Curate Your Own Adventure

Thursday was the final day of sessions for the Museums & Galleries Queensland Conference. I would like to thank the organisers, sponsors and presenters for making the past couple of days truly memorable. Queensland is a huge state and this conference provided a great opportunity for cultural workers to gather together, network and share ideas. Read on for a brief summary of the talks I attended during the day and some key takeaway messages.

9.00 am

International Keynote Presentation by Tasia Duske, CEO from Museum Hack

This was the presentation I most looked forward to seeing. Museum Hack is a company based in the United States, that delivers, in their words, ‘renegade, small group tours for people who think they don’t like museums’ (source). I was fortunate enough to experience a Museum Hack tour of The Getty back in 2017. These tours offer an accessible entry point into museums and galleries for those who might otherwise never set foot inside. Of course, the tours can also be enjoyed by those with an interest in museums as a way of experiencing a new perspective. What started as some impromptu tours, led by founder Nick Gray, soon developed into a company with more than 50 team members delivering over 40 tours per week in cities such as New York, Washington DC, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.

Tasia Duske is the current CEO of Museum Hack and injected some much needed enthusiasm and energy into the morning. Her presentation focused on the four main pillars of Museum Hack: start with entertainment and passion, the power of storytelling, social experience and create a sense of VIP. I can attest to the fact that our tour delivered on everything and hearing the theory behind the practice was really insightful. Duske not only spoke about the tours, but almost delivered one herself encouraging audience participation and sharing some intriguing stories. I am still buzzing from the talk and cannot wait to brainstorm ways of implementing some strategies into our programs.

There are two things about this talk that will stay with me. The first is that when targeting groups try not to get wrapped up in age, gender, etc, but also try to target different mindsets. Duske used the term ‘millennial mindset’ to describe the audience Museum Hack are hoping to reach. This isn’t the elusive age group termed ‘millennials’, but anyone with a suited mindset. The second thing is I really appreciate companies that want to make the inaccessible, accessible. After visiting numerous art galleries and even working in one for a year, I can still feel quite alienated and isolated when I visit. What is mostly responsible for this is the language used, especially on labels. Museum Hack really broke down that barrier for me at The Getty and it was great to hear that it’s achieving the same goal for so many other people.

11.00 am

For our first concurrent session of the day, I selected the talks in the Visitor Centre. These all focused on new audiences and in-depth engagement. A nice link to the morning’s session.

Nicola Holly, Manager from Queensland College of Art

First in this session was a wonderful talk from Nicola Holly on how Queensland College of Art managed to engage their new neighbours at Southbank, Flight Centre. The level of collaboration was very impressive as Flight Centre allowed for an exhibition, ‘Morphosis: The Art of Sustainable Transformation’, to be held in their entrance foyer. Of course, this came with challenges such as how to install somewhere unfamiliar and how to conserve the works on display. Despite this, the benefits far outweighed the challenges with increased sales in artworks, a new audience, and the formation of a new partnership.

Shanna Muston, Arts and Cultural Advisor from Banana Shire Regional Art Gallery

Next in the session was Shanna Muston talking about a recent exhibition, A Tribute to Modern Pioneers. This was a bit of a different exhibition for the Banana Shire Regional Art Gallery. The project included finding modern pioneers in the region, collecting their stories, and exhibiting these alongside professional photographs. One huge takeaway message from this talk was how you might have a clear idea for a project and its outcomes, but when collaborating it’s also important to allow a project to evolve. What was initially going to be 10 portraits with a publication and tour, became a project that included loaned objects, additional photographs, behind the scenes videos and public programs.

Lisa Jones, Curator from the Queensland Police Museum

The final speaker in this session was Lisa Jones who introduced delegates to the new Augmented Reality app at the Queensland Police Museum. Originally, the museum had an actual reality crime scene (using mannequins for obvious reasons) where students and visitors could put on their detective hats and solve a murder. To allow for deeper engagement, this is being replaced by an app that all visitors can download onto their smart device and that’s activated by a marker in the space (mannequin). Now, solving the crime can be done digitally and will include searching for evidence that can be sent for fingerprint or blood analysis. I cannot wait to try this app in person when it’s released!

1.30 pm

Similar to yesterday, it was about this time that I started to feel the need for a nap but powered through.

Elspeth McEachern, Senior Cultural Heritage Officer from Sunshine Coast Council

Everything in Elspeth McEachern’s talk linked back to her ‘Awesome’ Principle for museums. In a society where there is a marked decrease in leisure time, how can museums ensure they remain relevant? Awesome can help and I’ve included a photograph below of what it means. Soft fascination refers to the fascination people have that’s not directed and, therefore, not depleting.

Rachel Arndt, Gallery Programs & Touring Exhibitions Manager from Museums & Galleries of New South Wales

The focus of Arndt’s talk was on cultural mediation – the process of negotiating and gaining knowledge about the arts through some kind of exchange. A model for this comes from the Palais de Tokyo in France that has employed cultural mediators to be present in gallery spaces. They are not invigilators. Instead, they are there to encourage people to make connections with the artworks and guide people ‘beyond comprehension’.

3.00 pm

Similar to the Museum Hack presentation, the two final talks of the day were a call to action.

Gail Mabo, Curator and Kellie Williams, Director from Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts

It was a wonderful experience to hear Gail Mabo talk so passionately about how to effectively engage Indigenous communities in the arts. You can’t just walk into a community, ask them to produce works for an exhibition, then leave. It’s about fostering a relationship, providing some form of ongoing support, and not using the opportunity as tokenism. Kellie Williams provided an example of working closely with artists when reviewing and signing contracts. Williams sits down with the artist and goes through it word by word to ensure both parties are happy with the contents. It takes time, but it’s necessary.

Sprouting from this discussion also came a fantastic takeaway – ‘Living RAP’, or living your Reconciliation Action Plan. Don’t just have one sitting on your bookshelf gathering dust, you have to read it, action it, and live it. Mabo and Williams also spoke about their co-curated exhibition ‘Legacy: Reflections on Mabo’ that will be touring around Australia not only to ‘white cube’ galleries (as Kellie put it) but also to community centres.

Tracy Puklowski, Director of Creative Arts and Cultural Services and Curator from City of Launceston, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery

Our final speaker of the day also presented a very passionate talk focusing on the direction and future of the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery (QVMAG). Tracy Puklowski spoke about her background, working in New Zealand, and how this will impact on her new role at QVMAG. Specifically, Puklowski is looking at more seamless integration of stories from different cultural groups that are not stuck in a past, but have a thriving present. It absolutely resonated with me when she stated that you first need to lay solid foundations before moving onto large projects. Something I am currently focusing on in my role. It will be fascinating to see how such a strong background filled with bicultural normality will start to shape and influence QVMAG into the future.

Final Thoughts

I am very grateful to now have a weekend that will no doubt be filled with reflections on the conference and how I can apply some of what I’ve learnt to my own practice. Thank you again to everyone involved in making this conference so incredible!

It has been a very long day filled with incredible talks containing so many new ideas and innovative programs. I forget how utterly exhausted I feel at the end of a full conference day! At least this time I came prepared with a portable charger so my phone battery could remain fully charged. At each conference I attend, I like to provide a summary of the day including the talks I attended and some of their key messages. That way, if you’re not here, you can still learn a little about what has been discussed.

9.00 am

Similar to the National Conference in Alice Springs, I am so grateful that this conference is offering a complimentary bus service transporting delegates from the CBD to the conference location, Tanks Arts Centre. This venue scores 11/10. For a bit of historical context, the Centre consists of three concrete fuel tanks that were built for the Royal Australian Navy in 1944 in the rainforest of Mount Whitfield. They were decommissioned in 1987 and repurposed into an arts centre from 1992. In 2006, the entire precinct was inscribed on the State Heritage Register for its significance to the region. It is such a peaceful spot for a conference.

To start the conference, we had a wonderful Welcome to (and connection to) Country performed by the Minjil Dancers. Then, we were welcomed by Cr Bob Manning OAM, Mayor of Cairns Regional Council. Manning highlighted the significance of the arts in Cairns and his dedication to seeing its influence grow through new programs and projects.

9.45 am

International Keynote Presentation by Frith Williams, Head of Experience Design from Museum of New Zealand (Te Papa Tongarewa).

I have probably raved way too much in the past about how great Te Papa is and how amazing they are for their seamless integration of Māori language and culture in everything they do. I was very fortunate to visit the Museum last year and experience it for myself.

Frith Williams spoke about their newly opened permanent exhibition, Te Taiao|Nature. Essentially, the talk delved into how the exhibition was imagined from the beginning and what, in the end, was delivered. Part of this process relied on knowing their audience and collaborating with the wider community. There were some fantastic insights provided including their ‘Inspire’ renewal approach (it’s like an acrostic poem).

Inspire wonder

Nurture diversity

Shake things up

Prepare for the Future

Invite Involvement

Reach Out

Empower our Communities

Although undertaking this new and exciting renewal, Williams also spoke about the five fundamental principles of Te Papa that had to remain central to the project (bicultural, sustainable, accessible, updateable, and safe). I want to briefly mention one thing about their bicultural principle in this exhibition. Going one step further than having a label in English and one in Maori, the new exhibition actually tries to merge them together to teach visitors new words. Make your visitors stop, think, and learn. It creates more memorable experiences.

Williams also made an effort to relate to smaller museums, with restricted budgets, by offering some tips. For example, you don’t need state of the art technology to help people interact. What you can do is have something big and imposing that many can stand in front of and talk about.

11.30 am

After morning tea, we had a choice of three concurrent sessions. I decided to attend the talks in Tank 5 looking at the Rockhampton Art Gallery, volunteers, and creative engagement.

Bianca Acimovic, Gallery Director from Rockhampton Art Gallery

Rockhampton Art Gallery is currently undergoing a huge 31 million dollar revitalization project that will see the construction of a brand new gallery precinct. In Bianca Acimovic’s talk, delegates learnt about the stages involved, how funding has been acquired, and watched a short video showcasing what the new gallery will look like (at this stage). I visited the gallery a couple of times while living in Gladstone and I cannot wait to return once the new one is up and running. No doubt it will be a very significant place in Rockhampton.

Melanie Sorenson, Collections Manager & Melissa McQuillan, Volunteer Coordinator from Cairns Historical Society

The next talk went behind the scenes of volunteer recruitment and retention in the Cairns Historical Society and Cairns Museum. It was really interesting to listen to this talk as I’ve volunteered in the sector for quite some time and have worked as a volunteer coordinator. Therefore, I have some very strong opinions on how volunteers should be treated and their potential. I was so happy to hear that this volunteer program has clear goals, great volunteer support, and opportunities available to suit a whole range of skills and interests. One quote I loved is that when selecting a project for a volunteer, it shouldn’t be age or gender specific, but attitude specific. It sounds like they run a very rewarding program that values the work of the volunteers and motivates them to become passionate promoters of the Museum!

Sheona White, Director from Penrith Regional Gallery

The final talk in this session was delivered by Sheona White and focused on creative engagement. One important takeaway message from this talk is that to be truly accessible (not just physically but much more broadly) everyone needs to be on board with a program, exhibition, etc. If you have conflicting experiences within a cultural institution (e.g. a fun program followed by VSOs policing people as they walk around) it can greatly lessen impact.

2.00 pm

I was very glad we only had to make one concurrent panel choice today. It’s very relaxing when you don’t have the fear of missing out on a good panel.

Julian Meyrick, Strategic Professor of Creative Arts from Flinders University

This talk managed to cover so many incredibly important points when it comes to cultural institutions and evaluations. How can we measure meaning? Clearly, counting people through the door is not a sustainable way for cultural institutions to evaluate their work. But, we often come into disagreement with those who want to see these numbers, and these numbers only, due to a lack of understanding. If you are familiar with the sector you’ll know all too well that qualitative evaluations are underemphasised in cultural policy and are not captured by current assessment methods. Julian Meyrick, Tully Barnett and Robert Phiddian discuss this at length in their book ‘What Matters? Talking Value in Australian Culture’. They narrow down the problem of evaluation to being something political, not methodological. I, for one, am excited to purchase the book and read more about their concepts and outcomes.

Deanne Fitzgerald, Senior Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisor from Western Australian Museum

I won’t write much about this talk because Deanne Fitzgerald presented on the Indigenous Roadmap that I’ve already covered in a previous blog post from the National Conference in Alice Springs. You can read that here. It was a great talk for those unfamiliar with the Roadmap and also reinforced what was spoken about at the National Conference. In a very short amount of time for such a large topic, Fitzgerald was able to summarise the Roadmap and talk about the future goals outlined in the publication. These include increasing Indigenous voices in exhibitions and collaborating more with Indigenous communities when it comes to collection items and their use/storage.

3.55 pm

To end the day, we had four presentations that focused on Far North Queensland.

Suzanne Gibson, Manager; Dr Jo Besley, Consultant; and Dr Jo Wills, Museum Development Officer

In 2017, Cairns Museum was completely redeveloped, transforming the Museum into a more modern, interactive space. Suzanne Gibson, Dr Jo Besley and Dr Jo Wills were instrumental on that team. In their presentation, they were able to provide an insight into engaging with the community throughout the process and involving the volunteers as much as possible. The end result, a museum that reflects and has been significantly influenced by the community.

Wills also presented the second talk focusing on her work as a Museum Development Officer with the Queensland Museum Network. Wills delivers support and programs for all Far North Queensland museums. This is around 50 institutions with only 8 paid members of staff and just under 400 volunteers. Wills has been involved in some amazing initiatives assisting museums with exhibitions, cataloguing their collections, and engaging with their communities. One particular program that stood out to me, is the work happening at Gab Titui Cultural Centre on Waiben (Thursday Island) in the Torres Strait concerning exhibition development. There are some wonderful exhibitions, including ‘Evolution: Torres Strait Masks’, that have emerged from this partnership.

Cultural Services from Cairns Regional Council

There was a last minute presenter change and I completely forgot to record who gave this presentation. If you were in attendance and noted it down, please let me know! The focus of this talk was on growing the arts in Cairns and creating an Arts Capital in the Far North. There was some discussion on the new gallery precinct that I linked to in the blog post on Cairns Art Gallery. The presenter also mentioned that the new Performing Arts Centre was shortlisted, alongside only fourteen nominees, for an international architectural award. What an achievement! The attitude of Cairns Regional Council towards the arts is unbelievably positive and reinforcing. A great model for other councils.

Pam Bigelow, Manager from Indigenous Art Centre Alliance

Our final speaker for the day was Pam Bigelow who talked about the role of the Indigenous Art Centre Alliance and its impact on Far North Queensland. This advocacy and support group grew from a need for a peak body. It aims to ‘effect sustainable growth through advocacy and long-term quality support for development, marketing and promotion’ (source). The work promoted by this group was noticed by the National Museum of Australia who will be exhibiting work from thirteen of the art centres in June 2020.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, it was a very jam-packed day with so many interesting presentations. I hope tomorrow challenges us even more about what it means to open doors.

Last night was the welcome reception for the Museums & Galleries Queensland conference held at the Cairns Museum. I wanted to briefly write about the public art tour I went on prior to the reception and also a bit about the Museum.

Public Art Tour

We were very fortunate to have two representatives from Cairns Regional Council join us for a walking tour around Cairns CBD to explore some of the public art. To give you an idea, there are 180 pieces of public art in the wider Cairns region and Cairns CBD. This basically means that everywhere you go in Cairns, you’re going to see a few works of art along the way.

At the start of the tour we were directed to the Cairns arts and culture map, an initiative of the Council. This map was launched in accordance with the Council’s Arts and Culture Policy that aims to enhance and promote cultural programs and facilities. Although not an app, it works pretty well on mobile devices. I wish I knew about this map earlier so I could explore more on my own! It geographically displays any arts, culture or heritage place in Cairns that fits into any of the following eight categories: facilities and spaces, festivals, public art, industries, artists, organisations, historical places, and city collections. You are able to select which category you’d like to explore so everything doesn’t show up at once.

If you are walking along the Esplanade and come across a sculpture that doesn’t have any interpretation available, this site is able to tell you the artist, year it was created, etc. There is also a ‘more details’ button that gives you a lot more information and some fantastic images of the work. It is a really great tool for exploring Cairns and must have involved a lot of work in setting up. If you would like to explore this site further click here.

The following is a selection of works we visited on the tour. I tried to take as many photographs as possible, but didn’t capture everything.

1. The Herd by Hew Chee Fong and Loretta Noonan

These granite sculptures were added to the Esplanade in 2003 during redevelopment. They represent a herd heading out to sea.

2. Brass Plaques by Brian Robinson

Dotted along the walkway of the Esplanade are brass plaques depicting Indigenous designs and motifs used by craftspeople and artisans from the Oceania region.

3. Woven Fish by Brian Robinson

If you have ever seen any advertising for Cairns, you’ve probably already seen these fish. Made from stainless steel, these fish are replicas of the traditional Torres Strait Islander practice of weaving palm leaves to create fish.

4. Citizens Gateway to the Great Barrier Reef by Brian Robinson

This is the most recent piece of public art to be unveiled in Cairns. It is a stunning work that aims to represent and encompass a social movement towards protecting the reef and ensuring it has a future. You could spend quite a bit of time looking at this work trying to decipher all the animals included. This was my favourite work to see on the tour.

5. Seasonal Lines by Paul Johnson

A very subtle but beautiful work using mosiac to map the tropical seasons in Cairns.

6. Rainforest Shields by Paul Bong

Paul Bong is a Yidinji Elder from Babinda, south of Cairns. This work consists of five shields that all represent something different, from welcoming everyone to country to telling ancestral stories.

To see photographs of all the works mentioned above, make sure you visit the arts and culture map.

Cairns Museum

After the tour, it was time to explore the Cairns Museum and join everyone for the welcome reception. Much to my surprise, one of the temporary exhibitions on display is called Small World: Les Paul’s Miniature Furniture. Between 1973 and 1987, Les Paul created 11 miniature dioramas and 4 miniature collections depicting ‘typical’ rooms in Cairns using available rainforest timber. The main skill involved in creating miniature items is to ensure that the proportions of each object are to scale. Not only do they display his skill, but allow for some insight into Cairns in the early 1900s. The Cairns Museum acquired Les Paul’s collection, along with his tools and records.

Here are my favourite rooms.

Tour

A huge thank you to our volunteer guide, Shannon, who briefly showed us around the other floors of the museum pointing out a few objects along the way. A highlight for me was seeing these bathers from the 1950s in the context of early Cairns tourism.

On the same topic, visitors also have the opportunity to look at what happened to the coral that was taken from the Great Barrier Reef way back in the past and kept as souvenirs. As you can see below, the bright and colourful coral would eventually die and turn white.

As well as presenting a timeline of Cairn’s history with some significant themes and industries included, the exhibitions also highlight a few locals and their stories. For example, Elizabeth Hides who owned and operated the Hides Hotel in Cairns becoming a well-respected and well-liked businesswomen between 1895 and 1916. On display is a Victorian-era blouse that would have been similar to one worn by Hides.

Practical Information

There is a lot more to explore in the Cairns Museum. It is open Monday to Saturday from 10 am to 4 pm, closed for public holidays. Admission is $15 for adults, $12 for concessions and there are special family prices available. It is an accessible museum. I am unsure from the website if and when the Small World exhibition will close.