Greek Cafe & Milk Bar series

 

 

Starting tomorrow Leonard Janiszewski and Effy Alexakis will discuss an interesting development in their Greek café and milk bar research in two lectures which they will present in Sydney during April – part of the pair’s ongoing “Shakin’ the World Over: the Greek-Australian Milk Bar” series.

The first will be delivered to the Ryde Historical Society at historic Willandra House, Top Ryde, on Tuesday 8 April, and the second to the Castlereagh Probus Club at Castlereagh Street, Sydney, on Monday 14 April.

For a brief outline of that research and what will be discussed in the lectures visit: http://cultureworksaustralia.wordpress.com/milkshakes/

 

Affinities: 7 Museums, 50 Objects

What do a 3D printed copy of an ancient artefact, a Dhoeri Headdress from Torress Strait, an iconic image of Christine Keeler, the lower jaw section of a sperm whale and a John Brack portrait of Sir Garfield Barwick and Professor A. G. Mitchell have in common?

You’d expect most people to respond by saying “not much!” However, these are all items from the collections of Sydney’s third university. They form part of the academic enterprise of higher education, each one is a window into the questions that have occupied the minds of staff and students throughout the institution’s history. They are material manifestations of an organisation’s cultural and intellectual identity.

Macquarie University is 50 years old in 2014. Such an august landmark focusses attention on questions about who we are as an institution.

A group of museum people at Macquarie decided that one way to represent who we are would be through a collective exhibition that focussed on the academic mission at our university and how this is manifested in terms of our university’s experiences of material culture in higher education. It was an interesting process to bring together science and humanities collection managers and researchers to explore the question of what unites us apart from the obvious institutional focus. Discussions revealed that there are lots of linkages and associations between the processes of the production and dissemination of knowledge regardless of what academic discipline is represented by a collection.

From this, the exhibition “Affinities: 7 museums, 50 objects” was drawn together by a curatorial team of 22 people with generous support from many others.

This is the first time an Australian university has attempted a multi-disciplinary exhibition that focusses on the whole organisation.

It is on show at the Macquarie University Art Gallery from March 14 to May 25, 2014 as a contribution to Macquarie University’s Jubilee year.

Here is a link to one of the catalogue essays on the subject of “why universities collect“.

Here is a link to a photo essay by Effy Alexakis of the Earth Science Gardens that also forms part of the exhibition.

Andrew Simpson

PHOENIX RISING

PUBLIC LECTURE TO FOCUS ON GREECE AS “THE PHOENIX RISING”

 A public lecture by Macquarie University researchers, Effy Alexakis and Leonard Janiszewski, on the history of modern Greece (including the current “Crisis”’) will consider the subject within the context of “the Phoenix rising” motif – a people and nation striving to meet the unrelenting challenges of constant renewal. The title of their presentation is:

 THE MAKING OF MODERN GREECE:

A SEARCH FOR RENEWAL AND THE CHALLENGE OF THE NEW

The Phoenix Rising, Athens, Greece, 2001,
Photo by Effy Alexakis.

 

 Alexakis and Janiszewski, will introduce the lecture through historian Thomas W. Gallant’s much quoted statement on modern Greece:

The past stands as both a blessing and a curse to modern Greeks… Greece possesses an old culture in a new state… much of the history of Greek society in the modern age has witnessed a playing out of these contradictory forces…

The researchers will argue that Greece’s modern history has carried the legacy of its long past into decisions regarding its present and future. Since the end of Tourkokratia (Ottoman rule) Greece has sought both renewal – based upon its historical identity – and an embrace of the challenges of new circumstances, new directions and new beginnings. Both the nation state and its diaspora have been affected by these often contrasting elements. The lecture will briefly tease out this thesis by investigating the last 200 years of contemporary Greece, referencing the nation’s socio-political history, its economic development, its national self-identity, its modernisation processes, its cultural development and its geo-political interplay with the regional and global intentions of foreign political and economic powers. It is hoped that the audience will be left with a sense empowerment, in that modern Greece has, and potentially will continue to overcome, the challenges of the new. It has demonstrated an ability for renewal, and the current “Crisis” is again calling upon that ability.

The lecture was initially stimulated by research undertaken for Alexakis’ photographic essay titled ‘The Crisis’ which was exhibited last year as part of the ‘Unbound’ exhibition at Macquarie University Art Gallery. Numerous  visuals will accompany the pair’s presentation.

Date: Monday 10 March 2014
Time: 10.00am – 12.00 noon
Venue: Berowra Community Centre, 123 Berowra Waters Rd, Berowra Heights, NSW
Phone: (02) 9850 6886
Email: leonard.janiszewski@mq.edu.au

Museum Studies: one student’s perspective

Stephanie Chinneck is completing Macquarie University’s Master of Museum Studies program.  During her postgraduate study at Macquarie she’s been actively engaged with the university. She was the President of the student club, the “Museums Appreciation Society“, one of the largest clubs on campus.  This group raises money for worthy causes like Blue Shield, organises their own professional development, organises their own tours and welcomes new students, particularly international students who are encouraged to learn more about Australia through the university’s Australian History Museum and the Biological Sciences Museum.  The Society enthusiastically engage with campus life.  In 2011 they volunteered for, and helped organise a state conference on museums at Macquarie University.  In 2013 they did the same for an international conference at the Australian Museum.

While Stephanie was enrolled as a postgraduate student, it was announced that the university would cease offering all Museum Studies programs.  She requested that the Dean attend a meeting with students to explain the decision and to seek assurances that everyone enrolled would have the opportunity to complete their studies.  She attended the University Senate meeting as an observer where the Dean’s decision was endorsed.  She sent one or two emails to senior university managers and started an online petition asking for the university to rethink the decision.

This would probably be enough for one student activist, but Stephanie did even more.  She submitted a proposal for a presentation at an international conference on university museums all about student activism and university museums. It was accepted, so she travelled to Singapore to speak in front of an international audience.  All this was done while studying and continuing to get good grades.

Earlier this year she returned from the UK where she undertook two internships as part of her Masters. One was in London’s famous Science Museum where she worked and developed an exhibit in the contemporary, multi-media science news gallery (Antenna Gallery).  The second was at the Imperial War Museum she worked on a war memorials archive project in preparation for the 100th anniversary of the Great War in 2014.

She now has a newsletter article published by the international university museums group, UMAC.  This organisation is part of the 30,000 member, UNESCO associated, global group of museum professionals known as ICOM.  The article gives an interesting student perspective on the process of change in higher education.  Here’s a link below:-

Stephanie Chinneck UMAC Newsletter article Jan 2014

It suggests that students in higher education programs not only want to be engaged, but also have a say in the future of their chosen areas of study.  Maybe treating students as partners in learning and program development is the future of higher education?

Museum Studies and the 2013 Powerhouse Museum Moveable Heritage Awards

Here’s a great story from the latest edition of Powerline, the magazine of the Powerhouse Museum’s friends. It is all about two Macquarie University Museum Studies students, Leanne Wicks (postgrad) and Claire McMullen (undergrad), both students won Powerhouse Museum Moveable Heritage Awards in 2013. These awards are competitive, students must be enrolled in a museum studies (or related) tertiary education program and must propose original research projects. The awards are valued at $5000 each in the form of professional training and support from Powerhouse Museum staff.

Congratulations guys! Winning two of these awards in the one year is evidence of the outstanding quality of Museum Studies students at Macquarie!

Chain Reaction: Kate Downhill

Leonard from the Macquarie University Art Gallery has forwarded details about the latest show.  I saw it earlier in the week and it is stunning.

Chain Reaction: Kate Downhill

14 October – 27 November 2013

Official Launch: 18 October 2013 @ 6pm

CHAIN REACTION is a survey exhibition recounting the work of British Australian artist Kate Downhill and demonstrating the artist’s production spanning the last fifteen years. The works on show range from the figurative – with bold use of vivid, flat colour and surprising juxtapositions of realistic representation against graphic symbols, to works of lyrical abstraction − employing a subtle, chalky palette of paint and wax thickly applied, abraded and relaid in many layers.  Also on show are new paintings combining text, textiles and child-like imagery employed in the manner of patchwork quilts, piecing together disparate snippets of social history, scientific data, and nostalgic recollection.

Downhill’s works are both an immersion in painterly practice and an engagement with the mediated imagery of time and place.  They are cultural markers to broader narratives and histories beyond the personal.   This exhibition is timed to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the nuclear tests at Maralinga.  Numerous paintings in the show make reference to the artist’s own memories of growing up in the atomic age, as the child of a physicist involved in the development of the H Bomb and its subsequent testings in Australia. The exhibition will include some historical footage and personal memorabilia.

Please visit the Macquarie University Art Gallery website for associated events at www.artgallery.mq.edu.au

Macquarie University Art Gallery Faculty of Arts

E11A Building Eastern Rd Macquarie University NSW 2109 AUSTRALIA

Ph: 02 9850 7437

www.artgallery.mq.edu.au

Monday – Friday 10:00am – 5:00pm and select Saturdays.

Annual Heritage Careers Fair 4th Sept…

Heritage Careers Fair 4th Sept.

Museum Appreciation Society is looking for expressions of interest from museums/galleries/heritage based businesses to take part in our Annual Careers Fair.

It is a great opportunity to advertise directly to students any volunteer or employment opportunities – as well as advertise upcoming events and exhibitions.

Please contact them on museumappreciationsociety@gmail.com

This is an extremely successful initiative that has been running for a number of years.

Interested in finding out more about the Museum Appreciation Society? Look for their facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MASMQ/ 

 

Unbound

Tonight see the opening of the latest exhibition by Macquarie University Art Gallery.  Were we will experience the book as a space in which the artist has explored current issues exacting the immediate affects, responses and stories attached to each condition.

For further details on the exhibition, check out the media release:
https://museumstudiesmacquarie.wordpress.com/art-gallery/

For more information on tonight’s event visit:

http://awc.alumni.mq.edu.au/s/1404/index.aspx?sid=1404&gid=1&pgid=1022

James McGrath
Night Lacuna 1
2013
oil on canvas mounted on board
Private Collection
Courtesy OLSEN IRWIN

Stalled

Stalled
19 June – 24th July 2013
Macquarie University Art Gallery

***ARTIST TALK: WEDNESDAY 17 JULY***

Macquarie University Art Gallery invites you to join them for an insightful talk about the works and installation of our current exhibition, Stalled.

Stalled curator and artist, Rocket Mattler, will be the guest speaker.

The exhibition gives an insight into the differences between seven artists’ work. It showcases the juxtaposition of artworks set within a common space and how the works play off each other.Stalled is an array of works that set a tone that will strike a chord, an emotion, a conversation.

Key event details:

Date: Wednesday 17 July 2013
Time: 1pm – 2pm
RSVP: Essential by Monday 15 July
Phone: (02) 9850 4275
Email: arts.events@mq.edu.au
Venue: Macquarie University Art Gallery, Building E11A (end of Eastern Rd)

We hope you can join us.

Macquarie University Art Gallery
Building E11A (end of Eastern Rd)
Macquarie University

===============================================================

18 June 2013: Tomorrow night the latest exhibition at the Macquarie University Art Gallery has its official opening.  I was lucky enough to have a sneak preview a few hours ago, Wow! This is one you need to be sure you catch.  It’s open until the 24th July 2013 – with the opening at the gallery on the 19th June from 6pm.

To give you a little more background into this exhibition, the media release has been included below.  See you there!

– MEDIA RELEASE –

Stalled

Is the latest exhibition opening today at Macquarie University Art Gallery.

An exhibition of works curated by Rocket Mattler and Tim Moore. 

Stalled is an exhibition of art works created by the installers who have worked at the Gallery over the past few years.

Bringing together half-a-dozen artists including, Raytheon Buna, Kyle Ford, Will French, Mark Gowing, Rocket Mattler, Tim Moore and Danny Morse. The exhibition consists of variety of mediums.

The art works play off each other in a manner that sets an energetically engaging tone and pace. One can sense the friendship and diversity of this group of artists. 
The art works engage the viewer on many levels.
There is a tension between the works set within the gallery that will emote a questioning of self, provoke one’s sense of humour and may surprise. 

“I guess there is a lad element but there are also pieces that have a real emotional tone too,” says artist Tim Moore who is known for his comical and sometimes absurd pieces. 
“This exhibition is a lot of fun. It brings together some really interesting artists and lets them do what they like. The result is a good laugh,” says Moore.

The exhibition will run from 19 June – 24 July 2013 at Macquarie University Art Gallery, Building E11A. Tel: 02 9850 7437

For more information (and location details): http://www.mq.edu.au/on_campus/museums_and_collections/art_gallery/about_us/

Colloquium event: Touching History

A most unusual partnership has allowed Dr Jaye McKenzie-Clark (Department of Ancient History) and Professor John Magnussen (Australian School of Advanced Medicine) to combine expertise in ancient artefacts with modern medical imaging and transform the field of non-destructive analysis of ancient pottery, take priceless artefacts out of the cabinet and into the hands of children and adults alike as well as to see inside sealed messages hidden from view for up to 5000 years.

Come and listen to a fascinating talk about just how amazing the results can be when serendipity strikes and some of the oldest technology and writing in history is combined with the newest techniques in modern medicine.

Colloquium event: Touching History, presented by Dr Jaye McKenzie-Clark and Professor John Magnussen

Date: 29 May 2013
Time: 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Location: Building C10A (Campus Hub), Level 3, Macquarie University

RSVP TODAY to secure your place! Register online at https://secureau.imodules.com/s/1404/index.aspx?sid=1404&gid=1&pgid=806&cid=1925

Registrations open at 6pm, speakers will present from 6:30pm, followed by a Q&A session from 7:20pm. Guests are welcomed to stay on for coffee and tea until 8pm.

RSVP: Thursday 23 May – Please register online to secure your booking. Places are strictly limited.

Parking: Casual parking is available in car parks X3 and X4. Parking rates apply. More information about parking and other transport information can be found here.