Australia Council for the Arts

The Australia Council for the Arts is the Australian Government’s arts funding and advisory body.   The Ewing and George Paton Gallery Archive contains applications and Annual Reports to the Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council from the years 1973-1990.   The first Australia Council grant round was held in 1973 and the Ewing received $3,000 towards its 1974 program.    Generous funding was received every year from the Australia Council until 1989.  The funding received had increased to $14,000 by 1989.  Recipients of grants were required to provide a grant acquittal report at the end of their funded activity, this greatly improved the quality of documentation for exhibitions from 1974 onwards and preserving the history of the galleries’ activities that are now accessible through University of Melbourne Archives. The reports on  the Ewing and George Paton Galleries’ exhibition and related activities programmes include catalogues, invitations, posters, photographs, reviews, publications and more.

The Australia Council for the Arts continues to offer a broad range of grants for Australian artists and arts organisations.  In 2010–11, they invested over $163 million in artists and arts organisations to support Australian artists in making art for Australian and international audiences.  West Space, a Melbourne based non-profit artist-led gallery was fortunate to secure the Visual Arts Key Organisations Multi-Year 2012-2015 grant for $200,450.00.  West Space relocated to a substantially larger space in a more central location in mid 2011, enabling them to radically expand their artistic programming.  This funding no doubt has contributed to West Space reducing exhibition fees by 25% in 2013.  West Space have a long-held ambition for the organisation to remove fees,  and see this as an exciting step towards their goal.

As a result of the relationship between the Ewing and George Paton Galleries and the Australia Council for the Arts, the archive holds many records documenting this interaction.  These include: correspondence, reports, programmes and more.

Through the financial assistance and support of the Australia Council for the Arts, many artists and art organisations are able to operate, develop and flourish, reaching new audiences and contributing to the progressive arts and culture sector both within Australia and internationally.

University of Melbourne George Paton Gallery collection 1990.0144

http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/home

 http://westspace.org.au/

Peter Cripps

Image: Peter Cripps (right), “Freon”, 1972, angle iron, cast aluminium, canvas, stainless steel and rope. Peter Cole (left), “Untitled”, 1974. Image from the ‘Ewing Gallery Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition’ catalogue, 1974. University of Melbourne Archives, George Paton Gallery collection 1990.0144, Unit 31. Photograph: Suzanne Davies. (Courtesy, Suzanne Davies).

Acclaimed Australian artist, curator, gallery director and academic Peter Cripps was associated with The Ewing and George Paton galleries from their earliest days. Today Cripps is represented by the Anna Schwartz Gallery in Melbourne and has an extensive career in exhibiting and curating. His work  is in many collections such as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australian National Gallery, Canberra and most State galleries in Australia.  The Ewing and George Paton Gallery helped launch Peter Cripps’ career in the 1970’s when he participated in and curated numerous group and solo exhibitions.

The Ewing and George Paton Galleries collection contains correspondence with gallery directors, exhibition catalogues, essays, posters, photographs and slides.  Correspondence with directors Kiffy Rubbo and Meredith Rogers in the 1970’s illustrates Cripps’ enthusiasm and professionalism for his career; the warm, intimate, and often humorous exchanges he had with these women indicate his deep involvement and support for both counter-culture and the gallery.

Cementing his stature as a significant Australian artist  Peter Cripps is included in the fantastic Less is More, group exhibition at Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, exploring the late modernist movements of Minimal and Post-Minimal art from the 1960s until now. The exhibition includes works by over 30 Australian artists alongside key American Minimal works by Donald Judd, Dan Flavin and others.

Less is More currently showing at Heide Museum of Modern Art until 4 November 2012.

The George Paton Gallery Archive is currently being listed for online, searchable access early in 2013.  See University of Melbourne Archives Catalogue, and Home page for more information.

Peter Cripps is represented by Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne

Pat Brassington and Juliana Engberg

Image: Catalogue cover, ‘Feminist Narratives’, 4 June 1987-24 June 1987. Curator: Juliana Engberg. Published by the George Paton Gallery, 1987. University of Melbourne Archives, George Paton Gallery Collection 1990.0144, Unit 31.

Currently exhibiting at Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), Melbourne, is a survey of one of Australia’s most important and influential photo-based artists, Pat Brassington.

Early in her 30 years of practice, Brassington exhibited in two different group shows at the George Paton Gallery :  Feminist Narratives in June 1987 and Fabrications: Recent Contemporary Art From Tasmania in September 1987 

The George Paton Gallery Collection at the University of Melbourne Archives contains records from both of these exhibitions including correspondence, exhibition catalogues, essays, invitations, reviews, photographs and slides. Brassington’s work is a playful manipulation of imagery, predominantly bodily, altering reality to create a world more interesting, one that is at once eerily dark and mysterious, and pure and beautiful.  No matter the technique, using analogue photography and collage in the 1980′s and now digitally aided manipulation, she is a master of her tool creating seamless juxtapositions and mutations, their illusionary magnificence evoking a state of unconsciousness.

Artistic director for Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Juliana Engberg, was director of the George Paton Gallery at the time of these exhibitions and curated both.  Fabrications: Recent Contemporary Art From Tasmania was curated as part of the Chameleon Galleries, Hobart, Curator in Residence Program where Engberg presumably began her artistic relationship with Brassington.  Engberg was Assistant Director of the George Paton Gallery from 1984  to 1985, then Director from 1986 until the beginning of 1990. During this time she curated many exhibitions,  coordinated lecture series and presentations from local and international speakers, and started the art magazine, ‘Agenda: Contemporary Art’.

Twenty five years after  Brassington’s and Engberg’s  first project together Pat Brassington’s wonderful exhibition at ACCA can be viewed as a celebration of both women’s careers and achievements and their outstanding contribution to the Arts in Melbourne and Australia.

Pat Brassington, A Rebours currently showing at ACCA, running until 23 September 2012.

The George Paton Gallery Archive is currently being listed for online, searchable access early in 2013.  See University of Melbourne Archives Catalogue,  and Home page  for more information.

Thomas Bibby Guest

Thomas Bibby Guest arrived in Sydney in 1852. By May 1856 he  had established a steam biscuit factory in Melbourne in partnership with John Barnes, trading as Barnes, Guest & Co. The firm began the manufacture of ship and fancy biscuits in a building in William Street and by 1858 the firm reorganised as TB Guest & Co. With continuing expansion of the business, a store was built at the William Street site in 1869. Following a fire, the factory was rebuilt and served as Guest’s factory until 1932 when the business moved to West Melbourne. In 1963 Arnott Guest Pty Ltd was created following a merger with another biscuit company.

Samuel Thomas Gill was commissioned by the architect to paint a representation of the second William Street building. Gill is best known for his lithographs of Victorian gold-diggings, but he was often commissioned by architects as he was capable of embellishing a perspective view of a building. This painting exemplifies his style with its solid architectural depiction and the spirited but somewhat naïve figures, animals and carriages.

While Gill’s artistry depicts the prosperity of the company, the stories found within the company records allow a vastly different insight into the working conditions of female industrial workers and working class conditions in general during the late 19th century.

Melbourne’s Maritime History Revealed

From the Duke’s and Orr’s Amalgamated Dry Docks Ltd collection, no date, item 1972.0042.0110, unit 59, University of Melbourne Archives

Living in modern times where advanced aviation technology has made travelling overseas and the transport of goods an efficient and relatively effortless process, it is easy to forget that less than a century ago these services were essentially performed by water transport. This mode of transport took a great toll on ships often travelling for months at a time in harsh weather conditions. The University of Melbourne Archives holds the Duke’s and Orr’s Amalgamated Dry Docks Ltd collection, a fascinating record of the engineering, maintenance and repair business of the maritime industry in Melbourne.

Today the old Duke’s and Orr’s graving dock at Clarendon Street, South Wharf houses the famous Melbourne icon, the sailing ship Polly Woodside. The dock shares a rich history in Melbourne’s maritime activity, having docked, cleaned, painted and repaired thousands of ships including those affected by the battles of wartime. It is also of historic significance in the field of engineering due to the fact that its wooden walls remained during reconstruction at the turn of the century, making it the last timber walled dry dock in Australia, and of its size, possibly one of the last in the world. This is said to be in part due to the choice of Australian Eucalypt whose timber is outstanding for strength and durability.

The collection encompasses records dating between the years 1878–1975 consisting of a variety of documents including minutes, accounts, time books, correspondence, share registers and other company related documents. Time books recording employee wages reflect the era’s economy and industry wage standards while correspondence with employees, insurance companies and medical practitioners regarding injury and accident reports provide an interesting historical understanding of work safety practices (or lack of) and protection in the event of workplace injury. Needless to say, there were a lot of slips and spills! In addition correspondence with Melbourne Harbor Trust, Lands Department, Customs Collector, Federal Income and the Tax Department provides details of Melbourne’s port operations. Docking registers, time books and cleaning books all list names of ships docked at Duke’s and Orr’s Graving Yard, linking employees to these jobs at certain dates. Along with the National Trust Library in Victoria, the Duke’s and Orr’s Amalgamated Dry Dock’s Ltd collection also includes a number of copies of published Registers of Australia and New Zealand Shipping.

An assortment of photographs provides a visual record of Duke’s and Orr’s and Melbourne’s maritime activities, depicting staff at work and posing for group shots, the immense size of the ships, impressive engineering machinery and the mammoth task at hand to repair the damaged ships. Visual records of the Yarra Bank serve as a rich insight into the history of Melbourne’s once close proximity between the CBD and its bustling port facilities, some featuring horse and carts along the surrounding roads.

The Duke’s and Orr’s Amalgamated Dry Docks Ltd collection is listed online and searchable via the University of Melbourne Archives catalogue, http://gallery.its.unimelb.edu.au/imu/imu.php?request=load&irn=110337&ecatalogue=on&view=details. Digitising some of the more fragile and significant records is proposed for the future. Duke’s and Orr’s Amalgamated Dry Dock’s Ltd did business with many prominent firms in Melbourne for which the University of Melbourne Archives also holds records, including Huddart Parker, J.B. Were and Son, Stock Exchange, Inglis Smith and Co. and McPhersons Ltd.

(Georgina Ward)

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