Queensland Art Gallery Annual Report 2003-04

INITIATIVES AND SERVICES 24 RESEARCH The Queensland Art Gallery continued to foster research into the Collection, while the Gallery's Research Library continued to support both Collection and program development. The Research Library supports research endeavours through expanding specialist resources, in particular material relating to the contemporary art of the Asia–Pacific region as part of the work of the Australian Centre of Asia–Pacific Art. Results of Gallery research were made accessible to the public through a wide variety of publications, websites, information panels, children's activity books and video documentation. Extensive video documentation of artists' interviews, performances and practices supported 'Story Place: Indigenous Art of Cape York and the Rainforest', and an education resource kit and children's activity book enhanced the exhibition experience for young people and children. Research into programming and designing exhibitions for children continued. Assisted by researchers from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), the Gallery's education staff conducted interviews with six groups of children who participated in the creative activities for kids as part of the 'Lost and Found' holiday program. Staff gathered information on the interactions and relationships formed between children and artists with a view to informing directions for future children's programming. In addition, the innovative research findings of the QUT Museums Collaborative, a three-year collaborative research and training project from 2000–02, were published online <http://eab.ed.qut.edu.au/activities/projects/museum/manual.htm >. Involving the Queensland Art Gallery, Queensland Sciencentre, Queensland Museum, Global Arts Link, and the Queensland University of Technology, the focus of this project was the investigation of young children's interactive and informal learning in museum-based settings. The project provided national recognition of the innovative research and delivery of children's programs by Queensland institutions. A number of Gallery staff undertook international travel for the purposes of research and professional development. For a forthcoming exhibition of Californian art, Anne Kirker (Senior Curator, Special Projects, QGMA) travelled to the United States to conduct research at public institutions and private collections. Kathryn Weir (Head of Cinema, QGMA) attended the International Committee of the International Council of Museums and Collections of Modern Art General Meeting and Conference in San Francisco, while Maud Page (Curator, Pacific Art) attended the Second Auckland Triennial and the Pasifika Festival in New Zealand. Conservation staff Anne Carter (Head of Conservation) and Amanda Pagliarino (Conservator, Sculpture) attended the courses The Painter's Palette in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century: Pigment Preparation and Painting Technology (Maastricht, the Netherlands), and Preservation of Electronic Records: New Knowledge and Decision Making (Canadian Conservation Institute, Ottawa), respectively. Naomi Flatt (Managerial Research Assistant) undertook a three-month internship program at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. Tiffany Noyce (Associate Registrar) accompanied the transportation of the Rubens portrait Young woman in a fur wrap (after Titian) c.1629–30 to Rubenshuis in Antwerp, Belgium. Bruce McLean (Curatorial Intern, Indigenous Australian Art) travelled to Japan and presented lectures for the Australian Embassy, Tokyo, and the Australian Arts Festival Japan 2003 to coincide with the opening of the 'Spirit Country' exhibition at Kushiro City Museum, Hokkaido. Anna Marsden (Head of Development) was awarded a Fellowship through the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust to investigate fundraising programs in art museums in the United States and United Kingdom. Conservation initiatives during the reporting year included the hosting of a workshop for professional conservators; Moulding, Casting and Gap-filling for Glass and Ceramics, an intensive five-day course on repair and replication techniques for glass and ceramics, was presented by Stephen Koob (Conservator, Corning Museum of Glass, New York). Interest in the workshop was substantial, and it was held twice to cater for the number of interested participants. Conservation technical research projects continued with Gillian Osmond (Conservator, Painting) researching metal soap formation in oil paintings dating from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by Australian and British artists, and Anne Carter (Head of Conservation) completed preliminary research into the stability of fluorescent pigments. Papers on both topics were presented at the Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Materials symposium in March 2004. Gallery conservators — including John Hook (Senior Conservator, Paintings) and Conservation interns Alyssa Aleksanian and Nicola Hall — also continued work on the Old Master Project, which involved the analysis and restoration of historical paintings from Queensland collections. PUBLICATIONS The Queensland Art Gallery engaged in a diverse publishing program during the year and also sought to improve its international distribution networks. The first major publication for 2003–04 was Story Place: Indigenous Art of Cape York and the Rainforest , a 240-page full-colour book profiling the art and culture of Cape York Peninsula through essays, interviews, artist and community profiles, and specially commissioned photography. In December 2003 the monograph of award-winning artist Ah Xian was published. Supported by the Australian Centre of Asia–Pacific Art (ACAPA), Ah Xian profiles the artist's sculptures in lacquer-work, jade and porcelain, and reveals the complex processes used to create the breathtaking life-size cloisonné work now in the Gallery's Collection, Human human – lotus, cloisonné figure 1 2000–01. Following the release of Ah Xian , Video Hits: Art & Music Video was published in March 2004. Video Hits profiles the work of over 30 Australian and international artists and music directors, and reveals contemporary music video to be an experimental, open medium, fast changing in its techniques and open to multiple interpretations. The Gallery was the recipient of numerous awards for its publication design during 2003–04, including a prestigious gold award for design for the APT 2002: Asia–Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art publication at the annual Brisbane Advertising and Design Awards in October 2003. Silver awards were also received for the Gallery's Prime Two poster and program. The Gallery attracted three silver medals at the 2003 Queensland Printing Industry Craftsmanship Awards for books ( Story Place: Indigenous Art of Cape York and the Rainforest ), saddle-stitched booklets ( Story Place Opening Celebrations program) and posters ('Colour: Contemporary Art for Kids'). A range of high-quality promotional publications including exhibition posters, flyers and media kits in support of exhibitions, events and programs were produced by the Gallery. Preview , the quarterly brochure, continued to serve