’ through video clips, photos and background on artists
- Practical info like online journey planners, parking and restaurant offers are important
- Mobile apps help to plan things on the go
At the event - Getting more information and sharing the experience
- A third of people use the internet at the event – and more are interested in doing so
- Seeking information about the event or artists online
- Using Facebook to share the excitement is popular among many
- As mobile internet becomes universal this will continue grow
After the event – Reliving the experience and considering the next event
- Two thirds use the internet after the event
- Many will share videos and photos to relive the event
- Talking with others and recommending the event
- Planning the next event and purchasing tickets
Though often considered the domain of young people, this research shows that the interweb ( as George Bush once called it) is used by all age groups. And don’t forget if you are trying to source young people to help you with this area, try you local University, TAFE, High School, Scouts/ Guide Groups and set it up a volunteer project for them (making sure you define the project with clear goals and aims).
There are a whole bunch of resources on the Connecting Arts web site including many “how to’s” and case studies.
After lunch there was a session on creating a press release with Lauren Murada from the Inner Western Courier and Anne Lawler from AKL PR. A few of the key points that came though this conversation was the need to build a relationship with your local journalists and the need to make a connection to the local community. Also though everyone thinks their story is newsworthy, not every story will run.
The day finished with a talk on ‘how to build a digital strategy’ from Stuart Buchanan founder of We are the Nest. He reminded us that we have a better story to tell about our organisations than most “airport bios”. Stuart’s presentation will be up on our resources page in the next few days, so you can follow his steps to creating a digital strategy. Plus there are a whole lot of resources on the connecting arts site.http://connectarts.australiacouncil.gov.au/category/strategy-and-planning/ Also, check out Stuart Buchanan’s ‘We are the Nest’ website: http://www.wearethenest.com.au/
Around one hundred museum and gallery delegates gathered at the Australian Museum on Friday night to find out who would win a highly coveted IMAGinE award for excellence and innovation within the sector.
The night was a lively mix of jazz, wine, food, city views, mingling and, of course, accolades. The wonderfully cheeky yet charming MC Libbi Gorr kept everything going at a cracking pace, always telling it like it is in her own unique way.
The range of nominations in all four categories demonstrated the great work being done across the sector by both volunteers and paid staff from organisations big and small, regional and metropolitan across NSW and the ACT. Great innovation in public engagement was represented by exhibitions and education projects where museums and galleries continued to find new ways to connect to their communities. Fantastic collection management projects showcased the vital role of museums and galleries as custodians of our shared cultural heritage.
One highlight of the event was a special Lifetime Achievement Award presented to Edmund Capon for his considerable contribution to the museum and gallery sector of NSW over his 33 years as Director of the Art Gallery of NSW. M&G NSW board member Belinda Hanrahan provided plenty of entertaining insights from the several years she worked with Edmund.
Additionally, the significant contribution that individuals make to their communities through museums and galleries across NSW and the ACT was showcased with the highest number of nominations ever received in the individual achievement category. And the awards went to:
COLLECTION MANAGEMENT
4 or less staff
Grafton Regional Gallery (Winner) Eden Killer Whale Museum (Highly Commended)
20 or less staff
Bundanon Trust (Winner) Hawkesbury Regional Museum (Highly Commended)
21 or more staff
Powerhouse Museum (Winner)
EXHIBITIONS & PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
Volunteer
Willoughby District Historical Society Inc (Winner) For Tales of Flat Rock Creek Port of Yamba Historical Society (Highly Commended) For Nursery-Rhymes Exposed – Delve Deeper than the Ditty’ Thredbo Ski Museum (Highly Commended) For The Kiandra Story
4 or less staff
Glasshouse Regional Gallery for People of the First Sunrise
20 or less staff
Casula Powerhouse for Body Pacifica
21 or more staff
Australian National Maritime Museum (Winner) for On their own – Britain’s child migrants Australian Museum (Highly Commended) for Rituals of Seduction: Birds of Paradise Museum of Contemporary Art (Highly Commended) In assoc with C3West & Hurstville City Council for The Begin-Again
EDUCATION & AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT
4 or less staff
Goulburn Regional Art Gallery (Winner) for GW Bot: the long paddock Grafton Regional Gallery (Highly Commended) for The Postcard Station project
20 or less staff
Campbelltown Arts Centre for MINTO:LIVE
21 or more staff
Art Gallery of NSW for Open Weekend: art+soul
INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT
Volunteer
Glen Johns, Chapter Coordinator, Museums Australia - Lachlan Chapter
Paid staff
Gavin Fry, Director, Newcastle Museum
Congratulations to all the winning and highly commended organisations and indeed all who were nominated for the 2011 IMAGinE Awards. We had a fantastic night and hope to see you all again next year!
With only three days to go until the fourth annual IMAGinE awards things are certainly hotting up. The delicacies are ordered, the wine is cooling, everyone has figured out what frock they're wearing, and, most importantly, the nominees are awaiting breathlessly for the judges' results.
As well as the awards night we are also running a day of workshops, presentations and seminars on marketing and tourism at the Australian Museum. Called Talk the Talk, this is an unmissable event if you want to hone that digital strategy or get more punters through the door.
This Friday will certainly be a day and night to remember!
If you wish to register for the IMAGinE awards night or attend Talk the Talk during the day then click here.
But without further ado we know why you're here. And the nominees for Education and Audience Development in alphabetical order are . . .
Albury Art Gallery
Meet the Maker is a monthly program profiling regional established and emerging artists in retail. It offers the public the opportunity to understand the total creative process. The program presents unique opportunity for artists to communicate their craft to the public, to generate income from their art practice and fulfill the public’s curiosity about the professional expertise required in producing handmade objects. This program has initially fostered relationships between regional artists, the community and the Albury Art Gallery. Over the longer term, the retail products will become synonymous with the Gallery shop and support strong relationships between the Gallery and the artist.
Art Gallery of NSW
Open Weekend: art+soul. For the past three years, the AGNSW has hosted an annual Open Weekend that celebrates a particular collection area. The 2010 Open Weekend (held over the 2010 October long weekend) focused on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and was one of the Gallery's most intensive and rewarding programs. The weekend celebrated art + soul, which is the title of a major exhibition of Indigenous art at the Gallery, the corresponding comprehensive catalogue, and the ground-breaking three-part ABC documentary series written and presented by Hetti Perkins, Senior Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, and directed by award winning filmmaker Warwick Thornton. This landmark Open Weekend brought together 60 Indigenous artists, writers, musicians, performers and academics from all around Australia, many who featured in the exhibition and TV series.
Campbelltown Arts Centre
Edge of Elsewhere engages communities across Sydney to develop and produce a series of contemporary art projects in partnership with artists. Developed through an open-ended curatorial structure, the project is conceived not only within the framework of geography—that being greater Sydney, with a particular focus on suburban Western Sydney and Sydney’s Chinatown district—but also through the cultural demographic of these particular places. Edge of Elsewhere has emerged from a strong history of community engaged practice that Campbelltown Arts Centre has developed through continuing to test new models of engagement between contemporary artists and communities. Through this experience and ongoing commitment, Campbelltown Arts Centre has identified that if long-term relationships between communities and artists can be sustained, the significance of the outcomes and level of innovation in the work produced in such contexts extends exponentially.
MINTO:LIVE was a large-scale site-specific performance event presented as part of 2011 Sydney Festival in Minto. The event brought together national and international artists to work in collaboration with the residents of Minto to create eight new performance works that reflected and celebrated the stories and experiences of Minto residents. The event ran for three-days and was presented in the form of a walking tour, with local volunteer ushers who accompanied the audience through public and private housing estates to experience contemporary theatre, dance, song and film.
Chifley Home
The Chifley Home Education Centre has been purposely designed and constructed in the house adjoining Chifley Home which was purchased by Bathurst Regional Council in 2008 with the intention of developing an Education / Interpretative Centre to support the Chifley Home museum and its significant collection. The development of the new Centre has been assisted by grant money from the Commonwealth and NSW State Governments together with continued financial support by Bathurst Regional Council. Its aim was to enhance and engage a broader visitor audience to Chifley Home whilst not comprising the integrity and intactness of the house museum and its original collection.
Goulburn Regional Art Gallery
As part of the exhibition GW Bot: the long paddock A 30 YEAR SURVEY an education kit was designed to enhance student engagement with the exhibition and provide vital ideas for teachers in developing theoretical understanding and practical artmaking experiences. The education kit is a comprehensive resource for preschool, primary school and high school students and contains information about the artist that is informative to the general public or anyone interested in learning more about GW Bot and printmaking.
Grafton Regional Gallery
The Postcard Station project was produced by Grafton Regional Gallery in conjunction with the Friends of Grafton Gallery FOGG to celebrate International Museum Day 2011. The Postcard Station project was a community out reach arts project completed at multiple venues across the Clarence Valley. Each Postcard Station was equipped with blank postcards and a selection of materials to create a unique postcard. Finished postcards were ‘posted’ in the Postcard Station mailbox. At the completion of the project every participant was mailed a randomly selected postcard created by another participant. If you made a postcard you received another in the mail!
Powerhouse Museum
Reveal is a Museum trail where visitors uncovered small, fictional yet empathetic stories about museum objects by children’s author, Morris Gleitzman. The trail is a series of texts, written in invisible ink in dimly lit places adjacent to a featured object and can only be revealed by a black light torch. Reveal was the basis of a successful holiday program, an associated Sydney Writers Festival Event – Writer Overnighter and now part of the Museum's regular offer. Reveal incorporated hand-made puppets in the vicinity of each object, an illustrated print trail, three writing stations for visitor responses and a journey throughout the museum. As a children’s program it hit the intergenerational sweet spot proving popular with all the family members.
Tocal Homestead
"Tales of Tocal - The Mystery in The Creek" built on the success of "Tales of Tocal" dinner theatre at Tocal Homestead in 2008 and 2009. The true story of the discovery of a headless body in a creek on the Tocal property in November 1874 was retold through audience encounters with characters around the farm. The audience made their way around the buildings and grounds at twilight before enjoying dinner in the re-used hayshed. This project was to build a new audience for this site and in that regard well exceeded expectations.
Keeping culture strong through communities was a central theme of the M&G NSW organised Keeping Places & Beyond: building cultural futures in NSW summit, held at CarriageWorks on September 19/20 2011.
In bringing together, for the first time, over 150 people from across the Aboriginal arts, community & professional organisations, NSW cultural institutions, government agencies, the education sector, small business, Elders groups and individuals, the summit’s main aim was to discuss and shape the future for NSW Aboriginal cultural practice, local knowledge, heritage and language. This blackfella/whitefella meeting has been hailed a huge success by nearly all who attended.
People traveled from throughout NSW. Those who arrived on the Sunday could sample Barani Barrabugu, the city’s new heritage walking trails of significant Aboriginal sites or use their complimentary entry to the Australian Museum. Many travelers caught up with the city mobs at the welcome BBQ, put on by the City of Sydney, at Redfern Community Centre in the evening.
The Smoking Ceremony and Welcome Dance in the CarriageWorks main foyer started proceedings on Monday morning. Uncle Max Eulo conducted the ceremony which was followed by a culturally strong performance from the Doonooch Dancers, Yung Nooky (on didj) and boys from the East Nowra Public School. The dancers then led delegates into the meeting place. Delegates were welcomed to country by Auntie Millie Ingram, from the Wyanga Elders Group, Redfern. The cultural program was threaded throughout the two days, with a boomerang demonstration by Laddie Timbery, and performances by The Stiff Gins, Yung Nooky and Emma Donovan and her band.
As for the summit program, it featured presentations from a range of authoritative and informative speakers including; Professor Bob Morgan, Russell Taylor, Djon Mundine, Keith Munro, Beryl van Oploo, Phil Gordon, Dr Sandy O’Sullivan and artist, Jenny Fraser among others. Bob Morgan spoke about cultural identity and emphasized a theme that was to run through other presentations and conversations - that of the importance of self determination, of Aboriginal communities being sufficiently empowered to perform their own cultural maintenance, art form development and dissemination.
I certainly appreciated the opportunity to sit and listen as did many others. Those engaging or looking to engage in the sector made many useful contacts and like-minded approaches to build partnerships. A range of recommendations and suggestions to progress and build on momentum were discussed and agreed upon in the final sessions. They ranged across areas such as Heritage, Digitization, Art & Design, Community Engagement and ongoing connections to Government and other stakeholders. The summit’s reference committee will now give some further thought to these and their final report to Arts NSW will prioritise and chart a way forward. I do think it’s a great testament to the value of the conference that participants were keen to develop an ongoing network to continue to explore the ideas and opportunities raised over the two days, and that there was an expressed desire to meet again in a couple of years time to re-thread the picture with the work and developments in the interim.
The summit was organized and convened by Museums & Galleries NSW with core funding from Arts NSW. It was supported by Aboriginal Affairs NSW and NSW Aboriginal Land Council.
All Photos by Mervyn Bishop
Doonooch Dancers at the beginning of the summit
Constance Chatfield and Aunty
Beryl Van-Oploo
Emma
Donovan sings at the reception
Peter White and Djon Mundine
Constance Chatfield and Steve Miller discuss "From Start Up to Cultural Enterprise"
