(R)october 2009

The Western Plains Cultural Centre (WPCC) is a veritable nest of activity this October with a host of new shows and events to inspire and provoke.

• In the Main Gallery is Couture of Passion: Costumes of Dame Joan Sutherland from the Opera Australia Collection which has been a big hit with audiences.
• The Children's Gallery is playing host to an amazing array of original ilustrations from some of the most well-known Australian children's picture books from the collection of Albert Ullin (pioneering Melbourne children's book specialist). Hooked On Books will make you revisit your childhood bookshelf.
• The Project Gallery features the amazing digital photomosaics of Spanish artist Joan Fontcuberta. Googlegrams features images created by the artist using Google Images and a host of search terms.
• The Regional Art Space features a moving installation by local artist Penny Volkofsky. Singing features exquisitely constructed dresses formed out of relief-printed tissue paper. The works stand as memorials to individuals interred in the Dubbo Cemetery.
• The New Media Space features an interactive project entitled Intimate Transactions. Developed by the Transmute Collective, the piece features a body-shelf on which the participant stands and controls an avatar on a screen, using only their body. An identical set-up at the Albury Regional Gallery, allows both particpants to interact on-screen.
• The Museum Space features an exhibition entitled Dubbo 10: Community Voices which features objects from the Dubbo Regional Museum collection. 10 members of the Dubbo community were asked to respond to the objects and the results are a fascinating insight into the collection.
• Check out are Fabulous Fifties display in the foyer display cases. Curated and sourced by WPCC Ambassador Mary Ratcliffe, it features a trove of objects that will take you back to those crazy 1950s.

READ TO ME
Each Thursday morning at 11am, join our WPCC Ambassadors for book readings in the Children's Gallery until 6 December. All are welcome (there's plenty of pillows) and its free. Discover old favourites as well as new books you may not know.

50/50 VISION
This Saturday 17 October sees the Centre celebrate its 3rd birthday with a 1950s inspired family fun day. Continuing our decade-inspired events (last year's 20s theme was positively smashing), this year will see a visual explosion of the Fabulous Fifties! There'll be heaps of entertainment, food, exhibitions, dancing demonstrations, hula hoop competitions, 50s displays, music, movies.....fun for one and all! The celebrations kick off at 5pm and continue until 8pm. All are welcome and its FREE!

NO SILLY BUSINESS
Saturday 24 October sees the next installment of the ever-popular professional development workshops for artists This Business Called Art. This session will feature 3 speakers discussing differing aspects of the art world - Curator Dr Julia Jones will present a session devoted to the fundamentals of Curating, Arts Lawyer Rebecca Laubi will explore the legal realm in relation to arts practice, and the Artists Anonymous session, Euan McLeod will give us the good oil on his career and experiences as a successful contemporary artist. The workshop will end with an artist talk by current Regional Art Space exhibiting artist Penny Volkofsky, about her haunting installation Singing. The workshop kicks of at 9am and will conclude at 4pm. Registration fee is $25 and includes morning tea and lunch. Contact the Centre on 02 6801 4444 for your space now!

MARK IT
The WPCC will be the venue for the inaugural Art Markets on Sunday 1 November from 10am - 1pm. The markets are being organised by the leader of our hardworking Guides, Waste to Art coordinator and general WPCC stalwart, Lee Cooper. Lee is keen to hear from any artists wishing to set up a stall on the day. Says Lee - "Artists are encouraged to set up a display of their works on the grassy area between the Outlook Cafe and No. 3 Oval (Cricket Oval). One should bring an umbrella (hoping for a sunny day), easels to display, folding chair/table and some float money. There will be access to some easels from the WPCC, and if the weather is inclement, works will be displayed in the QantasLink Auditorium." Further information is available from Lee Cooper on 02 6884 3498.

We would like your feedback on any of the information listed above so feel free to leave a comment or suggestion below by clicking on the COMMENTS button. Thanks.

Back to the WPCC website.

A Guiding Light

One of the most satisfying things you can do is guide at the WPCC. You learn new things, work with a great group of people, and get the unique opportunity to share your passion and enthusiasm with a whole range of visitors.
The WPCC is having an information session for new guides this Wednesday (28th Jan) at 2.30pm. You'll learn what it takes to be a WPCC guide, find out about the training sessions, and get to meet people that are already guides who'll share with you the enjoyment they get from what they do.
So if you are thinking of taking your interest in art or heritage one step further, come down to the WPCC this Wednesday. It could be the best thing you do all year.

Old Stuff

Some old things are, let’s face it, awful. I’m thinking of leftovers which have been in the fridge since, now let’s see, was it last Thursday – no we had chicken on Thursday, so it may have been Friday, or was it Wednesday – anyway, you think it might be bad so you have to resort to the old sniff test. But is it off or just ‘savoury’? So you call the spouse, the kids, and lastly, people walking past the house, before deciding that it’s probably OK and then tuck in. Two hours later you’re in the smallest room cursing humanity’s lack of a decent nose, and vowing to date and label everything you put in the fridge. Other old things that don’t seem to get much love are magazines, newspapers, bent spoons, and Uncle Joe (the one that everyone agrees does smell off). They just make the place look untidy.

And so, we toss ‘em. If we are environmentally aware (and if you’re not, tut tut) we recycle them, but out they must go. And we do it with a grim determination. We have books, actual proper books with indexes and everything, telling us how to throw things out! I’ve even seen TV shows where stern faced women march into people’s garages and force them to throw out three quarters of what’s in there. Granted, the place looks much neater but I reckon there were harsh words uttered when the husband went looking for that bit of wire that was just the right length to keep the gate shut after the next-door neighbour’s tree fell on it.

Anyway, it seems to me that there is an altogether too hasty rush to throw out stuff that might, one day, be quite a remarkable bit of gear. We do keep lots of stuff – children’s drawings, photos and official certificates are high on the list – but, and I need to be careful here, there are only so many random crayon scratches marked “Spider, by Sophie aged 14 months” the world needs.

What the world will need is the stuff currently sitting in a box at the back of your garage, hiding in fear from stern faced TV women. A Rat Sac box from the 1960s, an ‘original Frisbee disc’ from your summer of love back in ’73, two cricket balls from the now defunct factory at the end of your street. Who keeps these things? In a hundred years will museums be full of nothing but bits of paper announcing that young Joshua can swim 20 metres without sinking to the bottom of the pool? They might be.

All this came from a school group I toured through Museum the other day. I’d shown them most of the impressive stuff, huge wagons, bright red army jackets, shiny machinery, when I stopped beside a case with a few bricks and a brick mould. The mould was used to make some of the 60,000 bricks used for Cockleshell Corner, built in 1911. It’s just a few bits of wood, fairly dull to look at, but what a find it is. How many brick moulds survived their working life? How many were used until they fell apart and then put on the fire? Of the thousands of moulds used across this land over the past two hundred plus years how many remain? Not many I’d guess. And the sad thing is that the others were thrown out, deliberately, and with forethought of malice (as TV judges tend to say) on to the (ahem) ‘scrapheap of history’.

So before throwing out that old toy, or newspaper, or frisbee just think about what the world might be missing if you do.

And one more thing, that bacon in the fridge, behind the milk – it’s off. Give it to the dog.

This post first appeared in The Daily Liberal on 20-12-2008.

The Museum - Must See TV

At the risk of using a copyrighted tag line, tune in to the ABC tomorrow to watch The Museum, a series looking at the goings-on behind the scenes at the British Museum. This week looks at conservators, including those working on restoring 3,000 year old Egyptian paintings. Surely a job that goes along with bomb disposal in terms of a mistake/penalty rating.