Monthly museum news from the University of Sydney
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Last week began with cheery building inductions and lots of hand sanitiser as the Chau Chak Wing Museum team officially moved into the new building! With 18 exhibitions to install, the massive process of moving collection objects into the museum has begun and you can follow our progress on Instagram and Twitter. This month we have a new podcast episode out and look forward to seeing you at our first online event. Though we can't be healed at the Asclepeion, we hope our collection item of the month offers a connection to the ancients during testing times.
Moving in to the new museum
Chau Chak Wing Museum team members share their experiences after one week of working in the new building.
Online event: From Pompeii to Tharros
Wednesday 9 September, 8pm
Join Associate Professor Steven Ellis from the University of Cincinnati for a discussion on finding new ways to excavate and understand the making of Roman urban neighbourhoods.
Where's Woodhouse?
Our ‘citizen archiving’ project has yielded 600+ responses from all over the world, helping to identifying locations in Greece within photographs taken by renowned classicist William Woodhouse.
Object Matters podcast: Episode 4
Senior Curator of the University Art Collection, Dr Ann Stephen introduces the life and work of JW Power through Femme à L’ombrelle, a painting showcasing his unique abstract surrealist style.
Case by historic case
The historic cabinets from the former Macleay Museum are being restored and repurposed for a new lease on life in the Chau Chak Wing Museum.
Other news
– The Student (1953) by Tom Bass was recently installed outside the new museum
– Vale John Schaeffer AO (1941–2020): read Professor Mark Ledbury's tribute
– The Power Institute launched a new lecture series: IMAGE COMPLEX
– Candace Richards spoke to ABC's Radio National about her citizen archive project
Collection item of the month
View of the Asclepeion on the Acropolis in Athens
Given current circumstances in Australia and worldwide, we thought it timely to share this photograph of the Asclepeion on the Acropolis in Athens (c.1890s-1910), taken by former Nicholson Museum curator Professor William Woodhouse.
Asclepeions were ancient Greek healing temples dedicated to Asclepius, the god of medicine. Unwell visitors would come to the temple complex with offerings and make sacrifices to the god or could stay overnight to be healed in dreams or even by the snakes sacred to the god.
Stay safe everyone!
Image details (in order of appearance)
1. Banner image: JW Power, Femme à L’ombrelle (detail), c. 1926, oil on canvas 130 x 79 cm, JW Power collection, University of Sydney, managed by Museum of Contemporary Art, Edith Power bequest 1961, PW1961.8.
2. Staircases within the Chau Chak Wing Museum
3. Excavations at Tharros, Sardinia. Photo: Steven Ellis.
4. Historic photograph of Syntagma Square, in the centre of Athens, taken at the turn of the 20th century by William Woodhouse. Nicholson Collection, Chau Chak Wing Museum, NM2007.14.3.
5. JW Power, Femme à L’ombrelle, c. 1926, oil on canvas 130 x 79 cm, JW Power collection, University of Sydney, managed by Museum of Contemporary Art, Edith Power bequest 1961, PW1961.8.
6. The historic Macleay cases.
7. Installation of Tom Bass's The Student (1953), outside the Chau Chak Wing Museum.
8. Historic photograph of the Asclepeion on the Acropolis in Athens (c.1890s-1910), glass-plate negative. Photographer: William Woodhouse. Nicholson Collection, Chau Chak Wing Museum, NM2007.80.4
