Exhibitions
Past
Facing Percy Grainger
Ian Potter Museum of Art, 25 October 2007 to 3 February 2008
Originally presented in 2006 by the National Library of Australia in association with the Grainger Museum, Facing Percy Grainger is a major exhibition that explores the life, artistic world and musical achievements of this unique Australian. Forever associated, perhaps to his detriment, with the tuneful 'Country Gardens', Percy Grainger (1882-1961) was a celebrated pianist and composer, a pioneering folklore collector, musical inventor, social commentator and archivist.
Percy Grainger was an obsessive autoarchivist who left the University of Melbourne a diverse and internationally recognised archive and artefact collection numbering over 100,000 items. His collection reflects his many enthusiasms and parallel interests including his experience as a virtuosic concert pianist, his career as a composer and arranger, and ‘free music’ experimenter, his pioneering work in folk song collecting and his untiring voice as a social commentator.
This colourful and thought-provoking exhibition will be on display at the Ian Potter Museum of Art at the University of Melbourne Parkville campus from 25 October until 3 February 2008.
A substantial catalogue of essays published by the National Library of Australia accompanies this exhibition.
Curators: Brian Allison and Astrid Britt Krautschneider
John Harry Grainger: Architect and Civil Engineer
Leigh Scott Gallery, 22 October 2007 to 7 January 2008
Accompanying online exhibition
Accompanying book: Brian Allison (ed.), John Harry Grainger: Architect and Civil Engineer, Melbourne: University of Melbourne, 2007.
An exhibition that investigates the life and works of John Harry Grainger, father of Percy Grainger. Opening on 22 October in the Leigh Scott Gallery at the University of Melbourne’s Baillieu Library, the exhibition highlights the extraordinary achievements of this gifted architect and engineer who has been largely overlooked by history.
Grainger’s most complex engineering project in Australia was the design for Princes Bridge over the Yarra River in Melbourne. He also designed an innovative swing bridge over the Latrobe River near Sale in Gippsland.
Grainger worked as an architect in a number of lucrative partnerships winning prestigious design prizes which included the ‘Georges’ building in Melbourne’s Collins Street, the northern wing to Melbourne Town Hall as well as the impressive French Renaissance revival style art gallery and library in Auckland, New Zealand. Grainger also held the post of principal architect in the Public Works Department in Perth Western Australia. By the end of his relatively short working life he had designed buildings in all states of Australia as well as in New Zealand and Colombo.
The majority of items displayed in this exhibition are drawn from the Grainger Museum collection. A substantial catalogue of essays published by the University of Melbourne will accompany the exhibition.
Curators: Brian Allison and Astrid Britt Krautschneider
The Accidental Wunderkammer: Decorative Arts and Curiosities from the Grainger Collection
Online
John Harry Grainger: Architect and Civil Engineer
Facing Percy Grainger: Joint Exhibition with the National Library of Australia