Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 10 : Record of press coverage, March 1982 - May 1984

Th e Courier - Mail 1 Septemb e r 1982 Co ur i Festival almost 'too big' Gallery WITH not quite three weeks 10 go before the opening of Festival '82, organ,s.:.rs are saying It Is going to be so big, It may even be too bigI Execu1ivc Dirc<;lor of Festival '82, Mr Norman Llewelyn, ,aid that alm<Mt 3000 nalional ~nd ovcruu participants may be involvod in 1hc f"tival, which will'bc the bigal and m011 ambitious cultural event In Brisbanc'1 hi11ory, He said u ·ganiura had been overwhelmed wilh lhe response of or– rers from ovcr$C8S countries. "Brisbane has never '"n the like of it before 1and probably never will again," he said. Fes1ival '82 combines with lhc 2111 Warana feSl ival to complement thC: Commonwealth Games in September, , The festival originated during the"· 1978 Edmonton Comril'onwcalth Games when Sri Lanka senl a dance troupe 10 Canada in11cad of a sporting learn. Thirty other couniries made sim– ilar cultural contribu1io111 true festi– val, wbicb bu become an~led part of lhc Commonweallh Games, , Artisu, writers, pcrformcn and film• makers from almo11 all Com• monwcalth countries will take part in the festival, which will 00111i1t of five different cultural scc1ion1. The visual arts will be concentrated In 1he new Queensland Art Gallery with displays such ~ the "Costumes, Masks and Jewellery" display as well as various photographic, painting and tclliles exh ibition,. Mounties from Canada and the Royal Weddin1 memorabilia will be a few of the highlighlS, At the lime of the festival , Brisbane will be flooded with national and int.er • national theatrical offerings , "Macrcady" from Brilain, the Hong Kong Orchestra and Australian piani1t Roger Woodward arc examples of lhe performance standard available to Brisbane audiences during the festival. Writers from Australia and overseas will also join to di•cuss lheir works and hold seminars and lectures on literature · during the festival which coincides with 1 Wri1en Weck. The Brisbane Communily ArlS Ccn• tre will be the fOCUI point for tb~ film and video prcaentalion scction of the festival. Documentaries and education films and their makers will combine in another facet of the cultural celebra• tion. ",And the last section of the fC$tival is th~-Communlty Arts section 'fhich will involve clowns in the mall, water skiing, horticultural shows and all the commu• nity activities associated wilh a festi– val," Mr Llcwelyn said. "We want Festival '82 to be a total celebration in the market place at the time of the Games and I'm sure it will l>c magnificent," - SUZANNE PEKOL The Quee11.1land An Gallery will be closed from Sep&ember 6 to 19 &o prepare for the bluest estravacanu, It hu ever ban&, October 17 you'll see how 12 i.rt15ts use fibre art. which Ill more than Just ltnlttlng IUld tapestry. lere Gallery has a display of CanadJan phot<>graphs from September 20 to Oc– tober 18 arid works by Ca• nadJan print-makers at the AMP Buildl.nr, September 9 to October 18. Th• work of some QueenslMd sculptors will be at the Brubu>• Com– manUy Ar1I Crnltt for Festlval '82. Th• PrtnceM of Wa.les· wP<ldlng dttM will be part of the Co.stu mes, Fa• cemasb and JeweUery of the Commonwe&Jth ex– hibition. Cultural property from th• 46 nations wtll be shown from September 19 to December 5. For the same season the Ollllery v.111 exhibit 400 phot.OS show1ng the devel– opment of Commonwea.lth countries since the 1890s. From September 19 to Starting a week earlier, the Australian touch 15 addP<I to the Art Oallery·s program wtlh screen– pr1nts, Lapestry, and con– temporary crafts. Other Spring exhlblt,s lnrlud• Ocunlc and Ab– orlgtnaJ Art, N•w TeJrtlle Art from BrltaJn and The Art In Sport. The Commonwealth's Pacific Region presents a craft exhibition at the Cratla Cow,cll Galler,' from September 19 to Oc– tober 10. The Seven HUI.a ,\n Col• The Wal•• Bank haa an eJthlbltlon of Fran.Ii: Hur– ley's career a., a war pho– togn.phrr from Septem– ber 20 to October 16 and pottery from Ancient Oret'Ce from September 19 to October 10. Al Amlralla Houe dur– ing the same period you can see Ulpestry created by Australian children during th• lntematlonaJ Year of the ChJJd, and the entries In the Warana Ch11dren 's Art Exhibition, Students of the F1ytn11 Art School will show their portraJture at the Kelvin Gron CAE Gallrry. Ant.Jque handpaJnted mBps from the Depart– ment of MApplng and Sur– veying will be on show "t the EneaUn Ballclln&. The Embroiderers OuUd wUI exhibit at Some"Ule Home, South Brtabane and the Educallon De– panment's contribution Is an exhibition of ehJJdrerl"s art to be presented at the Bardon Prof...toRAI De• velopmrnt Centre, director defends his new 'house' By BOB JOHNSON "It's like moving into a new house," Raoul Mell ish sa id. "You never find things I 00 percent right." Mr Mellish, the Queensland Art Gal– lery dircclor, was commenting on criti– cism by some visitors of the new gallery in the Queensland Cultural Centre. "We welcome people lclling us know how we can make 1hings belier," he said. "Ninety- nine poinl nine percent of the visitors go away del ighted but if we receive complaints we deal with them." Here arc some of the complaints and what has been done, or is being done: o Name lags painted on the noor: They arc now up beside the works. o Floor-level pools into which some people have s1eppcd: The accidents hap– pened when 1hc pools wc_re still but _whc_n their surfaces were acuvatcd, which 1s normal, lhcre were no more we. [eel. • Lack of signs, particularly in the car park: Some more signs have been pul up recently. but there arc still nol enough, Mr Mellish admiued this and described the car park as "a bil or a maze". Out– side signs arc also minimal, but a build– ing like the Cultural Centre should not be over-si gnposted , o The library has onlysix books acces• siblc 10 the publ ic: This one hurt Mr Mellish beca use the library has jusl boughl 300 books from Sydney. "When you gel this sorl of criticism ii gch a bi1 belowlhe bell," he said. • Hard for disabled people to move around: M"r Mellish said 1ha1 all parts of the gallery were accessible by ramps or lifts. Two more lih dri,·crs would be em– ployed 10 help wit h 1his. Mr Mell ish said that 1he gallery was also criticised for not having enough of its own collection on show and for plac– ing 100 much emphasis on craft. He said 1he gallery, which wa, now only in its third month or operation, was in unusual circumstances. "We have had five major exhibitions since the opening," Mr Mellish said. "Nol many galleries can claim that. But we have had a sclcclion fromour perma• nent collcclion on show 100." The gallery had been made 1he venue for the visual arts se. tion or Fes11val 82, the cultural festiva l bc.,. 6 held in con• junclion wi1h the Commonweal th Games, Mr Mellish said. "As well as showing 1he bcsl of our permanent collection we will have nine specica l exhibitions," he said. Mr Mell ish said 1hc gallery would have 10 be c\o,;cd fromSeptember 610 19 10 SCI ii up fo r the festival Replying 10 1he cri1 ic1,m 1h,1 there " "' 100 much craft on ,hov.. ~1r ~1ell11h ;id: "There " a predominance of craf1 at prc&cn t. W e arranged to ha\'Can c1.t11• bition of the best Australian craft of lhc last 1wo years on shov.· for Festival 82,"