MURRAY RIVER (ALBURY / WODONGA)
ArtsNational Murray River welcomes you.
ArtsNational Murray River is based in Albury Wodonga, twin cities that straddle the Murray River just 20 kilometers from the Hume Dam. It is home to MAMA, a vibrant and contemporary art gallery in Albury and Hyphen, a state-of-the-art Library Gallery in Wodonga. There are numerous other galleries representing regional and city-based artists. With many excellent dining options and several wineries in the area why not come and stay a while in our region. Guests are always welcome at our lectures.
Meandering Westward by Chris Ellis
Lectures:
Venue:
Our lectures are held in The Theatrette, Albury Convention Centre, 525 Swift Street, Albury.
Please subscribe to our newsletter by emailing murrayriver@artsnational.au for lecture and venue updates.
Time:
Lectures are held on a Monday evening.
6.00pm light supper with drinks available to purchase
6:30pm the lecture starts and runs for approximately 1 hour.
Membership:
Annual membership
$200 ($180 early bird )
To join email: murrayriver@artsnational.au
Guests welcome:
Visitors are welcome at a cost of $30. There is no need to prebook.
The cost for members of other ArtsNational societies is $15.
Contact:
For all enquiries please email: murrayriver@artsnational.au
Postal Address: PO BOX 1418 Albury NSW 2640
ABN: 54 768 939 861
Committee
Chair: Lynne Keys
Treasurer / Membership: Tony Keys
Secretary: Fiona Watson
2024 PROGRAM
HALF INTEREST DAY
Sunday 25 February 2024
Presented by Claire Blatherwick
Venue: Albury Library Museum, corner Kiewa and Swift Streets, Albury.
Time: 10.30am – 2pm
Cost: $50
LECTURE 1: THE FASCINATION OF JEWELLERY: IMPORTANT WOMEN COLLECTORS
Looking at the collections of four vastly different women and their approaches to jewelry, how their backgrounds influenced their choices, the messages jewelry can send in respect of status, wealth and politics. Marjorie Merriweather Post, Evalyn Walsh McLean, Madeleine Albright and Elizabeth Taylor are the subject of this richly illustrated talk.
LECTURE 2: THE STORY OF THE CULLINAN DIAMOND MINE
This talk deals with the fascinating story of a diamond mine in South Africa which remains the source of the largest piece of diamond rough in history. From the creation of diamonds deep within the earth’s crust to images taken by the speaker as she travelled 750m underground to examine the workings of the mine and of course a look at some of the famous diamonds it has produced, this talk gives a behind the scenes look at something most of us only ever see in shops.
Clare is an independent jewellery consultant with over 20 years’ experience in the industry. She spent 10 years as Head of Jewellery for Bonhams in Scotland, which involved travelling internationally searching for unique jewels to auction. Clare has a passion for the historical aspect of jewellery and lectures widely on this in both the U.K and the U.S Clare is also a member of the Society of Jewellery Historians.
Monday 26 February 2024
THE WORLD OF PEARLS
Presented by Claire Blatherwick
Venue: The Theatrette, Albury Convention Centre, 525 Swift Street, Albury.
Time: 6.00 pm for light refreshments, 6.30 pm lecture start time
The allure of pearls has been documented from ancient times and there is evidence of the use of pearls in the Arabian Gulf region dating back to 4000BC. In ancient Rome, according to legend, Venus herself was born of the sea like a pearl. The Romans thought pearls were formed from the teardrops of the gods, or perhaps as a result of clams capturing dewdrops in the moonlight. This talk looks at the amazing variety of types of pearls, from those produced by oysters to marine snails, how they are found and some of the most famous pearls in the world, including those that belonged to Mary Queen of Scots.
Clare is an independent jewellery consultant with over 20 years’ experience in the industry. She spent 10 years as Head of Jewellery for Bonhams in Scotland, which involved travelling internationally searching for unique jewels to auction. Clare has a passion for the historical aspect of jewellery and lectures widely on this in both the U.K and the U.S Clare is also a member of the Society of Jewellery Historians.
Monday 18 March 2024
FLORENCE BROADHURST
Presented by Claudia Chan Shaw
Venue: The Theatrette, Albury Convention Centre, 525 Swift Street, Albury.
Time: 6.00 pm for light refreshments, 6.30 pm lecture start time
With her designs gracing the walls of hip nightclubs, homewares, travel goods and fashion, Florence Broadhurst has become a global phenomenon. Her vibrant wallpaper designs had all but been forgotten until her original silk printing screens were discovered by design company Signature Prints, languishing in a dusty warehouse. During her life she was the queen of reinvention, hiding her humble beginnings and passing herself off as a French couturier and an English aristocrat. She returned home to Australia to revolutionise the design industry of Sydney in the 60s and 70s, only to have it all come to a terrible end.
Sydney born creative Claudia Chan Shaw has a multifaceted career as a fashion designer, television and radio presenter, author, public speaker, installation artist, photo artist, and curator. With a BA in Visual Communication Design from Sydney College of the Arts, she is co-designer and director for the internationally acclaimed Australian fashion label, Vivian Chan Shaw, renowned for its exquisite handmade knitwear and jewellery. Claudia is perhaps best known for her role as co-host and presenter on ABC TV’s popular program, Collectors and her subsequent book Collectomania: From objects of desire to magnificent obsession.
Monday 13 May 2024
THE ART OF THE AUTOMOBILE
Presented by Roger Mendham
Venue: The Theatrette, Albury Convention Centre, 525 Swift Street, Albury.
Time: 6.00 pm for light refreshments, 6.30 pm lecture start time
The earliest cars were purely functional and lacked even the most basic of passenger comforts, such as doors or even windscreens to protect passengers from the elements. However, progress was rapid and by the mid1920s we entered a golden age of the automobile. The Art Deco movement influenced designs and the ‘Great Gatsby era’ included some of the most famous and fabulous cars ever built. This period was followed by the Streamline Moderne influenced cars of the 1930s and 40s. This talk covers some of the most beautiful cars ever built, from the earliest ‘horseless carriages’ to the supercars of the 21st century.
A keen and accomplished photographer Roger has gained Distinctions from the Royal Photographic Society and is currently the President of the Surrey Photographic Association. He is a scientist by background. With his focus on the visual aspects of art he has studied the evolution of photography from its earliest days in the early 1800s to becoming a major art form in the late 20th and now 21st centuries.
Monday 24 June 2024
MIRKA AND GEORGES
Presented by Kendrah Morgan
Venue: The Theatrette, Albury Convention Centre, 525 Swift Street, Albury.
Time: 6.00 pm for light refreshments, 6.30 pm lecture start time
A beloved and central figures in the cultural life of Australia, Mirka Mora long captured the public imagination with her distinctive art and inimitable personality. Arriving in Melbourne from Paris in 1951, Mirka and her husband Georges contributed significantly to the local art and restaurant scenes and the city’s gradual transformation into a sophisticated metropolis. Their apartment at 9 Collins Street became a hub for the bohemian set, which transferred to Mirka Café in Exhibition Street in 1954 and their two subsequent restaurants, Café Balzac in East Melbourne and Tolarno French Bistro in St Kilda. This lectures opens with Mirka and Georges’ early lives and food experiences in France, then tells the stories of their celebrated hospitality in Australia and their intermingling of food, art, love and life. The culinary journey is interspersed with fascinating anecdotes, archival photographs, Mirka’s sensuous and colourful artworks.
Kendrah Morgan is Senior Curator at Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, where she joined the staff in 2003. She began her curatorial career at Auckland Art Gallery in New Zealand, after previous roles in the commercial gallery sector and as a lecturer in art and design history. Since 1998 Kendrah has curated more than forty exhibitions. Her most recent book, Mirka and Georges: A Culinary Affair, the story of the Mirka and Georges Mora’s transformation of Melbourne’s culinary and cultural landscape, was released in 2018.
Monday 15 July 2024
ANTONI GAUDÍ I CORNET (1852-1926): MASTER BUILDER OF BARCELONA
Presented by Vivienne Lawes
Venue: The Theatrette, Albury Convention Centre, 525 Swift Street, Albury.
Time: 6.00 pm for light refreshments, 6.30 pm lecture start time
Spanish architect and designer Antoni Gaudí (1852-1926), a key figure in Catalan Modernism, influenced Barcelona’s identity. Inventor of new techniques and an enthusiast of all things botanical and sacred, Gaudí’s most famous building, the Barcelona Church of the Sagrada Família, is Spain’s most-visited monument and one of seven of the architect’s works listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage site. Building works on Sagrada Família were begun in 1882 and are still ongoing. This lecture examines Gaudí’s work and legacy.
Viv Lawes is an art historian, art market analyst, curator and writer who combines a hands-on career in the art business with academic research and teaching in Higher Education. She teaches at several London-based universities, including Sotheby’s Institute of Art, the University of the Arts London (UAL), the City & Guilds of London Art School, SOAS (University of London), and Imperial College.
HALF INTEREST DAY
Sunday 11 August 2024
Presented by Andrew Hopkins
Venue: Albury Library Museum, corner Kiewa and Swift Streets, Albury.
Time: 10.30am – 2pm
Cost: $50
LECTURE 1: THE PERFECT HOUSE: ANDREA PALLADIO’S VENETIAN VILLAS
Palladio’s villas are his most celebrated accomplishment because of their beauty, practicality and, in cases such as the Villa Rotunda, its iconic image. The villas were also known through the woodcuts that illustrated Palladio’s treatise, The Four Books of Architecture, which meant that they were copied and imitated in Britain and America. This lecture examines why his villas have such enduring appeal.
LECTURE 2: THE KENNEDY WHITE HOUSE: THE ART, ARCHITECTURE AND GARDENS OF CAMELOT
This talk is about the White House’s most celebrated twentieth century residents – John and Jackie Kennedy. Others had been, perhaps, more intellectual, such as Eleonora Roosevelt, certainly others utterly perfidious, just to name Nixon for one, but no other couple who inhabited the White House were ever so glamorous, sophisticated, and celebrated. Of course, they will never be forgotten given the tragic end to the Kennedy presidency, but this has tended to overshadow the astounding aesthetic and artistic changes made during their relatively brief tenure. The creation of the Rose Garden, interiors restored seriously, based on historical research and items belonging to the house throughout its history were purchased and returned.
Dr Andrew Hopkins was the Assistant Director of the British School at Rome and since 2004 Professor at the University of L’Aquila. He was awarded the Essay Medal by the Society of Architectural Historians. He gained his PhD from Courtauld Institute in 1995. He was a Fellow at Harvard University’s Villa I Tatti in Florence and was the Paul Mellon Senior Visiting Fellow, Center for Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC. Andrew has been widely published.
Monday 12 August 2024
THE GUGGENHEIMS: NEW YORK, VENICE AND BILBAO
Presented by Andrew Hopkins
Venue: The Theatrette, Albury Convention Centre, 525 Swift Street, Albury.
Time: 6.00 pm for light refreshments, 6.30 pm lecture start time
The Guggenheim family managed to amass extraordinary art collections, and design or acquire astounding buildings to display their art, their name even becoming a brand. This talk, based on Andrew Hopkin’s experience working at the Guggenheim in Venice, examines the celebrated museums in New York, Venice and Bilbao, as well as the stunning works they display.
Dr Andrew Hopkins was the Assistant Director of the British School at Rome and since 2004 Professor at the University of L’Aquila. He was awarded the Essay Medal by the Society of Architectural Historians. He gained his PhD from Courtauld Institute in 1995. He was a Fellow at Harvard University’s Villa I Tatti in Florence and was the Paul Mellon Senior Visiting Fellow, Center for Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC. Andrew has been widely published.
Monday 23 September 2024
INVISIBLE ART
Presented by Alan Read
Venue: The Theatrette, Albury Convention Centre, 525 Swift Street, Albury.
Time: 6.00 pm for light refreshments, 6.30 pm lecture start time
Is it possible to look at a work of art when there is nothing to see? For example, some of the most famous classical sculptures are familiar to us in a fragmentary form and yet we rarely imagine what is not there. Notorious art thefts have left empty spaces in galleries where we can only contemplate what is no longer in front of us. And conceptual artists have challenged the idea of the ‘art object’; often provocatively, sometimes playfully they offer us an idea to consider rather than a physical thing. This lecture looks at the weird and wonderful world of invisible art. Don’t worry, there will be PowerPoint slides.
Alan holds a master’s and first-class honours degree in History of Art from Birkbeck College, London. He is a gallery guide at Tate Britain, Tate Modern, National Portrait Gallery and for Frieze Masters and regularly lectures at the NPG, Dulwich Picture Gallery, Plymouth City Art Gallery, and other galleries in the UK. He also works as a London Blue Badge Guide and a City of London Guide.
Monday 21 October 2024
THE BAUHAUS
Presented by Andrew Spira
Venue: The Theatrette, Albury Convention Centre, 525 Swift Street, Albury.
Time: 6.00 pm for light refreshments, 6.30 pm lecture start time
The Bauhaus was the most innovative and influential school of design in the 20th century, combining avant-garde ideas about abstract art with a thoroughly conscientious approach to social reform and domestic living. Employing some of the most celebrated artists of the 20th century (including Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee) the school combined an interest in nature with faith in industrial design, revolutionizing art education and yielding a range of classic designs that still have an impact on the style of our everyday lives. The lecture will also explore the link between the Bauhaus and Australia: one influential Bauhaus teacher, Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack, emigrated to Australia in 1940 and taught art and design at Geelong Grammar School for 15 years?
Andrew Spira studied at the Courtauld Institute and Kings College, London. His experience includes 14 years as Programme Director at Christie’s Education. Besides lecturing extensively on a wide range of subjects, he has taken numerous groups (including ArtsNational and Arts Society groups) on cultural visits to Russia, Armenia, Georgia, Romania, Crete, Turkey, Tunisia and all over Europe. He has also published extensively.
Monday 11 November 2024
VISIONARIES AND TRAILBLAZERS: WOMEN IN AUSTRALIAN FILM
Presented by Karen Pearlman
Venue: The Theatrette, Albury Convention Centre, 525 Swift Street, Albury.
Time: 6.00 pm for light refreshments, 6.30 pm lecture start time
In the first 120 years of filmmaking in Australia women have played powerful and influential roles behind and in front of the camera. This lively lecture, illustrated with an array of clips and images, reveals the work of women in defining film form and creating the images of ourselves that we export to the world. In the beginning, film production companies were often family businesses, just as circus troupes or vaudeville companies were families taking their theatrical talents on the road together. The lecture will start by looking at the lives and work of the matriarchs of these powerful filmmaking families.
Karen Pearlman is a filmmaker, researcher, and author known for her trilogy of award-winning short films on historical women editors. Her works have garnered 32 national and international awards, including recognition for editing, directing, and documentary categories. Her 2020 film, ‘I Want to Make a Film About Women,’ received an Oscar longlisting and an Australian Academy Award nomination. Pearlman authored the widely used textbook ‘Cutting Rhythms’ and has reached over a million viewers through collaborative research communication videos titled ‘The Science of Editing’ on YouTube.
