Wieneke Archive Book 4e : Exhibitions and Galleries in Australia - misc Presscuttings

A splendid public effort has made possible the combined University Study Centre and Art Gallery in Toowoomba. 6REAT DAY FOR THE DOWNS' Queensland University has the most advanced system for teaching country students of any university in Australia This year 3400 people are studying for degrees by corres- pondence. And nowhere are the external study facilities better used to the advantage of the community and so well appreciated as in Toowoomba. The people there have given Queensland University a home away from home. Their wonderful effort began in 1969. when the f ,o,ier man- aging director of ....woomba Foundry, Dr. L. A. Boyce. and his wife gave their house and 5.6 hectares of parklant m trust to the University for a conference and study centre. It is an L-shaped park of formal gardens, rain forest and meadows. bounded by Jellicoe, Range and Mckenzie Streets, It culminates today with the opening of a 6100.000 centre for external students to meet tutors and gain the often -needed en- couragement to pursue the long and difficult study courses that they undertake. At the same time one of the State's prized early Australian art collections will come under the trusteeship of the Univer- sity in Toowoomba in a new gal- lery adjoining the centre. The finance for this ambitious project, like the land, has come from Toowoomba residents. Again the lead crane from Pr. and Mrs Boyce II was at a public meeting at their home in February 1972 that the first resolution was made to build a university cen- tre. A month later. an elected committee met for the first time and set to work to plan the buildings The university architect Mr. James Maccormick, designer of the Australian pavilions at Expo's in Montreal and Osaka, prepared an outstanding design. It met with instantaneous ap- proval and enthusiasm. The buildings are set around an enclosed courtyard with landscaped garden and a foun- tain. As one enters through the gate the art gallery is on the right. linked by a covered way to the external studies centre on the left The centre comprises five tu- torial rooms with sloping cei- lings. roof windows and then huge windows from ceiling to floor along one entire wall of each. Alibrary and a common room are similarly designed. Some of the wall windows face the court; some face the park. Three of the tutorial rooms have partition walls so that they can easily be made into one large room. The art gallery is of quite as- tonishing design. Mr. Maccormick drew his in. spiration for it from two Sources As he wandered around the grounds that Ili' Bowe had donated, he was naturally drawn to four acres of rain forest in one corner: rain forest that had been carefully pre- served over the years by the Above: Part of the two -hectare rain forest on the Boyce property, which is being developed as a botanic garden for study by the University. Right: The new $100,000 external study centre and art gallery (right) nearing completion on Jellicoe Street, Toowoomba. City residents raised the funds to build the centre and it was designed by architect James Moccormick. 8 The Sunday Mail Color Magazine, March 17, 1974 culling of foreign plants and at the same time enhanced by the addition of ferns, fern trees. staghorns and crows' nests Everywhere he turned, he told Dr. Boyce. he came upon a new vista - and it is this con- stant element of surprise that he has aimed for in the gallery building. He studied - and fell in love with - the collection of paint- ings, etchings. sketches and woodcuts by early artists like Norman and Lionel Lindsay. Sir John Longstaff, Ivor Bele. Tom Roberts, Robert Johnson. Will Ashton and more. They were collected by the late Mr. W R F. Bolton, a director of Cobb and Co. trans- port company. in conjunction with his library of early Austra lion hooks. Ile dedicated the collection to his dear friend, Sir Lionel Lind- say and until now it had been housed in an old Toowoomba homestead and looked after by the Bolton family. When there was a suggestion the collection could go out of Queensland. the University asked to take over its trustee- ship. The new gallery in which it is being housed is all angles I SO one does not get a full view at once I, but goes from one oddly - shaped cubicle to another with the impact growing all the while. Neutral colored carpeting, as in the Osaka Expo pavilion covers the floors and continues on up the walls. With the plans for these ex- citing buildings before them. the committee set about raising the money. Some of the committee members were university grad- uates. some were business and professional men and all had a pride in their fair city. There were 30 of them in all. They donated generously themselves and as they happily admit "cajoled and persuaded" their friends, colleagues and aquaintances to give. By the time the appeal was of- ficially launched by the then' Queensland University Chan- cellor, Sir Alan Mansfield at a garden party in September 1972. they had cash and promises of 633.700 with another 610,000 promised by the State Govern- ment once they reached 850.000 At the end of September they had $57,120 and by June 1973, 682.900 Dr Boyce himself gave 610.- 000 and was personally respon sihle for obtaining at least $25. (x00 mare. This was in addition to the gift of his property and an endow- ment fund for the property maintenance so it would never became a burden on the univer- sity Some of the gifts were to extend over five years and in June 1973 it was derided to raise a loan on these to enable the project to be completed before i t was overtaken by rising costs. Dr. Boyce guaranteed the bridging loan of $60,000. The building contract was won by the Toowoomba firm of A. H. Hodge and Son Ltd. The completed building will be opened today by Sir Gordon Chalk in the presence of a justi- f :ably proud and happy, audience As the University Vice-Chan - cellar I Professor Zelman Cowen) has said, this centre is "exciting and rewarding . . . splendid and magnificent gift." Above: A visitor looks at some by the late Mr. W. R. D. Bolt,