Glasshouse Exhibition Wins Prestigious Imagine Award
Friday, 23 October 2009
One of the opening exhibitions at the Glasshouse has been awarded a prestigious Museums & Galleries IMAGinE Award for Excellence in Exhibitions.
At the awards ceremony in Sydney on Saturday the 17th, Black & White: Selections From the Thomas Dick Collection was recognized as the finest exhibition for 2009 curated by an organisation with six paid staff or less at the 2009 IMAGinE awards.
Gallery and museum representatives from across NSW and the ACT converged on the Australian National Maritime Museum in Darling Harbour for the presentation. Now in their second year, the awards celebrate the achievements of the museum and gallery sector in NSW and the ACT and those who work within it.
The award winning exhibition was developed by Liz Gillroy and John Heath of Port Macquarie Hastings Council's Community and Cultural Development section. The exhibition was a presentation of photographs taken by local man Thomas Dick in the early 1900s of local Aboriginal families, along with relevant artefacts from the Australian Museum collection. The exhibition was funded by Council and Arts NSW and supported by the Powerhouse Museum Regional Services and the Australian Museum. It was exhibited at the Glasshouse Arts, Conference and Entertainment Centre as one of the opening exhibitions in the new gallery space when the centre opened in July of this year.
"The judges were impressed with the extensive partnerships formed to develop the exhibition including family stakeholders of the photographer and the Aboriginal people appearing in the photos and international and nation collecting institutions," says Ms Gillroy. "Thanks and acknowledgement must be extended to the families involved - the Dick, Budge, Morcom, Dungay, Bugg and Murray families who were part of the exhibition development as well as the Birpai and Bunyah Local Land Councils."
The involvement of the Aboriginal community continued in the design of the graphics and catalogue and the exhibition layout. A series of public programs and education workshops ran in association with the exhibition. The exhibition and sessions placed the photographs into a wider context of social and historical moments which assists in broadening the understanding of their significance & places them as a reflection of their time.
Through support of the Powerhouse Museum Regional Services work will continue with the stakeholders to create a process of classifications & protocols around the use of the images from this collection. The project has also been used as best practice in the Collections Council of Australia publication Significance 2.0, demonstrating Aboriginal engagement to shape interpretation, inform different perspectives and show respect which may change or add to the significance of the collection. Funding is now being sought to tour the exhibition throughout Australia to other museums and galleries.
