AGNSW_AnnRep_00 full.pdf - Parliament of New South Wales ...
AGNSW_AnnRep_00 full.pdf - Parliament of New South Wales ...
AGNSW_AnnRep_00 full.pdf - Parliament of New South Wales ...
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students were booked out during the Michelangelo to<br />
Matisse exhibition.<br />
Regular programmes including courses on art<br />
appreciation and art history – supported by the Art<br />
Gallery’s research library and archive – attracted committed<br />
audiences. Amongst the popular workshops, forums, tours,<br />
free public talks and weekly film screenings, artist talks<br />
and dialogues were held in conjunction with the Biennale<br />
<strong>of</strong> Sydney and the Sydney Festival, adding a lively and<br />
informative dimension to the display <strong>of</strong> works <strong>of</strong> art.<br />
The popularity <strong>of</strong> the free 15-minute introductory<br />
slide talks for special exhibitions grew. The audio-visual<br />
section <strong>of</strong> the department has begun making in-house<br />
videos. Informative video displays in exhibitions areas<br />
have been another feature <strong>of</strong> the expanded media-related<br />
education activities.<br />
Free performances related to temporary exhibitions<br />
and the permanent collection consistently attracted large<br />
audiences. Many programmes with a family focus took<br />
place over weekends and during holidays.<br />
Young audiences are a particular focus. This year the<br />
department trained another 40 volunteer children’s guides<br />
and eight teacher-lecturers. This resulted in 75 children’s<br />
guides taking 21,363 children on art adventure tours,<br />
while 16 teacher-lecturers took 6,441 students on<br />
discussion tours. In-depth education services for<br />
temporary exhibitions, conducted by <strong>full</strong> time museum<br />
educators, attracted 5,807 students. Over the year, 56,118<br />
students made self-guided visits.<br />
Artexpress, the annual exhibition featuring a<br />
selection <strong>of</strong> outstanding works created for the HSC<br />
examination in visual arts, was again extremely popular<br />
with schools and the general public. It was attended by<br />
17,762 students in booked groups alone.<br />
Revelant educational resources, including education<br />
kits, education posters and the quarterly Exhibition and<br />
Events brochure, were produced for the permanent<br />
collection and temporary exhibitions.<br />
Important community initiatives continued with the<br />
steady growth in attendances at free Auslan-interpreted<br />
tours for both deaf and hearing people. In September<br />
1999, in association with the Australian Museum, the Art<br />
Gallery organised a pr<strong>of</strong>essional development lecture by<br />
William Kirby, a world renowned expert on services in<br />
museums for blind and visually impaired people.<br />
In May 2<strong>00</strong>0 the Art Gallery was notified <strong>of</strong> a<br />
$3<strong>00</strong>,<strong>00</strong>0 grant from the Ian Potter Foundation for an<br />
audience development programme, targeting young people<br />
and Asian audiences.<br />
18<br />
REGIONAL CONTACT<br />
Chief touring exhibition for the year was drawn<br />
from the Archibald Prize, going to Moree, <strong>New</strong>castle,<br />
Griffith, Melbourne and Albury. The Jeffrey Smart<br />
retrospective went to Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne.<br />
Seeing Cézanne was seen in Ballarat and Modern Lovers -<br />
Bettina Rheims in Melbourne. These exhibitions attracted<br />
a total <strong>of</strong> 155,767 visitors.<br />
Regional touring is only one <strong>of</strong> many ways in which<br />
the Art Gallery makes its presence felt outside Sydney.<br />
This year works were lent to other institutions for<br />
exhibitions around Australia, with particular assistance<br />
given to Moree Plains Regional Art Gallery for their<br />
exhibition <strong>of</strong> the work <strong>of</strong> Brett Whiteley.<br />
At a one-day conference for NSW Regional<br />
Galleries, librarians Kay Truelove and Robyn Louey from<br />
the Art Gallery’s research library and archive presented a<br />
much appreciated workshop on the use <strong>of</strong> the Internet as<br />
a research tool for the visual arts.<br />
Further a field, Sydney Long’s Pan 1898 was loaned<br />
to the Royal Academy, London, for the exhibition 19<strong>00</strong>:<br />
Art at the Crossroads. This exhibition later moved to the<br />
Guggenheim Museum, <strong>New</strong> York.<br />
Curator and Assistant Curator <strong>of</strong> Aboriginal and<br />
Torres Strait Islander Art represented the Art Gallery at<br />
the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander<br />
Art Award in Darwin in September 1999. The Assistant<br />
Curator <strong>of</strong> Aboriginal Art also attended the National<br />
Indigenous Artists Conference in Cairns and the Nji Jaga<br />
Anya Nji, <strong>New</strong> <strong>South</strong> <strong>Wales</strong> Aboriginal Artists<br />
Conference in Armidale.<br />
The Art Gallery’s website - upgraded and relaunched<br />
in June 2<strong>00</strong>0 - has become an increasingly important<br />
communications and marketing tool, providing regular<br />
updates on activities and attracting high levels <strong>of</strong> repeat<br />
visits to the site from web users in Australia and around<br />
the world. In the new financial year, the website is<br />
expected to include information from the computerised<br />
collection management system which was developed by<br />
the registration department and handed over this year to<br />
curatorial departments to prepare for its website appearance.<br />
The Art Gallery website will also benefit from NSW<br />
Government funding to digitise the collection over the next<br />
three years commencing in July, 2<strong>00</strong>0. This will allow<br />
images <strong>of</strong> most <strong>of</strong> the collection to be added to the Art<br />
Gallery database for research and internal use, eventually<br />
making these available to the public via the website.