Live performance by Clark Beaumont
Friday 5 December, 6pm, QUT Art Museum
Nicole Beaumont and Sarah Clark formed their collaborative performance-based practice, Clark Beaumont in 2010 while completing their Bachelor Degree in Fine Arts (Visual Art) at Queensland University of Technology. Through live and mediated performance works they investigate ideas and constructs around identity, female subjectivity, intimacy, and interpersonal relationships.
Join us as Clark Beaumont debuts a new live performance work in celebration of the opening of Performance Now at QUT Art Museum.
Judith Wright
Desire publication launch
Sunday 23 November, 2pm, QUT Art Museum
Please join Judith Wright and Rhana Devenport, Director, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, as we celebrate the final day of Judith Wright: Desire, and the launch of a new publication of the same title that surveys the artist's work from 2007–2014. At 160 pages, the publication includes newly commissioned essays by Catherine de Zegher, Candice Bruce, Andrew Jensen, Jill Barker, and Megan Williams, and was conceived as a follow up to the highly successful Judith Wright: Conversations 1987–2007, co-published by Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Zealand, and the artist.
Texta book club
Boy, lost: a family memoir by Kristina Olsson
Tuesday 14 October, 6pm, QUT Art Museum
Texta is no ordinary book club; it's for people who love art. We use fiction to unpack the subjects, themes and emotions of art. Conversation is never colourless, and is facilitated by our brains trust from QUT Creative Writing and Literary Studies. Our fourth and last book for the year is Boy, lost: a family memoir by Kristina Olsson.
Kristina Olsson's mother lost her infant son, Peter, when he was snatched from her arms as she boarded a train in the hot summer of 1950. She was young and frightened, trying to escape a brutal marriage, but despite the violence and cruelty she'd endured, she was not prepared for this final blow, this breathtaking punishment. Yvonne would not see her son again for nearly 40 years.
Kristina was the first child of her mother's subsequent, much gentler marriage and, like her siblings, grew up unaware of the reasons behind her mother's sorrow, though Peter's absence resounded through the family, marking each one. Yvonne dreamt of her son by day and by night, while Peter grew up a thousand miles and a lifetime away, dreaming of his missing mother.
Boy, lost tells how their lives proceeded from that shattering moment, the grief and shame that stalked them, what they lost and what they salvaged. But it is also the story of a family, the cascade of grief and guilt through generations, and the endurance of memory and faith.
Held in conjunction with the exhibition Judith Wright: Desire, join us for a brief tour of the exhibition followed by a glass of wine and generous amounts of healthy conversation.
Pride Month at QUT
With Michael James
Tuesday 23 September, 6pm, QUT Art Museum
Michael James is a passionate advocate for LGBTIQ issues alongside being a drama, film and media teacher, entrepreneur, ABC 612 community correspondent, and father. Michael and his fiancé appeared in the 2011 'RipnRoll' campaign, with ads appearing on bus shelters throughout Brisbane. The controversial campaign caused an uproar when removed and then reinstated across the city.
Join us in celebrating Pride Month with one of Brisbane's most active personalities in the LGBTIQ community.
Judith Wright in conversation with Daniel Mafe
Friday 12 September, 5.30pm, QUT Art Museum
Not bound by medium, Judith Wright works across painting, drawing, sculpture, video and installation, often creating complex dialogues between different media. In appearance, her work can range from near minimalism to elaborate figuration and is centred on ideas around the fragility of life, love, loss, and grief. Judith Wright: Desire focuses on a body of work begun in 2003 that imagines and restages the life of a lost child.
Join us in celebrating the opening of Judith Wright: Desire with the artist in conversation with Daniel Mafe, Senior Lecturer, Visual Arts, QUT Creative Industries Faculty.
Art Crime
Thursday 21 August, 6pm, QUT Art Museum
Join us for a journey through the mystery and complexities of art crime with Dr Pamela James, lecturer in Cultural and Social Analysis at the University of Western Sydney. Dr James was instrumental in establishing Australia's first art crime committee, and continues to work closely with the NSW and Australian Federal Police, advising on art fraud, theft and forgery.
This program is presented in partnership with QUT Crime Club.
Ikebana demonstration
Thursday 21 August, 11am, William Robinson Gallery, Old Government House
Ikebana is the traditional form of Japanese flower arranging. To celebrate Japan Week come along to Old Government House for an Ikebana demonstration with Ms Misae Natsume and Ms Yoko Morita from the Ohara School of Ikebana. Presented by the William Robinson Gallery and the Consulate-General of Japan.
Texta book club
Tiddas by Anita Heiss
Tuesday 19 August, 6pm, QUT Art Museum
Texta is no ordinary book club; it's for people who love art. We use fiction to unpack the subjects, themes and emotions of art. Conversation is never colourless, and is facilitated by our brains trust from QUT Creative Writing and Literary Studies. Our third book for the year is Tiddas by Anita Heiss.
Tiddas is a story about what it means to be a friend. Five women, best friends for decades, meet once a month to talk about books ... and life, love and the jagged bits in between. Dissecting each other's lives seems the most natural thing in the world – and honesty, no matter how brutal, is something they treasure. Best friends tell each other everything, don't they? But each woman carries a complex secret and one weekend, without warning, everything comes unstuck.
Held in conjunction with the exhibition Carol Jerrems: photographic artist, join us for a brief tour of the exhibition followed by a glass of wine and generous amounts of healthy conversation.
Vernon Ah Kee in conversation with Dr Odette Best
Thursday 7 Aug, 6pm, QUT Art Museum
Vernon Ah Kee was born in Innisfail, Queensland in 1967, and is a member of the Kuku Yalandji, Waanji, Yidinji and Gugu Yimithirr peoples. He completed a Doctorate of Visual Arts (Fine Art) at Queensland College of Art in 2007. In 2009, Ah Kee represented Australia at the Venice Biennale in the group exhibition Once Removed.
Ah Kee's work borninthisskin 2008, is currently on display as part of the exhibition Agenda. Informed by war and propaganda posters, and advertising imagery, Ah Kee began making text-based works using the direct communication of text and language, while playing with kerning and positioning to create abstract shapes. Ah Kee states, "Text is immediate. If there's something you want to say - write it," (borninthisskin, 2009).
Join Vernon as he discusses his life and work in conversation with Dr Odette Best, Senior Lecturer with QUT's Oodgeroo Unit.
This program is a part of QUT's Murri-Ailan Way celebration.
QUT Open day art heist
Sunday 27 July, 10am – 4pm, QUT Art Museum
Pop into QUT Art Museum between 10am and 4pm and try to solve the mystery of the Open Day Art Heist for your chance to win one of five 64GB iPod touches ®. This program is in partnership with QUT Crime Club.
See the Open Day website for full competition terms and conditions.
Commemorate, celebrate, inspire
Reflections on the past, present and future of women's rights
Monday 7 July, 2.30pm – 5.30pm, Old Government House
This year marks the 120th anniversary of Queensland's petition for women's right to vote. Join us in celebrating this milestone in the history of women's rights and a new exhibition at QUT Art Museum on the work of photographer, Carol Jerrems, by sharing the afternoon with a group of inspiring women.
Dr Clare Wright is an internationally recognised scholar in the fields of the social history of alcohol and women's political activism. Dr Wright will speak about women's protest and involvement in early campaigns, primarily during the Eureka stockade.
Dr Mary Crawford and Dr Deborah Jordan will speak about the 1894 Queensland women's suffrage petition and a recent project to compile and digitise the first comprehensive list of signatories.
Gabrielle O'Brien Senior Equity Officer, QUT will ask 'what is the modern feminist and what are we still fighting for?'
Our speakers will then elaborate on these ideas to answer the question 'what is next on the agenda for women?' through a panel chaired by The Honourable Quentin Bryce AD CVO.
To be followed by champagne, sweets, and discussion of Carol Jerrems: photographic artist at QUT Art Museum with exhibition co-curator, Anne O'Hehir, National Gallery of Australia.
Floor talk with Anne O'Hehir
Saturday 5 July, 2pm, QUT Art Museum
By putting her camera where the counter culture suggested – women's liberation, social inclusiveness for street youths, and Indigenous people in the cities who were campaigning for justice and land rights – Carol Jerrem's created gritty, poetic and elusive images that showed people trying to find a new way of life and action in 1970s Australia. Jerrems was the first contemporary Australian woman photographer to have work acquired by a number of museums including the National Gallery of Australia.
Join us in celebrating the opening of Carol Jerrems: photographic artist with a floor talk about this remarkable woman by Anne O'Hehir, Assistant Curator, Photography, National Gallery of Australia.
Floor talk with Christina Waterson
Thursday 12 June, 5pm, QUT Art Museum
Christina Waterson maintains a vibrant creative practice making artworks that are warm and dynamic; designing products, exhibitions and events that are unique; and sharing knowledge through lecturing, blogging, talks and workshops. She graduated from design and architecture at the University of Queensland, having also studied visual arts at the Queensland University of Technology. Christina established her own studio in 2007 to explore the junction between art, design and architecture after working with Urban Art Projects, Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, and Cox Rayner Architects. Christina's work has been exhibited throughout Australia and the Asia Pacific Region, with her unique approach recognized through listings in DQ magazine's 2009 Top Ten Forces and Faces in Australian and New Zealand Design, and receiving a highly coveted Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship in 2010.
Join us as Christina talks about her work, Colony 2010 featured in Wood: Art design architecture and her most recent collaborations with TAIT to produce Stellar (a series of sculptural screens, ceilings and wall reliefs) launching at 2014 DesignEX; and with fashion designer and QUT Alumni, Gail Sorronda, to realize a range of accessories for Gail's 2014 Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Australia runway show.
This program is held in partnership with QUT Design Student Collective, The Dub.
Meet at QUT Art Museum at 5pm.
Pop-up exhibition
Wood jewellery and accessories
Tuesday 10 – Thursday 12 June, 11am – 2pm, The Billiard Room, Old Government House
Earlier this semester, first year QUT fashion students were given the brief to create a wearable item for the body from wood. Pop into the Billiard Room in Old Government House to view an exhibition of their creative results.
This program is held in conjunction with Wood: Art design architecture.
Floor talk with Alex Lotersztain
Thursday 5 June, 5pm, QUT Art Museum and The Pantry
Alex Lotersztain is Director of Derlot Pty. Ltd., a multi-disciplinary studio focusing on projects including product, furniture, branding, hotel design, interior design and art direction for national and international clients. Derlot Editions is a co-brand of Derlot and produces a range of australian made furniture and lighting for the contract and domestic markets and distributed worldwide. Alex has participated in exhibitions in London, Tokyo, Milano, New York, San Francisco, Berlin and Moscow, and one of his designs is part of the design Collection at the Pompidou Museum in Paris. Recently, Derlot and collaborators Cox Rayner Architects and Aurecon were awarded the Brisbane, Australia Ferry Terminal project. The winning design proposal is adaptable to different terminal locations and incorporates a number of green design strategies.
Join us as Alex talks about his work, Plantation 2007 featured in Wood: Art design architecture at QUT Art Museum followed by a discussion about one of his most recent projects, the redesign of The Pantry at Old Government House. This program is held in partnership with QUT Design Student Collective, The Dub.
Meet at QUT Art Museum at 5pm.
Exhibition design masterclass for educators
Saturday 31 May, 10am – 1pm, QUT Art Museum
Educators are invited to attend a masterclass with Stephen Goddard, the exhibition and publication designer of Wood: Art design architecture. This hands-on masterclass is for teaching professionals with a particular focus on re-imagining the exhibition space and presentation of student work.
The session will begin with an overview of Stephen's work, focusing on projects that required simple and cost-effective solutions, followed by a brainstorming and ideation session. The workshop will involve collaborative design thinking as individuals and groups, and a process of contesting the resulting design solutions in a friendly and communicative group environment.
Stephen is a freelance designer and creative director of Project Two who works primarily in the areas of exhibition, publication, and interpretative design. He works both as a graphic and spatial designer, primarily for cultural and institutional clients, such as JamFactory, Object: Australian Design Centre, Australian Museum, Sydney Festival, and the University of Sydney.
Exhibition design masterclass for QUT students
Thursday 29 May, 6pm, QUT Art Museum
QUT Students are invited to attend a free masterclass with the exhibition and publication designer of Wood: Art design architecture, Stephen Goddard.
Stephen is a freelance designer and creative director of Project II who works primarily in the areas of exhibition, publication, and interpretative design. He works both as a graphic and spatial designer, primarily for cultural and institutional clients, such as JamFactory, Object: Australian Design Centre, Australian Museum, Sydney Festival, and the University of Sydney, to name a few. With a career that began in design for stage and television, Stephen's work still maintains a strong audience-centric design approach.
During the masterclass students will gain an insight into Stephen's process of exhibition and interpretive design in relation to a number of recent key projects, including a discussion around the delicate balance between exhibition design and content, as well as the relationship between the client and designer. Stephen will give both an insight into his path into exhibition and interpretive design with a particular focus on the design process involved with a number of recent key projects. Of particular interest will be the collaborative design process he undertook with JamFactory's internal furniture studio to realise Wood: Art design architecture. The masterclass will conclude with a tour of the exhibition, and an opportunity to gather insights into the works and final design resolution through a question and answer session in the exhibition space.
Limited places available. Bookings essential.
Unfortunately this program is booked out
Texta book club
Eucalyptus by Murray Bail
Tuesday 27 May, 6pm, QUT Art Museum
Texta is no ordinary book club; it's for people who love art. We use fiction to unpack the subjects, themes and emotions of art. Conversation is never colourless, and is facilitated by our brains trust from QUT Creative Writing and Literary Studies. Our second book for the year is Eucalyptus by Murray Bail.
Eucalyptus tells the story of Ellen Holland, a young woman whose speckled beauty and unattainability become legend far beyond the rural western New South Wales town near the property where she grows up. Her protective father's obsession with collecting rare species of Eucalyptus trees leads him to propose a contest—the man who can correctly name all the species on his property shall win her hand in marriage.
Held in conjunction with the exhibition Wood: Art design architecture, join us for a brief tour of the exhibition followed by a glass of wine and generous amounts of healthy conversation.
Book swap
Tuesday 27 May, 5 – 6pm, QUT Art Museum
Book swap will be held at QUT Art Museum in conjunction with TEXTA Book Club and QUT Big Lift as part of QUT Reconciliation Week programs. Bring along a pre-loved book to swap on the day along with a gold coin donation.
Money raised from this event will go to The Indigenous Literacy Foundation, an organisation that aims to raise literacy levels and improve the lives and opportunities of Indigenous children living in remote and isolated regions. Complementary refreshments will be served.
Career + Study PATHWAYS
Design
Wednesday 14 May, 6pm, Old Government House
QUT Precincts hosts a series of panel discussions focusing on career and study pathways in the areas of visual art, design and fashion.
PATHWAYS Design will be held at Old Government House, in conjunction with the exhibition Wood: Art design architecture at QUT Art Museum.
Guest panellists include recent QUT graduates Leo Yip, Director, Ellaspede; Hannah Slater, Architect and Interior Designer, Architectus Brisbane; Amanda Larsson, Landscape Architect, Vee Design; and Vanessa Parker, Interior Designer, WMK Architecture.
QUT Art Museum will extend opening hours until 6.00pm to ensure you're able to view Wood: Art design architecture before the panel discussion.
Program partner
QUT School of Design, Creative Industries Faculty
Floor talk
Wood: Art design architecture
Friday 9 May, 5pm for 5.30pm, QUT Art Museum
Join us in celebrating the opening of Wood: Art design architecture with a floor talk by exhibition co-curator, Elliat Rich.
Wood: Art design architecture showcases unique works by contemporary Australian artists, designers and architects engaging with the material qualities of wood, representing a cross-section of current creative practices, modes of thinking and relationships.
Elliat Rich is an independent curator, inventor and designer.
Texta book club
Art as therapy by Alain de Botton and John Armstrong
Tuesday 8 April, 6pm, QUT Art Museum
Texta is no ordinary book club; it's for people who love art. We use fiction to unpack the subjects, themes and emotions of art. Conversation is never colourless, and is facilitated by our brains trust from QUT Creative Writing and Literary Studies. For our first session for 2014 we step out of our comfort zone and head into the unknown—non-fiction.
What is art's purpose? In the engaging, lively and controversial new book, Art as therapy, philosopher Alain de Botton and art historian John Armstrong propose a new way of looking at familiar masterpieces, suggesting that they can be useful, relevant, and—above all else—therapeutic for their viewers. Art as therapy offers an unconventional perspective, demonstrating how art can guide us, console us, and help us better understand ourselves.
Held in conjunction with the exhibition Arthur Boyd: An active witness, join us for a brief tour of the exhibition followed by a glass of wine and generous amounts of healthy conversation.
Floor talk
Arthur Boyd: An active witness
Friday 14 March, 5pm, QUT Art Museum
We would like to invite you to join us in celebrating the opening of Arthur Boyd: An active witness. This is the first major exhibition to consider the social consciousness that infused Arthur Boyd's life and to link his political concerns with his artwork. Join Jennifer Thompson, Collections and Exhibitions Manager, Bundanon Trust as she discusses this landmark exhibition of one of Australia's greatest artists.
Helen Read in conversation with Vanessa Van Ooyen
Friday 21 Feb, 12.15pm, QUT Art Museum
For nearly three decades, Helen Read has worked to bring a better understanding of Indigenous art and culture to a wider audience. Helen trained as a fine artist and her engagement with Indigenous Australia began when she worked as a nurse and pilot for the Pintupi Homelands Health Service and was introduced to local communities, artists and Art Centre's. Over the years, Helen developed relationships with the artists and cultural custodian who showed her their work and taught her how to look at country. Helen was surprised that Indigenous art wasn't heralded on the world stage and in response to this started Palya Art Tours. Her aim was to raise awareness of not only Indigenous art and culture, but also the terrible conditions in which many Indigenous Australians were living. Her hope was that by connecting people of means and influence with these remote areas, they would be inspired to do something to help. Over the years, Helen has built a significant body of Indigenous art known as the Helen Read Collection. Helen describes the collection as 'like keeping a diary ... a record of the people I have worked with, have come to know and love ... a collection of memories of places flown over and visited, and times and events experienced'.
Join Helen as she discussed her life and collection in conversation with Vanessa Van Ooyen, co-curator of Traversing borders: Art from the Kimberley.