1 2 CONTENTS Message from the CEO 5 Exhibition Projects 6 Galleries 8 Museums 20 Capacity Building, Capital & Sustainability Programs 28 Engagement Programs 34 Individual Achievement 50 Image Credits 54 3 4 MESSAGE FROM THE CEO In celebrating the 2017 IMAGinE award There would be no celebration of these winners, we applaud each museum successes without the support and and gallery for their nominations. Each investment from the NSW Government nomination demonstrates the role of through Create NSW. Their commitment museums, galleries and Aboriginal to the visual arts, heritage and cultural centres in stimulating minds Aboriginal program sectors is significant, and in bringing people together across and remains integral to regional the state. development and cultural growth, and this too is something worth celebrating. This year we received 76 nominations across all categories, showcasing the Our partners in IMAGinE, Museums incredible commitment and innovative Australia NSW and Regional and work that exists throughout the museum Public Galleries of NSW also provide and gallery sector in NSW. We are proud significant support across the industry. to say that the standard of nominations We acknowledge their important work was very high. as well as the award recipients in a continued state-wide partnership. It is pleasing to see an increased interest in the revamped Capacity Join with me in congratulating all Building, Capital & Sustainability nominees, partners and funders, and Programs category and in the number celebrate IMAGinE in the spirit of its of nominations from museums name: Inspiring Museums and Galleries across all four categories. The judges in Excellence. were pleased to see entries from organisations engaging in unusual partnerships to produce sustainable Michael Rolfe, outcomes. CEO, Museums & Galleries of NSW The judges were again impressed with the high quality of entries and spent time deliberating on their decision for many of the awards. In general, all nominations used innovative practices to bring equality and inclusiveness to their community. A highlight this year has been the large number of nominations celebrating diversity utilising the gallery or museum as a centre for people to come together and share their culture and stories. 5 Nominations in the Exhibition Projects category are required to demonstrate innovative design and approach to significant permanent or temporary exhibition projects. We seek examples with strong community and audience participation; projects where partnerships were key to their development; and where publications and resources were produced in conjunction with an exhibition. Exhibitions that gained significant media attention are also encouraged. This category makes a distinction between museum and gallery practice. Within each area of practice one award is given in each of three groups: volunteer- run organisations; those with 3-10 paid staff; and those with 11 or more paid staff. EXHIBITION PROJECTS EXHIBITION PROJECTS Bega Valley Regional Gallery The Lock-Up Young & Free: Know Your Neighbour An Australian Discourse This exhibition explored migration and This curatorially brave exhibition was conceived to perspectives on arrival, using domestic and address a vacuum of discussion around pressing international experiences as a departure for social issues in Australian society. Timed to ride enquiry. Curated by independent Sydney based the national debate that Australia Day brings each curator Ineke Dane, the exhibition featured new year, it showcases artists whose work discusses and existing works by Abdul Abdullah, Susan ideas of colonialism, nationalism and hot button Cohn, Hannah Furmage, Oliver Hartung, Seamus issues around immigration policy, patriotism and Heidenreich, Mehwish Iqbal, the Refugee Art Indigenous affairs. Project, Ella Rubeli and Shireen Taweel. The artists Abdul Abdullah, Tony Albert, Liam Public programs created multiple pathways for Benson, Joan Ross and Alex Seton were chosen audiences to engage with the project, particularly to participate because they are interested in those from culturally and linguistically diverse working across mediums and disciplines. This backgrounds, and deepened discourse around the created a dynamic, innovative space in which to project themes. explore themes that are hard to quantify, hard All aspects of the project were informed by an to discuss and even more difficult to reconcile. extensive process of community consultation. Together these young Australian artists hold up This included meetings and collaboration with and present issues to audiences that demand community members in the lead up to events and reflection, thought, courage and contemplation. providing a free bus service to enable access and The exhibition was designed to provoke audiences participation. New community partnerships with to reflect and develop their own opinion on the organisations who work directly with refugees and issues addressed. new migrants enabled development of culturally This exhibition, conceived and presented within appropriate approaches to programming. A a regional context is unusual in that it doesn’t new partnership with the Children’s University shy away from themes usually associated connected children from disadvantaged with metropolitan living. The Bega Valley is a backgrounds to the project as an alternative predominantly Anglo population and is unused to education opportunity. being confronted with contentious issues around The project was partially funded through M&G cultural identity, race, gender and sexuality. NSW’s Artist or Curator Residency program which Although the exhibition challenged community meant an extended period of onsite engagement norms it was widely supported by both local from Dane. audiences and those visiting the Bega Valley. Volunteer or up to 2 paid staff Volunteer or up to 2 paid staff 8 GALLERIES Peacock Gallery & Auburn Verge Gallery Arts Studio By a Window Objects In Space: This project existed beyond the format of an Artists In the Gardens exhibition to create connections between people and places. It intended to develop an open This exhibition capitalised on the location of the platform for conversation about our history, our Gallery within the Auburn Botanic Gardens and engagement within community and photography took its first major foray into utilising the Gardens as a privileged medium in social and political as an exhibition space. This involved working with consciousness. Gardens and council staff as well as artists and local craft groups. A curatorial mentorship opportunity for two University of Sydney (USYD) students and Glenn Barkley, curator and horticulturalist, was a partnership between the Gallery and the key to the development as he brought with him a Australian Centre for Photography (ACP), this practice that places him in both the gallery and exhibition engaged with the University of Sydney garden spaces. His exhibition concept explored Union (USU) art collection in a new, contemporary the influence of both ‘the garden’ and Japanese context. Beginning with two photographic portraits aesthetics on contemporary art forms. The by Michael Riley from the USU art collection exhibition considered the garden as an object the exhibition developed to include rarely- in itself and asked audiences to consider the seen archival documents, texts and vernacular relationships between plants and sculptural photographs from the late 19th Century to today. incursions into the garden as a way of articulating form, time and space. The project expanded to include partnerships with other local organisations along with a suite Public programs included exhibition tours, talks of public programs that provided opportunities with the curator and artists, workshops during the for community engagement, learning and Cherry Blossom Festival and a ceramic workshop exchange of knowledge. The exhibition actively with maker Toni Warburton. These programs developed connections with USYD, Tin Sheds, were extremely successful in broadening the Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative, and engagement with both spaces. The Settlement Community Centre. These relationships were utilised in a suite of public The project brought new audiences into the programs which included a Redfern walking tour, Gallery and Gardens during the peak visitation presented in collaboration with The Settlement. of the Cherry Blossom Festival and invited local artists and arts groups to actively participate in creating the Woollen Fernery, a textile-based installation bringing the garden into the gallery. Volunteer or up to 2 paid staff Volunteer or up to 2 paid staff 9 EXHIBITION PROJECTS Verge Gallery 4A Centre for Contemporary D_O_T Asian Art Designed as a gallery swap between MOP Projects Sea Pearl White Cloud and the Gallery, this project aimed to expand and This project was realised through collaboration engage new audiences. The resulting exhibition between the Centre and Guangzhou’s at Gallerie Pompom exposed audiences to Observation Society, one of China’s most exciting artists from the Western Desert in a way that contemporary art project spaces. challenged how we usually view works produced by Indigenous Australian artists. The exhibition project was first presented at Observation Society and in a second iteration at This exhibition presented the drawings of six the Centre in Sydney which extended the themes artists from Papunya Tjupi Arts, located in Papunya, and collaboration. Bringing together Sydney-based near Alice Springs.