The next time you hear from us we will have moved into our new offices in the Chau Chak Wing Museum! We've been getting all of our exhibition objects ready for installation, while sorting through 20+ years of archives, books and endless ephemera. This month Craig Barker interviews art historian Dr Ann Elias about her fascination with historic photographs of the natural world and we look at the different ways First Nations cultures are at the core of our new museum. If you like the sci-fi style image above of the museum's skylight, you might like to follow us on Instagram where we're sharing our favourite images of the new building,
details of upcoming exhibitions and more!
Embedding First Nations principles in a new museumLearn how we are creating a safe space for learning, healing and celebrating the heritage of Australia’s First Peoples through community consultation on exhibition, building design and landscaping decisions.
Object Matters podcast: Episode 3Art historian Dr Ann Elias explores visual culture in an early 20th century aquarium, through an intriguing photograph of a grinning scallop.
The old and the newFor a short period in the early 1880s, two lighthouses stood on South Head in Sydney. Curator Jan Brazier shows us a photograph capturing their brief time in co-existence.
Response to the destruction at
Juukan GorgeDavid Ellis responds to the recent destruction of a culturally significant 46,000 year old site in the Pilbara, WA.
We're on Instagram!Follow us via @ccwm_sydney to see stories from our curators, behind the scenes news and stunning photos of our new building.
Membership benefitsAmong many other perks, Friends of the Nicholson Collection members now receive a 10% discount on short courses at the University’s Centre for Continuing Education.
Collection item of the month
Hiroshi Sugimoto, State Theatre, Sydney
Hiroshi Sugimoto’s 1997 photograph State Theatre, Sydney was the result of a question he had asked himself, "Suppose you shoot a whole movie in a single frame? ". The answer he came to was: "You get a shining screen. " Shot on a large format camera, the lens is opened at the start of film, and clicked shut at the end. The projected film is the only source of light. This image is part of a movie theatre series Sugimoto started in 1976. In NSW, cinemas are officially
allowed to re-open from today, 1 July, after being closed for 3 months. Sugimoto’s image is a reminder of the magic, transformative nature of the cinema, missed by many of us during lockdown!
Image details (in order of appearance)
1. Banner image: Chau Chak Wing Museum building detail, photo by Brett Boardman.
2. Curator Rebecca Conway talking to Director, Matjarra Garrawurra, Bula'bula Arts, Ramingining, 2017. Her mother, master weaver Julie Djulibing Malibirr is working in the background.
3. Mollusca - Pecten, Zoology Department Lantern Slide Collection, c. 1909-10. Photograph by Francis Ward.
4. Juukan Gorge after the Rio Tinto destruction.
5. Conservator Gemma Torra Campos working on an Egyptian tomb door, 664 BC - 525 BC.
6. Friends of the Nicholson Collection at the annual Nicholson Lecture.
7. Hiroshi Sugimoto, State Theatre, Sydney, 1997, gelatin silver print.
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