object eye
Robert Baines: Metal arrives in Maitland.
Tuesday March 19 2013
Here i am, on day two of the Robert Baines: Metal install at Maitland Regional Gallery, near the beautiful Hunter Valley in NSW.
A beautiful old building houses a very modern group of galleries. A great install team and volunteers are making the install go smoothly.
Robert Baines will be coming up for the opening saturday afternoon and will follow with one of his stimulating artist talks, so if you are in or around Sydney or Newcastle and are looking for something to see, why not take a leisurely drive north to Maitland to see this wonderful exhibition at its second last venue on its tour.
Delivering Design: testing a new model for developing regional audiences
Thursday March 14 2013
Through 2012, Object worked with the University of Wollongong and the Western Plains Cultural Centre on a research project Delivering Design. Coinciding with the Western Plains Cultural Centre leg of the Menagerie: Contemporary Indigenous Sculpture touring exhibition, representatives from the three partner organisations worked together to devise ways to create a stronger model, with the overarching intention to ultimately lead to better ways of keeping audiences engaged.
Read the executive summary after the jump, or download the entire report here.
Selling Yarns Conference 2013
Thursday February 28 2013
Sandra Brown is Object’s Touring Programs Coordinator.
Here I am at the Selling Yarns 2013 conference at the National Museum of Australia here in Canberra, where they are celebrating the centenary of our nation’s capital.
This is the second conference I have attended and it is always wonderful to meet up with colleagues and our touring venues. It is a great opportunity to see what is happening in Indigenous crafts with attendees from every state.
First presentations covered the importance of the possum cloaks in eastern Australia and keeping the traditions and history alive. A presentation on the Tjumpi weavers from central Australia highlighted their use of the senses when making their works and harvesting the grasses around their homes.
Working Together — The SLQ Perspective
Wednesday December 05 2012
A couple of weeks ago, representatives of the venue partners for CUSP: Designing for the Next Decade gathered in Sydney for a two day workshop exploring ways to exchange information and engage audiences, passing knowledge around the country. Previously, Sandra Brown outlined her reaction to the day, and here Naomi Takeifanga of the State Library of Queensland reflects on the two days.
Sitting in Brisbane at a picnic table in the middle of a swimming complex for yet another kids birthday party, the notion of design and its importance in our lives for the everyday becomes more than apparent. I won’t bore you with the details but, living in the sunshine state where swimming pools are a way of life, public swimming pools need that extra special design. Kid spotting is hard enough, let alone being set up 50m from the kids. Nothing good design in its basic sense couldn’t easily fix.
Working Together — A CUSP Venue Partner Workshop
Wednesday November 28 2012
Wow! What a week it was last week here at Object, starting with our new exhibition, Life In Your Hands: art from solastalgia, opening last Friday night; and then fronting up Monday and Tuesday for our first ever Working Together Workshop for CUSP: Designing for the Next Decade national touring partners and Object staff. Representatives attended from Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery in Launceston, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, JamFactory in Adelaide, Casula Powerhouse and the State Library of Queensland, with a phone-in from the Western Plains Cultural Centre in Dubbo.
In my 8 years here at Object I have never known quite an event to happen where we bring representatives from the touring venues for a major national exhibition together to brainstorm and share knowledge about their venues, their touring programs, public programs and what they would like from incoming touring exhibitions. Another WOW! That in itself is pretty radical, but I must say that everyone there was soon saying ‘why hadn’t this happened before now?’
Jeff Mincham at Mornington Peninsula
Friday October 26 2012
Last Saturday afternoon Jeff Mincham: Ceramics opened at its final venue at the Mornington Peninsula Regional Art Gallery. A great crowd rolled up to listen to Dr Kevin Murray and Jeff talk about the Living Treasures: Masters of Australian Craft program – (Kevin was on the second selection panel when Jeff was chosen as our 2009 Living Treasure so there was a relevance to his opening of this final exhibition).
It has been an interesting exercise to see the diverse manifestations of this show in venues both large and small around the country. With the exhibition finishing its long national tour, I felt a certain melancholia walking around the exhibition space looking at the works for the last time. The popularity of the Living Treasures exhibition with audiences has mainly been due to the pictorial relationship between the artist, his works and his landscape experiences throughout South Australia.
Goodbye Menagerie
Wednesday October 17 2012
Sandra is Object’s Touring Coordinator, and has spent the last three years installing and uninstalling Menagerie: Contemporary Indigenous Sculpture in various venues around Australia. She may or may not have shed a tear as she uninstalled it for the last time this week.
Here I am in Canberra at the National Museum of Australia, second day of the de-install of the Menagerie exhibition for the last time. It is sad saying goodbye to the works that I have got to know intimately over the past there years: Vicky West’s Tassie Devil always looked if it wanted to run away; the peacefully floating seven stingrays; the cheeky camp dog pups and their harassed mother. So many wonderful works that have been to every state in the country, and amazed and appealed to children and adults alike.
Menagerie will be returning home to the Australian Museum in Sydney, and after a short rest will be on show once more there. Goodbye Menagerie.
Robert Baines in Launceston
Friday August 03 2012
Sandra Brown is Object’s Touring Coordinator. She is currently in Launceston installing Robert Baines: Metal at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, and has checked in twice this week to let you know how it is coming along.
Wednesday 1 August:
I am on the road again with one of our touring exhibitions — Robert Baines: Metal. Installing at QVMAG in Launceston’s newly refurbished Royal Park site. What fantastic gallery spaces! The exhibition is going to look great here. Rod, one of their installers, is working on the lighting as I sit here writing. QVMAG has a great team and visitors are really going to enjoy the show in this space. Launceston might be cold but the museum is warm and friendly. I am looking forward to the opening Friday night when Robert Baines will give one of his fascinating talks about his work.
Jeff Mincham:Ceramics Opens In Geraldton
Wednesday July 11 2012
Last week Jeff Mincham: Ceramics opened at Geraldton Regional Art Gallery and the news from this, our second Western Australian venue is that it is already a great success.
Although Jeff Mincham hails from South Australia, he is also a well known and respected ceramicist in WA, especially in Geraldton where he held a number of workshops in the 1980s and 90s. Jeff feels that his exhibition has a strong affinity with the Geraldton area, especially the environment and he hopes that WA audiences with see this connection.
Touring Through Winter
Friday June 29 2012
Winter is definitely not hibernation time here at Object touring, with our touring program back in full swing. After a quiet month or so while the exhibitions are on show around the country, it is now a ‘chock-a-block’ time for touring exhibition installations in NSW, ACT, Tasmania and WA.
Our wonderful installer Robert has just come back from Geraldton, WA, after installing Jeff Mincham: Ceramics in the regional gallery there. After a very successful showing at Bunbury Galleries, the exhibition will be at Geraldton Regional Gallery until 21 September. Then it is off to its final destination at Mornington Peninsula Regional Art Gallery in Victoria.
Menagerie: Contemporary Indigenous Sculpture has just been delivered to the National Museum of Australia in Canberra, where it will be installed in the First Australians Focus Gallery over the next 2 weeks.
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Surry Hills NSW 2010
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