As I neared the end of my first degree, it became obvious that I'd missed an opportunity
Many of my friends at ANU were majoring in History and I began to realise the scope it provides.
My favourite major at the time was Cultural Studies (it was the 1990s!) and that subject was liberating for the breadth of analyses and interests, yet history encompasses all subjects.
"Everything exists in history," I said to my mates and it's a realisation that few seem to have noted.
(I recently googled the phrase and there was only one mention other than my own.)
Now that I work within a museum, I often wonder why more institutions don't act on the opportunities available to reflect this broad scope.
So yesterday I took the opportunity to present the Southern NSW Heritage Group with a survey of creative projects from around our region.
These are public outcomes that engage with history in various media, both inside and outside of museums.
I began with some context by outlining my background and interests, particularly a key lesson from my career working in public relations that human interest stories are effective and often affecting.
A lot of my work as a curator at Griffith Pioneer Park Museum involves putting a human face on history.
People can't help but look for faces and it will often bring into focus experiences as a way of giving context for an item.
My curating role is part-time and I shared with the Group that I consider myself a full-time creative who has achieved some recent success in writing.
This includes poetry and it's a style that provides an example of how writing in museums could be done differently.
There are many layers of meaning available in poetry and I often think back to this
quote from Harrison Young.(As an aside I noted that not many people have heard of Mr Young, who left the Board of the Commonwealth Bank and no longer gets mentioned in the Australian Financial Review for writing erotic fiction. I think the latter is great because everyone should have a creative outlet!)
One project that brought creative writing to regional museums was the Encounters program run by Orana Arts.
They recruited a group who were mentored by Ruth Little to produce a book that includes a range of styles, from an essay to poetry.
Ruth crammed a huge number of consideratons into our heads during a two-day workshop at Port Macquarie and the photo shown here was taken by project coordinator Andrew Glassop.
I thought it would be easy to write about Pioneer Park, having worked there for a couple of years, and my creative non-fiction piece led me back into the role of curator.
Another project I shared was Leeton Memories, which I developed for the not-for-profit organisation Red Earth Ecology.
We commissioned a series of oral history recordings and recruited Leeton-based artists (and writers) to interpret the conversations as displays in the local community op shop windows, which have an excellent location on the main street of town and faces the zebra crossing.
Shown here is Cynthia Arel, better known for her work as a designer for stage and screen, who interpreted the memories of Julie Maytom.
You can sorta see the sign in the lower left-hand corner that showed the QR code which linked to the recording of Julie.
I was surprised how often I'd pass the Leeton Memories displays and find people were listening to the recordings at these links, but it's clear that audiences are more familiar with this technology since COVID-19.
One other example of an artist working with local history is the work by my partner Jo Roberts called
"Geo/graphology," which was part of the
Ngurambang exhibition at Griffith Regional Art Gallery last year.
This used the
Cut-up Technique to investigate hidden histories, providing an interactive exhibit that blurred the line between artist and audience while gently questioning perspectives.
I gave couple of examples from my work at Pioneer Park, such as the current exhibition based around
Gugabul and my 2016 photographic exhibition to celebrate the Museum's 45th anniversary.
The latter presented images from the past in the present day locations around the Park's grounds and coincided with Griffith's centenary celebrations.
To conclude my presentation I gave a couple of examples from museums in our region, including the "Old is New..." project recently run by The Cad Factory at the Parkside Museum in Narrandera and the "Old:New" exhibition curated by Kate Allman at the Museum of the Riverina in 2020.
Kate made an observation that it can be a challenge for museums to engage audiences:
“Maybe we read a little about it and think about that object’s place in history but putting an artist’s perspective on it adds a different layer.
“It can make us think about some deeper themes, some deeper connections to history, and I think that’s what this exhibition does through the stories it tells us.”
It was fortuitous that on the morning of my presentation I read that people will spend "around 27 seconds" reading the information accompanying an exhibit.
And it was wonderful to be introduced at that time to this
cartoon by Lynda Barry that I quickly incorporated to conclude my presentation.
I think it shows a connection that can be rewarding when visiting an exhibition and believe this is something that curators should aspire to achieve.
There were lots of questions afterwards and I had an opportunity to tell the crowd from regional museums to "embrace the freak" when a weirdo like me comes along with an idea.
And, any artists reading this, please consider reaching out to your local history group as you might find it advantageous to have the support of an incorporated community group when preparing a funding application.
