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Documentation of the process and works of the 'Collective Insites' project in Maryborough, Queensland. The project brought together artists and museums in an innovative approach to working with collections. Also availble as an e-book on Kindle.

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CREATIVE HISTORY

The ‘Collective Insites’ Project

A project that brings together artists and museums

By Judy Barrass

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Copyright 2011

Judy Barrass

[email protected]

www.creativehistories.com

Cover Image: Work in Progress by Susan Hutton

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‘Collective Insites’ A project that brings together artists and museums

Collaborations between historical collections and artists are not new, although very few have taken place in a regional context where small museums often make a significant contribution to the cultural and economic fabric of the community. In 2010, a new Australian, regional gallery, in Maryborough, Queensland, ‘Gatakers Artspace’, received funding for a project that sought to stimulate audience engagement and interest in local museums through innovative approaches to interpreting and examining their collections. Maryborough is one of the oldest settlements in Queensland and has more museums than any other regional town in Queensland. It is sited inland from a major coastal tourism destination and its historical collections play a large part in attracting visitors to the town.

The project was funded by the region’s Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF), a partnership between the local Fraser Coast Council and the Queensland Government. RADF funding allowed the gallery to engage a curator to oversee the project and pay a very modest sum to participating artists. RADF funding was augmented by a small contribution from local industry, Downer EDI, many hours of volunteer support, and input from the Regional Museums Development Officer.

The ‘Collective Insites’ project positioned local museums as a place of relevance to contemporary culture and local community. Over several months five regional artists worked with five historical collections towards a series of exhibitions held in the gallery from May to August in 2011.

The project provides a model for collaborations between artists, galleries, and historical collections in regional areas, and gives an insight into how creative approaches can invigorate the interface between museums and their audience. It brought various elements in the community together in a shared project that forged strong connections between local cultural institutions, and between those institutions and the community. The creative capital of local artists was applied to invigorating and strengthening these connections and enhancing the economic potential of a tourism activity.

In the process all benefitted. Regional artists were given an opportunity to participate in a major project. The new gallery space developed a presence and demonstrated how it can contribute to the shared culture of the region. The museums developed new and expanded audiences, and the community was engaged in the project. There are economic benefits from increased visitation and from the publicity the project brings for the museums, the gallery and the town. ‘Collective Insites’ is also an excellent example of how small amounts of seed funding for creative projects can bring about positive results that ripple across many sectors of the community, providing a base for further development. At a time when both art galleries and museums are moving away from being mere repositories of material objects, to a broader role of engagement and communication, creative approaches developed by artists can enliven experiences and develop new ways of reaching audiences. Artists are used to dealing in concepts and ideas, used to questioning, commenting and seeking fresh approaches. While the primary focus of this project has been interaction between the artists and individual collections, it has also been about the forging of new relationships and repositioning the role of cultural institutions in the community. In this project Gatakers Artspace chose to redraw the boundaries between art, gallery, and heritage, museum, adding to and enriching the cultural mix in Maryborough.

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Making in Happen

The Name

The ‘Collective Insites’ project is about artists interacting with historical collections. They worked on-site at musuems and storage spaces gathering information and developing their own insights into the collections and the places that house them.

The Curator

The role of curator is important in ensuring the project as a whole is given prominence and recognition, that it develops a strong profile in its own right, independent of individual artists.

In regional projects the role of a curator is often pivotal to the successful adoption of innovative approaches and developing exhibitions of high standard. A curator allows gallery staff to operate at arm’s length from some of the crucial decision making which can create waves in small communities. A curator can also be invaluable in adding to the resource base of regional galleries which often have minimal staff resources and rely on the goodwill of volunteers for many tasks.

The Curator engaged to provide direction for ‘Collective Insites’ , Judy Barrass, is an artist with an interest in the role place and objects play in understanding and culture. Much of her work has focused on place, from bodies of works developed at specific sites such as Hill End in NSW, Carisbrooke Station in far Western Queensland, Cataract Gorge in Tasmania, and Murray Bay in Queensland, to many individual works based on her home place, the Sunshine Coast. In 2008 she led a project with Aboriginal women from Arilla Paper in Mount Isa, and in 2009 was commissioned by Ipswich Gallery to produce artworks interpreting the historic house ‘ Rockton’. Judy was also instrumental in developing working relationships between Sunshine Coast artists and the Noosa Shire Museum in Pomona, and has curated a diverse range of exhibitions in regional contexts.

Engaging a curator also supports the professional development of regional artists who have limited access to workshops and expert mentoring. Judy’s first meeting with the five selected artists included a two day workshop introducing the historical context and the many ways artists might interact with collections. They were introduced to the context of the project through a quick tour of the works of artists such as Fred Williams, Christian Boltansky, Andy Warhol and many more.

Throughout the project the curator worked with the artists, expecting a high standard and helping them to develop a strong conceptual base to their work and a professional approach to documentation and presentation.

Judy Barrass (second from left) with artists Peta Duggan, Niels Ellmoos and Christine Turner

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The Expert Consultant

The museums included in the project were selected by Museum Development Officer, Fiona Mohr. As a member of staff of Queensland Museum her role takes her into close contact with museums and heritage collections in this region, and her familiarity with the collections ensured there was an interesting and diverse mix included in the project. Fiona acted as a consultant to the project, attending all artist meetings, facilitating communication with museums, procuring corporate sponsorship, and generally adding her knowledge and support to the project. At the first workshop she not only introduced the artists to the museums, but gave an overview of various museum practices and approaches to heritage collections. At a time when art and heritage are increasingly coming together into one management basket under the heading of ‘culture’, Fiona’s role in this project bridged the gap between traditional museum and collection strategies and a new approach that sees interaction and innovation as important.

Artist Susan Hutton with Fiona Mohr

The Gallery

Gatakers Artspace is a new community facility housed in a converted two story warehouse building in the Wharf precinct in Maryborough. The precinct contains many beautiful old buildings, tourist and recreational facilities, and two museums. Close to both the centre of town and the beautiful Mary River, it’s a place that invites people to wander and relax, and the perfect setting for this project. Trevor Spohr, Community Cultural Officer with the local Fraser Coast Council, was the gallery’s face on the project. His role was multifaceted, from organizing the details of gallery allocation, meeting venues, budgets and contracts, helping select and communicate with artists, organizing transport , gaining access to collections, helping build installations, and generally keeping everything running smoothly.

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In regional areas gallery staff are often expected to perform a multitude of tasks from cleaning to making management decisions. Trevor took on everything from dragging an old mangle through the dirt and helping to build installations to greeting the visiting dignitaries with a smile on his face. Without such ingenuity and flexibility it would be difficult for small, sparingly funded galleries to take on a project such as this. Gatakers Artspace is also supported by a team of multi-skilled volunteers who work quietly in the background to make things happen and take pride in the achievements of their local gallery. Many tasks such as lighting and some of the more difficult elements of installation were undertaken by volunteers.

Selecting the Artists

Expressions of interest were called for in local newspapers and arts lists, and five artists were chosen by a selection panel headed by the Curator, Judy Barrass. Judy was particularly keen to include an emerging artist and artists working in non-traditional art forms such as new media, digital imagery, and mixed media installation. The selection committee was also mindful of the museums and chose artists they thought would make interesting matches with particular collections. The committee deliberately chose artists with varying levels of experience who were working in a variety of mediums. Each artist brought their own skills, biases, interpretations and personality to the project, and there was as much to gain from interaction between individual artists as with the curator.

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Marketing, Documentation, and Catalogue

Marketing and documentation is an important aspect of projects that seek to reposition community attitudes and establish new connections. The progress of the project was documented in a regularly updated blog,

supported by the use of other social media such as Flickr, Place Stories, Facebook and ABC Pool. Regular press releases ensured the interest of the local community throughout the project.

Documentation is also important as this project is not just a regional project, but part of a continuum of change in the way galleries and museums approach their roles and their audiences.

The blog documenting the project can be found at http://creativehistories.com.

Local industry Downer EDI provided sponsorship that allowed a creative approach to designing the exhibition catalogue.

The project team wanted to have a lasting, unique product that could be a signature for the project, even after the exhibition closed. The exhibition catalogue consists of five artist cards, a museum card, and a funky, fold-out booklet with the catalogue essay, all housed in a translucent vellum envelope. It’s an attractive and desirable package both as a keepsake and a tool that can be used in many contexts by the gallery. Catalogues can be ordered from Gatakers Artspace, 311 Kent Street, Maryborough, Queensland, Australia.

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The Collections, the Artists, and their Work

Brennan and Geraghty’s Store

Brennan and Geraghty’s Store Museum and Artist David Hodges Brennan and Geraghty’s Store was a general merchandise and grocery store that was operated by one family from 1871 - 1972. The National Trust acquired the shop complete with contents which are displayed on the shelves. The interior is quite intact and is typical of many similar stores that were once located throughout Queensland. Contents range from unsold stock from the 1890's to 1920's advertising material. New media artist David Hodges’ reaction to Brennan and Geraghty’s store was immediate and enthusiastic. Rather than making comment on the collection he chose to augment and restate its existing message. David’s interactive, digital recreations of objects from the store offer a new way for audiences to engage with the museum. His objective was to work collaboratively with museum curator Ken Brooks to restate the museum message to reach a younger, more tech-savvy age group. The partnership that grew out of the project has a lasting resource for the store, which David has generously donated to the owners, The National Trust of Queensland.

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David’s final installation in the exhibition space was a strange and enigmatic structure built of old wooden electoral booths, which was immediately christened ‘the tardis’ by the other artists. A touch screen was built into one wall of the structure, and slits with ornate, gilt frames invited the audience to look into the interior where the contents of the screen were projected in large scale.

The touch screen operated a new media work by David. Objects from the store, built with digital 3D modeling were introduced by a ghost from the past. The ghost (Ken Brooks in period costume as a storekeeper) told the story of each piece which then expanded, rotated and vanished in a puff of smoke.

The glorious (and somewhat tongue-in-cheek) mix of the worn patina of the wooden electoral booths and the ornate guilt frames made the audience instantly comfortable about interacting with and a very professionally built new media work.

David’s work in the project is a perfect example of how a small amount of funding for a worthwhile project can produce a community benefit way beyond the price paid. The many, many hours he put into the project, his own investment in hardware and software, and the injection of his technical expertise into the interpretation of Brennan and Geraghty’s Store has resulted in a lasting resource now owned by the National Trust.

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Maryborough Military and Colonial Museum and Artist Peta Duggan

The Maryborough Military and Colonial Museum, housed in a warehouse building dating back to 1879, has over 4000 items of military memorabilia, as well as items from Australia’s colonial past. It is one of the most admired and respected private military collections in the country, and is supported by a team of very dedicated volunteers. The emphasis is on high quality displays of military history and exhibits include 3 Victoria Crosses, a Cross of Valour, many other significant medals, uniforms and period costumes as well as historic vehicles and scale models of ships and planes. Artworks in the collection include trench art, paintings, murals, wood sculpture and relief carving. Pianists entertain visitors with everything from old wartime favourites to jazz and recent popular music. A very extensive library, primarily of Australian and NZ military history, rounds out the collection. The project inserted vibrant, outspoken, young, emerging artist Peta Duggan into this rather conservative institution. It’s a great credit to all involved, both the artist and the museum, that tolerance and understanding made it a fruitful relationship.

Peta Duggan works across a variety of disciplines, including digital. Her strong pacifist principles made interacting with this collection a personal journey that sometimes evoked strong emotions, uncertainties, and

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mixed feelings. At times the desire to respect and honor the museum and its custodians was at odds with her immediate reactions and long held beliefs. To overcome these concerns Peta chose to create a fictitious historical military collection that exists in the future. She says ‘it would have been easy to make art where allegiance and patriotism are clearly defined, but the way my brain kept questioning and interpreting the museum’s stories and objects shows they can evoke many complex and ethical questions.’

Peta’s richly layered digital imagery recontextualises the message of the museum, positioning it in a far less certain environment where truths are contested, assumptions are laid bare, and alternative points of view are allowed. The time capsule piece is safely positioned sometime in the distant future, allowing her to say what she wants about a possible future without offence to the past.

Her work for the final exhibition consisted of sculpture, a time capsule from the year 4100, and a series of 18 digital prints which depicted the contents of that capsule when it was opened in 4200.

Her artist statement concludes ‘as we look into the looking glass, our eyes translucent to reflect the past, live in our present, less we forget this future.’

‘Collective Insites’ is Peta’s first exhibition of printed works. She walked into the gallery to express her interest in the project with a folder of over 400 images of digital artworks on a CD. The project has been a fast learning curve for a young artist with considerable talent and enormous potential, but no experience of exhibiting to the public through a gallery. The way she has approached the interaction with the military museum showed she has considerable depth in her conceptual thinking.

The very professional end results of Peta’s involvement show that, given a chance, some guidance and a little funding, young emerging artists have a great deal to gain from being part of curated project. The sort of experience Peta has gained form working alongside established artists, with a professional curator, has given her a rare opportunity to develop her art career, and access to professional development that will be invaluable to her in the future.

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Peta Duggan’s Time Capsule from 4100

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Mavis Bank and Artist Christine Turner

Mavis Bank is a private home that houses the extensive collection of the owners. It is both their home, and a museum open to the public. The focus is domestic and eclectic, including furniture, bric-a-brac and various implements of domestic life in the period from the late 19

th to early 20

th Century. The objects are not arranged

in any order, nor are they labelled. There are no locked glass cabinets. Visitors are able and encouraged to use and handle the collection. It is very much like visiting a cottage from the past as a social visitor, rather than as an audience to a static display.

Christine Turner used her interaction with the collection at Mavis Bank to reiterate themes she has previously explored in her work. She uses household objects from the past to represent the role of the ‘domestic goddess’ or Mother figure.

The rich and eclectic Mavis Bank collection provided ample fodder for Christine to continue to explore the intersections between the public and private faces of women, between the relentless drudgery of household chores and the refinement of the parlour; between the reality and the romanticised goddess. Christine’s work draws our attention to these unstated tensions and untold stories in the everyday objects in the collection.

Christine says ‘(the owners) immense knowledge and love of the collection reinserts the dimension of humanity into a history that has been narrowly accepted. It is the human touch one finds at Mavis Bank that sets it apart from other types of collections.”

Her work for the exhibition can be described as ‘object interventions’. She transported three large items from the collection to the gallery to be transformed into artworks that speak of the extremes in the lives of our mothers and grandmothers, of the tension between manual drudgery and gentle refinement, and the many roles of women.

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‘The machines from Mavis Bank speak of drudgery and domesticity, but they also speak of duty, loyalty, steadfastness, duty and honour …………………..’

By intervening in those stories with crisp, delicate, white lace Christine’s works also speak of the dichotomies in the role of women, the tension between the parlour and the reality of women’s lives.

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Her installation using the old washer resembles the many images we have seen of brides trailing lace as they are led down the aisle. The work ‘Mother’ is embroidered on the centerpiece of the backdrop, reminding us of yet another role of women that embodies many sometimes conflicting roles.

An old mangle from Mavis Bank became a printing press spewing forth a digital stream of creativity inspired by the collection and the lives of its owners. The machines come alive, representing more than the simple tasks of their past lives.

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Maryborough, Wide Bay and Burnett Historical Society and Artist Susan Hutton

Maryborough Historical Society is housed in the magnificent old School of Arts building in the main street of Maryborough. The building itself is beautiful and awe inspiring. The original School of Arts library still occupies the mezzanine floor and exerts its influence over the space.

The Historical Society collection is a mixed bag of many objects from many lives, sites, and organisations in Maryborough’s long past. There is some attempt at grouping and interpretation, but overall the impression is of a great clutter of interesting and delightful pieces, labels, and cabinets of curiosities, all clamouring for attention. The organisation is run by an enthusiastic and dedicated group of volunteers.

Artist Susan Hutton is acutely aware that what many perceive as the long history of Maryborough is but a moment in the story of an ancient land. Such perception heightens her awareness of the ephemeral nature of things. She sees objects in the museum as having only a fleeting ‘presence’ that fades with time, until meaning is lost and they become relics.

Susan’s Artist Statement says:

‘ Our memories are housed along the backstreets of our minds, where a door can be blown open by an aroma

on the wind, a sudden sound or passing image. It’s impossible for us to let go of this collection in the museum

of the mind. A more tangible collection of objects and words has been preserved in Maryborough’s beautiful

School of Arts building which is able still to impose its presence in the daily life of the town. Being the original

library for the town its head is full of books, up along the mezzanine level above the Historical Societies

collection. Recorded past thoughts interests discoveries rest on pages worn silken to the touch leather bound,

some still relevant to today some not? Words, inscriptions gold lettering, standing close together -a paper army

still standing at attention.

(The museum is home to) ..a selection of objects which in their past had a part to play in daily domestic

dramas, chosen, given, handled, useful, now superseded or simply unfashionable and subsequently discarded.

Even tattered or dysfunctional some survive. Preserved in the museum, it is this wear from use that gives them

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credence. Under glass, out of context, out of time, the object in the museum provides visual clues motivating

visitors to conjure up a picture of the past around the memories it evokes, both real and imagined.’

Susan’s interest in how objects came to be in the museum and the nature of the memories they hold led her to

focus on several individual items in the collection. She chose five objects from the collection to recreate in

clay. ‘They would at one time have been commonplace, treasured or practical. Now rare and unfamiliar, they

sit in the museum, out of the ordinary, outside of time, vaguely exotic.

The objects, a pin cushion, ladies pipe, serviette holder, needle case and the rather comical porcelain cat with

it’s open mouth stuffed with wet sponge for moistening stamps, all once played a part in the routine domestic

life of some household. Now sculptured in white clay, stripped of their colour, like old bones, ghost tracings of

the originals, they sit apart and solitary on large pedestals. The only colour being the sepia prints like small

doorways at the base of each pedestal. The whiteness lends a stillness, allows closure.’

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Susan’s ceramic objects retain their shape but are bleached of colour and pattern suggesting a withdrawal from the procession of time. In isolating, recreating and repositioning these objects from the collection she makes reference to museum practices of chosing, collecting and displaying objects from the past, preserved on a pedestal but divorced from the life where they once played an active part as treasured or practical objects.

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Maryborough’s Industrial Past and Artist Niels Ellmoos Maryborough played a significant role in the development of Queensland and an important role in the industrial development of the state. Indeed, its industrial history is perhaps its most important and interesting story. Almost anyone who has a connection with Maryborough’s past remembers the now defunct ‘Walkers’ factory and its importance in the town, and the workers riding bicycles through the town at the end of their shifts. The industrial tradition continues today with Downer EDI taking the place of Walkers in the town. It is surprising then that this industrial past is not more prominent in the local museums preserving the town’s heritage. While many of the collections include references and some objects, and a small out-of-the way museum shows items from the Croydon foundry, there is no dedicated collection telling the story of Maryborough’s significant industrial heritage. A large collection of objects and moulds from Walkers and other industrial sites is owned by the local council, but it is kept in storage and difficult to access. A small part of that collection of moulds is on show in the basement of the Bond Store, a tourist facility in the wharf precinct. Artist Niels Ellmoos was asked to interact with the collection of wooden patterns once used by Walkers, the engineering firm that has played a significant part in Maryborough’s history. The patterns were replicas of objects to be cast in metal, many of them large parts for boats, machinery or rolling stock. The wood of the patterns has a patina of age and use, and they are in themselves attractive sculptural objects. Niels says in his artist statement: ‘It was my challenge not only to re-interpret the collection, but also to explore the tension between entertainment and education relating to a museum collection in an art gallery space, a theme I have been exploring for some time. A central concern of my art is to show how time and images construct our relationship to the world around us. In re-interpreting the patterns I intended to explore aspects of the industrial history related to them, the kind of industry they represented and, as artefacts, how they had a voice from the past. My intention was to inject a sense of history, disjuncture, humour and absence into a multi faceted installation of seemingly disparate elements of media. ‘ In the early part of the project Niels worked in Gatakers Artspace as an artist in residence, completing a massive large scale charcoal drawing that formed a spectacular centrepiece for his final installation. Incorporating the drama of human intervention, it is interwoven with the energy of the foundry activities, reflecting an interplay of chaos and order.

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Some of the collection of Walker’s patterns had been recently moved due to flooding, and this aspect of ‘portability’ provided a departure point for the second part of Niel’s installation. The idea of a portable or traveling museum became the ‘framework’ for a series of rough timber transport palettes, presented as a microcosm of museum space that theoretically could be moved from place to place and re-assembled in various ways. Each of the pallets was a small museum in its own right, complete with displayed objects and underlying stories.

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The third element of Niel’s installation, a documentary digital movie loop of a 1950’s industrial training film, draws attention away from fascination with the sculptural and aesthetic qualities of the patterns by making direct reference to a utilitarian, industrial past.

Niels’use of several different mediums within the same installation explores the concept of collage in a new context. Each of the elements in the installation fits together to make a whole. The installation was a sophisticated and complex work that can be understood on many levels. It made use of seemingly simple techniques to tell a multi layered story and awry sense of humour is not far from the surface. Niels has remarked that ‘in a sense the small community museums that are dotted throughout Australia, and the rest of the world, are a modern version of a localised Cabinet of Curiosities, reflecting a community’s identity and history - usually as a pastiche rather than in encyclopaedic order.’ Perhaps it is perhaps a reflection of our own values and preferences that few of these small museums focus on preserving the stories of industry.The importance of telling the stories of Maryborough’s industrial past was demonstrated by the warmth and genuine pleasure many long term residents took in seeing this work in the gallery. In the end it doesn’t matter if it is art or history, or whether it is presented in a museum or a gallery space, the project has achieved its aim of reinvigorating the space between a collection and the audience. Niel’s involvement in the project highlights the sometimes serendipitous relationships that make for success. It just happens that Niels, an artist who had completed his doctorate in Tasmania focusing on the industrial past of that state’s west coast, had recently moved to the region. His involvement in the project and his willingness to engage with the local community through his residency and his work, has added a depth and an understanding of what he terms ‘industrial archeology’ that speaks to a diverse audience.

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The Exhibition

‘Collective’ Insites’ was not meant to be a collaborative exhibition. The selection committee deliberately chose artists with differing backgrounds working a range of mediums. Each of the artists worked individually with their allocated collection, coming together through the curator and shared organization and meetings, and the final works represented a very personal approach to the project rather than a shared vision. Designing a group exhibition of divergent works is often not easy. There is a fine balance between the aesthetics and vision of the exhibition as a whole and the need to do justice to individual artist’s works. The curator was mindful of the issues, and to ensure a balance, in the initial stages sought to guide artists in particular paths in their choice of medium and approach.

A progress meeting several months into the project gave everyone an insight into what sort of works were being produced and the ways they might interact in the gallery. An initial exhibition plan was developed at that meeting, subject to change if it became necessary during the hanging process. The final exhibition mirrors this initial plan that sought to not crowd the gallery, separate individual artist’s work, and juxtapose each element in a way that brought balance to the space. Installation was an arduous task made easier by the ingenuity and help of gallery staff and volunteers and the willingness of local businesses to be cooperative. Hanging an exhibition is never easy, and working with objects borrowed from historical collections can present problems not encountered in normal art exhibitions (How do you put an old mangle back together after it has been transported to the gallery?). Some of the installations required carpentry and technical expertise, and it took Niels Ellmoos almost a whole day to sugar-coat one of his portable museums.

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It all came together only hours before the opening. The calm gallery spaces presented to audiences are often in stark contrast to the days and hours of frantic and chaotic activity that goes into putting an exhibition together.

A record crowd attended the opening and listened to Jenny Galligan from Arts Queensland open the exhibition. An education programme for local schools was prepared by the education officer from a gallery in a nearly town and a public programme of artist talks was scheduled. Collective Insites’ has been an important signature project for a new gallery in a regional area. The standard of work and of presentation was very high. The inclusion of digital and new media works was an important element in meeting the policy directions of state and local government policy making organisations . The project has not been just about staging an exhibition. It has been about innovation, strengthening the ties between heritage and art, and developing the profile of the new gallery. It has met all these criteria. In the final analysis it has been a great success for all involved. Many people have contributed to this success and the community, the gallery and the organisations involved have reaped a rich reward for the small amount of seed funding that made the project a reality. Maryborough is an ideal place to continue to explore the intersection between art and heritage, between gallery and museum. Its many museums and historical buildings, and its significant role in the history of Queensland is an opportunity to build a reputation as a place of innovation in this area. The gallery now has an opportunity to build on the capital established by ‘Collective Insites’.

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The author Judy Barrass is an Australian artist who uses place and identity as the conceptual basis for many of her works. More information and contact details can be found on her website

http://www.judybarrass.com Judy has worked on a number of projects the explore the interface between history and art and museum and gallery. Her Creative

Histories website and the Creative History e-book series have been established to document these projects.

The Collective Insites Project is documented on the Creative Histories blog at

www.creativehistories.com Links on the blogsite will take you to artist pages, images, and further information about the project.

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