ACT Division

AGM

We had our AGM on 4 June. The new council comprises:

  • Ian Batterham, President
  • Kasi Albert,  Secretary
  • Jane Wild, Treasurer
  • Anna Kalloudis and Danica Auld, Student Representatives
  • Kate Eccles-Smith, Hakim Rahim, Nick Zihrul and Karen Wilcox, Ordinary Members

Heritage Festival event

17 April we presented an evening of talks entitled ‘Conserving Canberra’ as part of the Heritage Festival, 2015. The event was hosted by the Canberra Museum and Gallery and was advertised as a joint event with the AICCM. Over 40 people attended and feedback was overwhelmingly positive.

The following talks were presented:

  • Ian Batterham (NAA)  – The Walter Burley Griffin Canberra Designs – where Canberra began
  • Nick Flood (ICS) – The AWM Dioramas. Where interpretive material becomes icon 
  • Kim Morris (A&A) – The Orroral Valley Homestead wallpaper conservation project. Care and conservation of heritage wallpaper in a public space
  • Meg Absolom (NGA)  – The history and development of the NGA sculpture garden
  • Nathan Pharaoh (NMA) – Historical cars with a Canberra connection
  • Jennifer Elton (Historic Places)  & Jenny Gall (NFSA) – To play or not to play – Musical instruments in Historic House Museums.

NSW Division

The Division held a meeting at the State Library of NSW about the ANKAAA Harvesting Traditional Knowledge Project. This involved showing the DVD created from the two workshops, a talk by a conservator who attended one of the workshops and completion of a feedback survey requested from ANKAAA. The event was well attended with approximately 40 people attending.

In July the Division is hosting a tour of the renovated storage facilities at Sydney University.

Queensland Division

On 12 May we held a lunch time talk entitled  “In Conversation: Gillian Osmond discusses her PhD journey from Art Gallery to the world of nanotechnology and back again…”.The discussion was very well attended and an interesting insight into the work involved in undertaking a PhD.

Future talks will include Lucilla Ronai from SLQ doing a walk/ talk through the Distant lines exhibition at SLQ and Jen Walker giving her IIC conference paper on conserving silk and Asian Buddhist scrolls.

For the past three weeks Queensland Museum had two Uni Melbourne interns: Hanna (ethnographic) and Fiona (textiles). At the end of their stay in Brtisbane they gave members a summary of their work. SLQ have also had two work experience placements Talitha and Sharee.

Applications will soon be open for the QLD professional development annual grant.  Recipicants will be notified in August 2015.

SA/NT Division

The AICCM SA/NT Division held a Chinwag on the 13th May 2015 at Artlab. A presentation was given by Director Andrew Durham, following his recent visit to India, on “Conservation and display at the Ambedkar Museum in Nagpur, India”. The Ambedkar Museum is a memorial to Babasheb Ambedkar, the principal architect of the Constitution of India but also revered today as a champion of the Untouchables, or Dalits, and campaigner against social injustice against them. Following the Chinwag there was a General Meeting to discuss general business and to receive nominations for the re-election of committee members.

The AICCM SA/NT Division AGM was then held on the 16th June. This was preceded by a Chinwag talk by Finnish Textile Intern Lotta Ekman about her education and experience in Textiles Conservation in Europe including Finland and Turkey.

Newly and re-elected council members for 2015/2016 are as follows:

  • Kristin Phillips (on leave until October), President
  • Mary-Anne Gooden, Secretary
  • Treasurer, Rosie Heysen (acting President until October)
  • General Committee Members: Jo Dawe,
Filipa Quintela, Andrew Durham, Helen Weidenhofer, Heather Brown, Jodie Scott & 
Renita Ryan

The SA/NT Division is running a National Conference Flight and Registration Competition open to all fully paid up local SA/NT Division members for 2015/2016 who are eligible to go into a draw to win flights and registration to the AICCM National Conference in Tasmania in November. The Competition is to be drawn on 3rd August by Mirna Heruc, President of Museums Australia SA.