2017-01-31

Blackwell, The Arts & Crafts House - Bowness-on-Windermere - U.K.

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When the architect MH Baillie Scott built a holiday home overlooking Windermere for his client Sir Edward Holt he created Blackwell, a masterpiece of twentieth-century design; a perfect example of the Arts & Crafts Movement.

Enjoy a lovingly crafted day out at one of the most enchanting historic houses in the Lake District. When you visit you are invited to relax and immerse yourself in all the beauty and craftsmanship of Blackwell. We encourage you to sit and soak up the atmosphere in Blackwell’s fireplace inglenooks, which have fine examples of tiles by Arts & Crafts designer William de Morgan. The inviting window seats offer stunning views of the surrounding Lake District scenery. You can appreciate the house as it was originally intended, without roped-off areas.

Blackwell retains many of its original decorative features, including a rare hessian wall-hanging in the Dining Room, leaf-shaped door handles, curious window catches, spectacular plasterwork, stained glass and carved wooden panelling by Simpsons of Kendal. The rooms contain furniture and objects by many of the leading Arts & Crafts designers and studios - metalwork by WAS Benson, ceramics by Pilkingtons and Ruskin Pottery and furniture by Morris & Co., Stanley Webb Davies, Ernest Gimson and Baillie Scott himself.

Recent acquisitions of furniture by Baillie Scott are on display, including an oak and ebony inlaid barrel chair with slatted sides, sideboard and a set of dining chairs. Blackwell offers more than most historic houses with several rooms displaying historical exhibitions that explore different aspects of the Arts & Crafts Movement.

The original gardens were laid out by Arts & Crafts garden designer, Thomas Mawson, in a series of terraces to achieve the very best views from the house over the lake towards the Coniston fells. Today, Blackwell is bordered by beautiful flower beds set against a terrace of York stone paving, providing shelter for garden chairs and tables, surrounded by fragrant flowers and herbs. On the lower terrace there is a long sweep of lawn where visitors can stroll and take in the intoxicating beauty of the Lake District whatever the season.


 
 
 

2017-01-30

Ikon - Birmingham - U.K.

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Ikon is an internationally acclaimed art gallery situated in central Birmingham.
Housed in a magnificent neo-gothic school building, it is an educational charity and works to encourage public engagement with contemporary art through exhibiting new work in a context of debate and participation. It offers free entry to all.

The gallery programme features artists from around the world. A variety of media is represented, including sound, film, mixed media, photography, painting, sculpture and installation.
Ikon’s off-site programme develops dynamic relationships between art, artists and audiences outside the gallery. Projects vary enormously in scale, duration and location, challenging expectations of where art can be seen and by whom.
Education is at the heart of Ikon’s activities, stimulating public interest in and understanding of contemporary visual art. Through a variety of talks, tours, workshops and seminars, our Learning team aims to build a meaningful relationship with Ikon’s audience that enables visitors to engage with, discuss and reflect on contemporary art.

How it all began
In 1964, the artists’ group that founded Ikon published a prospectus that was as clear as it was idealistic. Their aesthetic proposition was neatly summarised:
“Ikon is intended as an antithesis to exclusive art establishments and galleries … [it] has been formed because of the need for an accessible place where the exchange of visual ideas can become a familiar reality.”
From its first home in a kiosk in the Bull Ring, through various moves around the city, Ikon now resides in Brindleyplace.


 
 
 

2017-01-27

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery - Birmingham - U.K.

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Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (BMAG) first opened in 1885. It is housed in a Grade II* listed city centre landmark building. There are over 40 galleries to explore that display art, applied art, social history, archaeology and ethnography.

The art gallery is famous for its Pre-Raphaelite paintings, which are part of the largest public Pre-Raphaelite collection in the world. 
Discover the fascinating story of the Staffordshire Hoard, the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever found, in its own dedicated gallery.
The Birmingham History collections feature prominently in the 'Birmingham: its people, its history' gallery, which covers the majority of the 3rd floor.
You can also see art and objects spanning seven centuries of European and World history and culture. This includes Greeks & Romans and Ancient Egypt.


 
 
 

2017-01-26

Victoria Art Gallery - Bath - U.K.

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The Victoria Art Gallery is the public art museum in Bath. It is run by Bath & North East Somerset Council and houses its collection of paintings, sculpture and decorative arts.

The building was designed in 1897 by John McKean Brydon, and has been designated as a Grade II listed building. The exterior of the building includes a statue of Queen Victoria, by Andrea Carlo Lucchesi, and friezes of classical figures by G. A. Lawson.

The Gallery was named to celebrate Queen Victoria's sixty years on the throne. It includes over 1,500 decorative arts treasures, including a display of British oil paintings from 17th century to the present day with works by Thomas Gainsborough, Thomas Jones Barker and Walter Sickert.
 
 
 
 
 

2017-01-25

Museum of East Asian Art - Bath - U.K.

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The Museum of East Asian Art is the only museum in the UK solely dedicated to the understanding and appreciation of East and Southeast Asian arts and cultures.

We collect, preserve and exhibit artefacts representing more than 7,000 years of artistry and craftsmanship from East and South East Asia.

We offer a broad range of opportunities to enjoy and learn about our unique collection and strive to be as accessible to as wide an audience as possible. To achieve this we encourage education, creativity, dialogue and research, and deliver a wide programme of rich learning and cultural experiences.


 
 
 

2017-01-24

Kumu - Tallinn - Estonia

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Kumu is the headquarters of the Art Museum of Estonia, as well as the largest and most impressive exhibition venue in Estonia. The museum opened on 17 February 2006. In 2008 Kumu received the European Museum of the Year Award. This is a noteworthy international recognition of Kumu’s aspiration to become a truly contemporary art museum, which is not just dedicated to collection, conservation and exposition, but is a multifunctional space for active mental activity, from educational programmes for small children to discussions about the nature and meaning of art in the modern world.

The construction of Kumu stretched on for a long period and, during this time, the concept of the museum also changed: the building that had initially been planned as a national gallery became a museum that functions on two levels: collections of Estonian art starting from the early 18th century are displayed on the third and fourth floors, and a modern art gallery is on the fifth floor. Art pre-dating World War II is exhibited on the third floor; the fourth floor houses an exhibition of works from the period of Soviet occupation. On Kumu’s fifth floor, there are exhibitions of contemporary art from Estonia and abroad. The contemporary art gallery is not just an exhibition venue but also an idea laboratory – a place where creativity has the freedom to experiment.

The international dimension occupies a very important place in Kumu’s activities. Half the rotating exhibitions (a total of 11 or 12 larger exhibitions are organised annually in the four exhibition halls) deal with Estonian art, and the other half with international historical art and modern art.
It is Kumu’s ambition to constantly participate in the Estonian and international art worlds, to which a contribution is made by the 250-seat auditorium, with its film programme, performances, concerts, seminars and conferences, the educational centre, with programmes and courses directed at various age groups, and the library, with the widest selection of art literature in Estonia.
 
Kumu’s role is to be both an educational and entertainment centre, a booster of art and artistic life, a place for reflection that carries a message of stability, a place that creates and provides experiences, and a creator and interpreter of meanings.
 
 
 
 
 
 

2017-01-23

Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums - Aberdeen - U.K.

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The origins of Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums can be traced to 1873 when John Forbes White and a number of local art collectors decided to hold a public exhibition to display their collections. From this developed a plan to establish a public art gallery for the benefit of citizens, an objective that continues to drive the programmes of activity within the Museums and Galleries service today.

Aberdeen's handsome granite Art Gallery, designed by A Marshall Mackenzie, one of the loveliest Victorian galleries in the UK, was opened in 1885. The displays combined industrial exhibitions with exhibitions of art, greatly enhanced by generous gifts, including Aberdeen granite merchant Alexander Macdonald's private collection in 1900. Twenty years later the building was extended to accommodate the establishment of a plaster cast collection from which art students at the newly established Gray's School of Art, at that time adjacent to the Art Gallery, could practice drawing. This light and clean central space is used today to exhibit works by leading contemporary artists.

In 1907 the Town Council assumed responsibility for the building and its growing collections. In the 1920s further development took place with the addition of the City's War Memorial and the Cowdray Hall, opened by King George V and Queen Mary. The cost of the War Memorial was met by public subscription, and that of the Cowdray Hall, a unique recital venue, by Lord and Lady Cowdray "with a view to encouraging the taste for art and music in the City of Aberdeen".

In 1937 the Regional Museum opened in the basement below the Cowdray Hall, with displays of local history, natural history and geology. The Regional Museum closed in the 1970s, with the opening of a new display space in James Dun's House. Also in the 1930s, plans were made to restore and refurbish "Cumberland House" a fine 16th century town house in Guestrow. The building was opened in 1953 by HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother as Provost Skene's House. The early 1960s saw further developments at the Art Gallery with the opening of the James McBey Print Room and Art Library in 1961. This fitting tribute to a famous local artist was thanks to the generosity of his widow, Marguerite, who left another substantial bequest when she died in the 1990s.

1985 saw the opening of Aberdeen Maritime Museum in Provost Ross's House on the Shiprow by HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. The museum was designed to tell the story of Aberdeen's maritime history, including the impact of the newest industry - North Sea oil.

The Council continued to expand its museum provision when the Tolbooth opened in 1995. One of the oldest buildings in Aberdeen, which includes 17th century gaols, this museum traces Aberdeen's civic history, including the history of crime and punishment.

 
 
 
 

2017-01-20

Kadriorg Art Museum - Tallinn - Estonia

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The Kadriorg Art Museum introduces, preserves and collects early foreign art – primarily western European and Russian paintings, graphic arts, sculpture and applied arts. The museum is located in Kadriorg Park in Tallinn, in a Baroque palace built by Tsar Peter the Great of Russia as a summer residence.

The Kadriorg Art Museum is the only museum in Estonia devoted to foreign art. Estonia’s largest collection of western European and Russian art (about 9,000 works of art from the 16th to 20th centuries) is located here. The Mikkel Museum houses the collection of paintings, graphic arts and porcelain donated to the museum by the private collector Johannes Mikkel (1907–2006).
 
The Kadriorg Art Museum has an extensive permanent exhibition, which displays the best of its foreign art collection. In addition, there are revolving exhibitions that deal with early European art and its history. The objectives of the Kadriorg Art Museum and its exhibition activities are to introduce the world’s art legacy and the creation of local collections in an international context, as well as to mediate ways of viewing and interpreting early art. Along with exhibitions, the museum’s publications and spring conferences also deal with topical issues of art history.
 
 
 
 
 

2017-01-19

Art Museum of Estonia - Tallinn - Estonia

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The Art Museum of Estonia, which was established in 1919, collects, conducts research on and introduces Estonian art dating from the Middle Ages to the present day

The Art Museum of Estonia is comprised of five museums, which form an organisation with a collective identity and development plan.


 
 
 

2017-01-18

Adamson-Eric Museum - Tallinn - Estonia

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The museum is dedicated to Adamson-Eric (1902–1968), one of the most versatile creative personalities in Estonian art in the 20th century. Mainly known as a brilliant painter, he was also skilled in nearly all fields of applied art. The building of the Adamson-Eric Museum was renovated in 1983, after a generous gift to the Art Museum of Estonia by the artist’s widow, who donated about a thousand works of art in different media to the museum. In addition to the permanent display and temporary exhibitions, education programmes, concerts and lectures are organized in the museum and its courtyard.
 
The permanent exhibition of the museum displays the creative heritage of Adamson-Eric (paintings, ceramics, leatherwork, jewellery, textiles, etc). Adamson-Eric’s idiosyncratic paintings and applied art pieces are characterised by elegance, refined colours and brilliant esprit. His aesthetic principles are based on the traditions of French painting. At the same time his art is closely connected to the local Northern environment and the traditions of Estonian national art. Adamson-Eric’s abundant work reflects the developments in fine and applied arts in Estonia during more than forty years.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

2017-01-17

Finnish Museum of Photography - Helsinki - Finland

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The Finnish Museum of Photography is Finland's national specialized museum for photography. Through exhibitions, collection management and research, the museum strives to promote and foster photographic art and culture in Finland. Founded on the initiative of Finnish photography organizations, the museum opened its doors in 1969. The museum is maintained by the Foundation for the Finnish Museum of Photography.

The museum's main support comes from the Finnish Ministry of Education and from the City of Helsinki, which provides premises in the Cable Factory in Ruoholahti, Helsinki.

The vast collections include around 3.7 million pictures spanning various photographical user cultures. The emphasis in new collection acquisitions is on contemporary Finnish photographic art.
The archives contain a wide range of documents from newspaper clippings and sound recordings to films, printed invitations, and posters. The object collection comprises 3500 items, such as cameras and photographic instruments. The archives and collections are exhibited in the Angle space, in special exhibitions and on the museum's website.
The museum carries out basic research on its collections and produces research publications. It also promotes research, mainly by maintaining a nationwide network of photographic researchers, and by awarding grants from the Börje and Dagmar Söderholm fund. The museum maintains a database of Finnish photographers, along with other databases and a photography library for researchers.


 
 
 

2017-01-16

Kiasma - Helsinki - Finland

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One of Kiasma’s key roles is to present and collect the very latest works in contemporary art. There are currently about 8,000 works in the collections, and about 100 new pieces are added every year. As part of the collections of the Finnish National Gallery, Kiasma’s collections are an important element of Finnish cultural heritage. Kiasma focuses mainly on works by Finnish artists and that of artists living in nearby countries. The museum also adds to its collections by commissioning new work.

Works in the collections extend from those by artists who began their work in the 1970s to those made in the present. Collection operations cover acquisitions, commissions, loans and depositions, as well as exhibitions and publications.

Acquisitions by Kiasma are made by the Acquisitions Committee composed of experts from Kiasma as well as two artists or other external experts. The chief curator of collections presents the committee’s suggestions to the museum director, who makes the final purchase decisions.
The committee keeps abreast of exhibitions and events in the art scene. Works are purchased from galleries, as well as directly from artists. Within its means, Kiasma also produces or co-produces works for its exhibitions, some of which may end up in the museum’s collections.


 
 
 

2017-01-13

Design Museum - Helsinki - Finland

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Welcome to Design Museum, an internationally recognized national specialist museum of Finnish design. Design Museum researches, collects, stores and documents design, and displays it both in Finland and in touring exhibitions abroad.

Design Museum is located in the Kaarti section of central Helsinki in the former building of the Brobergska Samskolan high school (architect Gustav Nyström 1895).


 
 
 

2017-01-12

Ateneum - Helsinki - Finland

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When the Ateneum was placed under government administration in 1990, its collections were divided between the Ateneum Art Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art. At the moment, the work of artists who have begun their career in 1960 or later is administered by the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma. Ateneum’s collections thus introduce Finnish art from the Gustavian period of the mid-18th century to the modernist movements of the 1950s. Ateneum also houses a handsome collection of international art, featuring works by such masters as Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Paul Cézanne, Fernand Léger and Marc Chagall.

The collection was initiated a couple of years after the Finnish Art Society had been established in 1846. The society itself acquired a few works considered worthy of the collection, while it also accepted donations of one or more works. A part of the donations was pure financial support. Interest from private testamentary funds provided great relief for the society struggling on a tight budget.

In 1863, the collection managed by the Finnish Art Society was first put on permanent public display. In 1864, the government began to purchase model works for the society’s drawing school on state funds. The Ateneum building itself, dubbed a “Palace of a million marks” by its contemporaries, was completed in 1887, and the Finnish Art Society’s collections were first exhibited in its rooms on 13 October 1888. The name Ateneum alludes to the Greek goddess of wisdom and warfare, Pallas Athene. She was also a protector of cities and government. Ateneum means a temple or shrine to Athene.

The most notable donation at the turn of the twentieth century was made by Licentiate of Medicine Herman Frithiof Antell, who not only donated the whole of his collection but also the funds for regular acquisitions. The Antell Collection includes works by van Gogh, Gauguin, C̩zanne, and Edvard Munch, choices questioned by his contemporaries Рto them the Finnish Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Albert Edelfelt, and Hugo Simberg seemed so much safer options.

The museum’s own acquisition committee concentrated on purchasing Finnish art. Sometimes, however, their funds were not even adequate for that. Towards the late 1920s the museum expressed its concern that there would be serious gaps in their Finnish collection.
The 1950s and 60s saw a campaign to raise the Ateneum to a standard European level, and one way of achieving this was thought to be the purchase of international contemporary art. The number of acquisitions, however, was no bigger than that in the beginning of the century. The emphasis was still on Finnish art, as befits a national gallery.

During the first half of the twentieth century the museum received several important donations, but then things changed. Social structure was established, and hopes for an economic boom replaced the insecurity of the war era. On the other hand, the time of extensive donations seemed to be over. The museum had already received a large collection of works by turn-of-the-century masters.

The Ateneum Art Museum adds to its collection every year. The first major acquisition after the museum was placed under government administration was an early self-portrait by Helene Schjerfbeck, purchased with support from the Friends of Ateneum.

In recent years, Ateneum has once again received some notable donations from private individuals as well. Such donations include the Ester and Jalo Sihtola Fine Arts Foundation collection, the Yrjö and Nanny Kaunisto Collection and the Rolando and Siv Pieraccini Collection.


 
 
 

2017-01-11

South African National Gallery - Cape Town - South Africa

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South Africa's premier art museum houses outstanding collections of South African, African, British, French, Dutch and Flemish art.

Selections from the Permanent Collection change regularly to enable the museum to have a full programme of temporary exhibitions of paintings, works on paper, photography, sculpture, beadwork, textiles and architecture.

They provide insight into the extraordinary range of aesthetic production in this country, the African continent and further afield.


 
 
 







2017-01-10

South African Museum - Cape Town - South Africa

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The South African Museum houses more than one and a half million specimens of scientific importance. The collections now range from fossils almost 700-million years old to insects and fish caught last week. There are also stone tools made by people 120 000 years ago, traditional clothes from the last century, and T-shirts printed yesterday.
The South African Museum was founded in 1825. In 1897 the Museum moved to its present building in the historic Company's Garden. Since then millions of visitors have wandered its halls and corridors to be stimulated and inspired by its collections and exhibitions. They have left the Museum with a better understanding of the earth and its biological and cultural diversity, past and present.
 
 
 
 
 

2017-01-09

Bo-Kaap Museum - Bo-Kaap, Cape Town - South Africa

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The Bo-Kaap Museum, situated in the historic area that became home to many Muslims and freed slaves after the abolition of slavery, showcases local Islamic culture and heritage. The Bo-Kaap itself is well worth a visit. Colourful houses, steep cobbled streets, the muezzin’s calls to prayer, and children traditionally dressed for Madrassa, add to this unique Cape experience.
The Museum was established in 1978 as a satellite of the SA Cultural History Museum. It was furnished as a house that depicts the lifestyle of a nineteenth-century Muslim family.
Today, the museum is in a transformation stage.
The Museum is managed by Iziko Museums, an amalgamation of five national museums that includes the SA Cultural History Museum and its satellites. The museum is being changed into a social history museum that will tell the story of the local community within a national socio-political and cultural context and two new displays with this theme have already been completed.
 
 
 
 
 

2017-01-06

Art Gallery of South Australia - Adelaide - Australia

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Founded in 1881, the Art Gallery of South Australia is home to one of Australia's great art collections, housed in one of Adelaide's most beautiful buildings. Located at the heart of Adelaide's cultural boulevard, North Terrace, between the South Australian Museum and University of Adelaide, the Art Gallery welcomed more than 700,000 visitors last year.

 
 
 
 


2017-01-05

Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art - Adelaide - Australia

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The Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art is one of the University of South Australia’s leading creative centres; its establishment, in 2007, reflects the University’s determination to make a dynamic contribution to the intellectual and cultural life of South Australia and to the Australian tertiary education sector.

The Samstag Museum of Art presents a changing exhibitions program of contemporary visual art, and art of the past that has relevance for us today. The program is intended to be of broad interest and educational value to a wide public community.  The Museum additionally manages and develops the University of South Australia Art Collection and administers the prestigious Samstag Scholarships on behalf of the American-based Trustee of the estate of Gordon Samstag.

The Samstag Museum has been named in honour of two distinguished American benefactors to Australian culture, whose remarkable bequest provides opportunities for Australian artists to study overseas, through the University of South Australia.

Located near Adelaide’s other premier cultural institutions on North Terrace at the UniSA’s City West campus, the Samstag Museum of Art aims to stimulate, challenge and engage its audiences with a program of diverse and innovative exhibitions, publications and associated public activities.

 
 
 
 

2017-01-04

Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art - Brisbane - Australia

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In the late 19th century, Queensland artists Isaac Walter Jenner and R. Godfrey Rivers successfully lobbied for the creation of a state art gallery, which opened as the Queensland National Art Gallery in 1895. It occupied a series of temporary premises prior to the opening of its permanent home at Brisbane's South Bank in 1982.

The establishment of the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT) in 1993 forged a focus on artwork of the region, and as an ongoing exhibition series the APT created a case for a second building to display growing contemporary collections. The Gallery of Modern Art opened in 2006, creating a two-campus institution.

The Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) is a single institution located across two adjacent river-side buildings in the Cultural Precinct at Brisbane's South Bank. Our vision is to be the leading institution for the contemporary art of Australia, Asia and the Pacific.

QAGOMA holds a Collection of over 17,000 works of historical, modern and contemporary art, and stages a dynamic program of Australian and international exhibitions. We are home to the Children's Art Centre which collaborates on interactive artworks with leading artists from around the world, and the Australian Cinémathèque, the only dedicated cinema facility in an Australian art museum.

QAGOMA operates its own retail outlets and cafes and restaurants, proceeds from which support the Gallery.

 
 
 
 

2017-01-03

Heide Museum of Modern Art - Bulleen Victoria - Australia

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Heide Museum of Modern Art began life in 1934 as the home of John and Sunday Reed and has since evolved into one of Australia's most important cultural institutions.

Soon after purchasing the fifteen acre property on which Heide stands in 1934, founders John and Sunday Reed opened their home to like-minded individuals such as artists Sidney Nolan, Albert Tucker, Joy Hester, John Perceval and Danila Vassilieff. They nurtured a circle of artists, writers and intellectuals who contributed to Heide becoming a place for the discussion, creation and promotion of modern art and literature.

John and Sunday made a lasting contribution to Australian culture through their support of creative endeavours in the visual arts, literature and architecture. In the mid-1950s the Reeds established the Gallery of Contemporary Art and in 1958, with the assistance of friend and entrepreneur Georges Mora, they re-launched the gallery as the Museum of Modern Art of Australia. This eventually led to the formal establishment of the museum.

Amassing an outstanding collection of the contemporary art of their time, the Reeds outgrew their original farmhouse, now known as Heide I, and in 1964 commissioned the construction of a ‘gallery to be lived in’ from David McGlashan. This modernist architectural icon eventually opened as a public art museum in November 1981 following its purchase by the State Government on behalf of the people of Victoria. Although the Reeds lived to see their vision fulfilled of Heide as a public museum, they both died shortly afterwards in December 1981, ten days apart. They are remembered as champions of modern art and literature and remain two of Australia's most important art benefactors.

Having presented almost 300 solo, group and thematic exhibitions of modern and contemporary art since becoming a public art museum in 1981, Heide has a gained a national reputation for artistic excellence and established a unique position in the overall artistic and cultural history of Australia.
The work of modernist artists of the ‘Heide circle’ has featured in the exhibition program since the inaugural exhibition Ned Kelly Paintings by Sidney Nolan in 1981, and continued with exhibitions of works by Sam Atyeo, Arthur Boyd, Charles Blackman, Joy Hester, Mirka Mora and Albert Tucker.
In keeping with the Reeds’ support of the artists of their time, Heide is dedicated to promoting the work of living artists. Solo contemporary artist exhibitions have included Susan Norrie, Rick Amor, Kathy Temin, Fiona Hall, Stephen Benwell and Emily Floyd.
Since 1996, Heide has also shown a series of small project exhibitions by emerging artists including Dylan Martorell, Charlie Sofo, Louise Saxton, Paul Yore, and Siri Hayes.
Ground-breaking historical surveys have included Modern Times: The Untold Story of Modernism in Australia (2009), Cubism & Australian Art (2009–10) and most recently Less is More: Minimalism and Post Minimalism in Australia (2012).

 
 
 
 


2017-01-02

Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery - Hobart - Australia

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Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) is Tasmania's leading natural, cultural and heritage organisation. It is a combined museum, art gallery and herbarium which safeguards the physical evidence of Tasmania's natural and cultural heritage, and the cultural identity of Tasmanians.

TMAG is Australia's second-oldest museum and has its origins in the collections of Australia's oldest scientific society, the Royal Society of Tasmania, established in 1843.  The first permanent home of the museum opened on the corner of Argyle and Macquarie streets in 1863 and the museum has gradually expanded from this corner to occupy the entire city block.

The TMAG precinct is one of Australia's most historically significant sites.  Included in the precinct is Tasmania's oldest surviving public building, the 1808-10 Commissariat Store; the Private Secretary's Cottage, built prior to 1815 and originally adjacent to old Government House; and Tasmania's first federal building, the 1902 Custom House.

At TMAG we care for the State Collections of Tasmania: almost 800,000 objects as diverse as fossils and fine art. Our collections represent the essence of our society's values and are a major reference point for Tasmanians to gain a greater appreciation of what it means to be Tasmanian and to understand our place within the global community.