Powerline Magazine

POWERLINE + the magazine of the powerhouse museum autumn 05

greek treasures

+ 02

powerline autumn 05

+ contents issue 77 MARCH APRIL MAY 2005

TRUSTEES Dr Nicholas G Pappas, President Dr Anne Summers AO, Deputy President

O2

From the director

03

Power picks

06

Beta Space

07

New exhibitions: Toys

08

New exhibitions: Greek treasures

10

New acquisitions: 19th-century jewellery

11

Members news

12

Members calendar

14

Members scene

15

New exhibitions: Paradise, Purgatory, Hellhole

16

New exhibitions: Animal, vegetable, mineral

17

Writing a new history of the Museum

18

From the archives: stories of our past

20

The twenty-year club

22

Observe

23

Corporate partners

24

New exhibitions at a glance

Mr Mark Bouris Ms Trisha Dixon Mr Andrew Denton Ms Susan Gray Ms Margaret Seale Mr Anthony Sukari Ms Judith Wheeldon SENIOR MANAGEMENT Dr Kevin Fewster AM, Director Jennifer Sanders, Deputy Director, Collections and Exhibitions Mark Goggin, Associate Director, Programs and Commercial Services Michael Landsbergen, Associate Director, Corporate Services Kevin Sumption, Associate Director, Knowledge and Information Management

+ As one of Australia’s largest museums the Powerhouse contributes to the professional life of Australian museums in many ways. As part of our 125th celebrations this year, the Powerhouse is hosting the annual conference of Museums Australia, the professional association representing museum workers across the country. Our neighbour, the ABC, is generously providing its Eugene Goossens Hall for the plenary sessions. This collaboration offers unique opportunities for Australia’s museums to be showcased across the spectrum of ABC radio and television programs. So look out for special museum features during the conference (1-4 May).

from the director

Each year Powerhouse staff contribute their expertise to a wide range of professional associations. The head of our

www.powerhousemuseum.com FRONT COVER FROM THE EXHIBITION GREEK TREASURES: FROM THE BENAKI MUSEUM IN ATHENS, DETAIL OF A GOLD WREATH WITH IVY LEAVES, LATE HELLENISTIC PERIOD, FIRST CENTURY BC (SEE PAGE 24). © BENAKI MUSEUM

Where to find us

Powerhouse Museum, 500 Harris Street, Darling Harbour, Sydney Opening hours 10.00 am – 5.00 pm every day (except Christmas Day). School holiday opening hours 9.30 am – 5.00 pm Contact details

Postal address: PO Box K346, Haymarket NSW 1238

Evaluation and Audience Research department, Carol Scott, has been the national president of Museums Australia since 2000. Last October I was elected by my peers to chair the Council of Australian Museum Directors, the peak body of Australia’s 17 major national and state museums. In this role I also sit on the Collections Council of Australia, a body recently established by federal and state arts ministers to advise on how best to preserve and promote our nation’s heritage collections. Another way in which we serve the wider museum fraternity is through our long-standing hosting of Australian Museums on Line (AMOL), the internationally acclaimed webbased museum portal. An upgraded AMOL will soon be relaunched as Collections Australia Network (CAN). But these online programs do not mean we neglect face-to-face

contact. In the past year over 1400 people across NSW took part in training programs run by Powerhouse staff. Just as the Powerhouse supports the wider museum community, we are indebted to the many people who freely offer their time and expertise to assist us. And none give more than our trustees. In December 2004 we farewelled Professor Ron Johnston, a constant source of wisdom and enthusiasm during his nine years on the board. On behalf of everyone at the Museum I thank him for his contribution. His successor is Ms Judith Wheeldon, the recently retired headmistress of Abbotsleigh School. We welcome her to the Powerhouse. Dr Kevin Fewster AM Director

Powerline is produced by the Print Media Department of the Powerhouse Museum

PO Box K346, Haymarket NSW 1238 Editor: Melanie Cariss Editorial coordinator: Deborah Renaud Design: Triggerdesign Photography: Powerhouse Museum unless otherwise stated.

Telephone (02) 9217 0111 Infoline (02) 9217 0444, Education (02) 9217 0222

Every effort has been made to locate owners of copyright for the images in this publication. Any inquiries should be directed to the Rights and Permissions Officer, Powerhouse Museum.

The Powerhouse Museum, part of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences also incorporating Sydney Observatory, is a NSW government cultural institution.

ISSN 1030-5750 © Trustees of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences

powerline autumn 05

IN OUR 125TH ANNIVERSARY YEAR WE REACH OUT TO STUDENTS AND COMMUNITIES THROUGHOUT NSW.

6 a message to the future From Boggabilla in the far north to Moruya in the south, Museum staff have been travelling to schools throughout the state to gather material for our 125th Anniversary Time Capsule. This project honours the Museum’s connection to education by inviting a selection of schools, also established in 1879, to contribute to a time capsule. The time capsule project is designed to encourage students to think about what they value. Museum educators, curators and conservators have been visiting schools to help them collect or make, and then safely pack, the items they select. Late last year SoundHouse manager Peter Mahony and I visited one of the schools involved in the project, Boggabilla Central School. Boggabilla is in fact so close to the Queensland border it runs on Queensland time (not daylight saving time, which

PETER MAHONY HELPS BOGGABILLA STUDENTS RECORD THEIR MESSAGE FOR THE TIME CAPSULE. PHOTO BY STEVE MILLER.

Students from around the state have contributed their valued items to the 125th Anniversary Time Capsule. saved us an hour on the drive up from Moree). Part of the school’s contribution to the time capsule will be digital recordings of the students speaking in the local Kamilaroi language, which is part of their studies. Other schools contributing to the time capsule are Canterbury Public School, Castle Hill Public School, Conargo Public School, Cooranbong Public School, Iluka Public School, Lord Howe Island Central School, Louth Public School, Moruya Public School, St Aloysius College, Sydney, Waverley Public School and Yass Public School. The time capsule, which has been designed by renowned Australian designer and architect Tom Kovac, will be suspended in the Museum later this year. In 75 years it will be opened to celebrate the Museum’s 200th anniversary! Steve Miller, A/Education Services Coordinator

; museums making connections

powerpicks

+

+ 03

POWERHOUSE EDUCATOR MARY STEWART (LEFT) DEMONSTRATES HOW ENGAGING PUBLIC PROGRAMS CAN BE. PHOTO BY MARINCO KOJDANOVSKI.

‘Connecting with your community through public programs’ was the theme of a workshop for regional museum workers held at Dungog NSW late last year. Part of the Powerhouse Museum’s regional services program, this hands-on workshop coincided with the Dungog launch of Works wonders, a travelling exhibition developed by the Powerhouse in collaboration with regional museums and historical societies.

audiences through a special focus on school children and the local community. Regional museums are uniquely positioned to be a hub for exciting collaborations, though may lack the framework to know where to start. This workshop attracted participants from diverse institutions, such as historic homes, galleries and museums, eager to develop and share their skills with other workers from the region.

Increasingly museums are looking beyond consolidating and presenting their collections, to building

To find out more about the regional services program contact freecall 1800 882 092 or (02) 9217 0220.

+ 04

powerline autumn 05

™ ARWEN (LIV TYLER) FROM THE LORD OF THE RINGS MOTION PICTURE TRILOGY – THE EXHIBITION. PHOTO COURTESY © NLP, INC

science in the city Visitors to Parliament House take a look at some of the astronomical sights visible during the day. Telescopes and staff from Sydney Observatory were at Parliament to take part in Science Exposed, a new initiative of the NSW Ministry

For older fans, Middle-earth magic continues in March with a movie marathon. Special extended editions of the trilogy

will be screened at 1.00 pm: Saturday 26 March, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring; Sunday 27 March, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers; Monday 28 March, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Please note that films are rated M and are recommended for mature audiences only. The exhibition, which has attracted record-breaking crowds, has been extended until 3 April — don’t miss out!

PHOTO BY MARINCO KOJDANOVSKI.

mower milestone

middle-earth magic For young fans of The Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy, one of the highlights of summer at the Powerhouse was The Shire play space. The Shire is still open for play every weekend during the exhibition, so bring your children along to take part in storytelling and quizzes, or dress up as their favourite trilogy character and create a prop to take home.

for Science and Medical Research. As part of this event the Intel Young Scientist exhibition was launched at Parliament, where the awards were presented, before going on display at the Powerhouse.

The Powerhouse Museum has acquired the seven-millionth Victa lawnmower for its collection of Victa mowers and archival material. The mower rolled off the assembly line at the company’s factory in Moorebank, Sydney, on 17 November 2004.

CHAN TRI TO (LEFT) AND HUNG NGUYEN LAM PUT THE FINISHING TOUCHES ON THE SEVEN-MILLIONTH VICTA. PHOTO BY SUE STAFFORD.

The seven-millionth Victa mower is the Tornado model, launched early in 2004. The Tornado is part of a new range that represents the first major redesign of Victa mowers in almost a decade. Another mower from the range, the

award-winning Razor, is currently on display in the Australian Design Awards exhibition. The Museum has more than 30 Victa mowers in its collection. This includes the very first ‘peach-tin’ prototype made in 1952 by Mervyn Victor Richardson, the company’s founder, in his backyard in the Sydney suburb of Concord. It was aptly named the ‘peachtin’ because its petrol tank was made from an empty can of peaches.


Einstein’s miraculous year

ALBERT EINSTEIN. PHOTO COURTESY CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

This year the world is celebrating one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century, Albert Einstein. The United Nations has declared 2005 the International Year of Physics to honour the 100th anniversary of Einstein’s ‘miraculous year’, when he published three scientific articles that have since influenced all of modern physics. So what were Einstein’s miraculous discoveries? Sydney Observatory’s Dr Martin Anderson explains. ‘The first paper explained how light can act as if made from tiny, independent particles. The second paper provided an explanation for how the temperature of objects is caused by the vibrations of atoms. The third and most famous paper was on light and motion. Known as the special theory of relativity it changed forever our view of the world.’

‘Before 1905 physicists understood how objects behave when moving at slow speeds. Einstein showed that objects moving very close to the speed of light behave in strange ways. He showed that as you get closer and closer to the speed of light, time slows down and your mass increases.’ Einstein was only aged 26 in 1905. He went on to extend his theory of relativity to a general theory that took into account the effects of strong gravity. Successful predictions based on the theory made Einstein world famous, and he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921. Sydney Observatory is celebrating the achievements of this remarkable thinker with Einstein Extravaganza, a weekend of science activities and pure fun on 2 and 3 July. Check the website for details.

+ 05

powerline autumn 05

• barrow picks up award This award-winning design by The Scots College student Scott Rémond is on display in the DesignTech 2004 exhibition until 6 March 2005. Scott’s folding wheelbarrow, Bag Barrow, is a smart idea for today’s space-conscious society. Made from aluminium and canvas, the prototype barrow works on the same leverage principles as a standard wheelbarrow. Able to carry up to 75 kg, which means that it qualifies as a light industrial wheelbarrow, Bag Barrow can also be folded away in a bag making it easy to transport or store.

G Arabic voices Hip-hop artists were among the performers at a weekend festival of Arab-Australian culture, held last year to celebrate the exhibition Beirut to Baghdad: community, collecting and culture. The exhibition presented the personal responses of local community members to the Museum’s collection of costumes, ceramics and coins from the Arabic world. The festival continued this ‘dialogue’ between traditional and contemporary culture with hip-hop music performances presented in association with Bankstown Youth Development Service. Performers included NOMISe, Susan Charma, Lisa

Taouk and MC Koosa, accompanied by Jamie Berry and Soraya Asmar on traditional Arabic instruments. The day also featured a program of short films by Arab-Australians, as well as workshops on Arabic calligraphy led by awardwinning artist Fatima Killeen. It was also the culmination of the ‘1001 tiles’ program that invited visitors to use computer software to design and make a paper tile based on the ceramics in Beirut to Baghdad. The tiles decorated an archway in the exhibition, providing a vibrant focal point for Nicole Barakat’s equally colourful storytelling sessions.

CAPTION: NOMISe (RIGHT) AND MUHAMMED EL ASMA UNDER THE TILE ARCHWAY. PHOTO BY MARINCO KOJDANOVSKI.

CAPTION: SCOTT RÉMOND DEMONSTRATES HIS AWARD-WINNING BAG BARROW. PHOTO BY MARINCO KOJDANOVSKI.

A wheelbarrow that folds up into a bag has won the Powerhouse Museum DesignTech award for innovation. Scott’s project demonstrated a thorough approach to product innovation, according to curator Angelique Hutchison. ‘He identified a market, evaluated existing products, complied with industry standards and considered the impact of his product on society and the environment. Scott also developed instruction sheets, advertising material and proposed a manufacturing process for commercial sale of the barrow. In addition, Scott has applied for a patent for his design.’ Scott’s award includes work experience at Design

Resource Australia, a leading product design consultancy with clients around the world. Scott also received a voucher for the Powerhouse Shop.

DesignTech showcases major design projects by NSW Higher School Certificate students. Presented annually by the Board of Studies and the NSW Department of Education and Training, this year’s exhibition features graphic design, web design, fashion, and metal and woodworking technologies. The exhibition will tour regional NSW until May 2005.

Celebrating 125 years Edited by eminent historian and author Graeme Davison and Powerhouse senior curator Kimberley Webber, this richly illustrated and engaging book looks at the Museum’s fascinating history. For 125 years, the Powerhouse Museum and its precursors have been the place where people have come to reflect on the past and see the future. Yesterday’s tomorrows invites you to reflect on the ways in which technology and design have changed, and are still changing, our world (see story page 17). 288 PAGES, WITH OVER 275 IMAGES, RRP $54.95 – SPECIAL PRICE FROM THE POWERHOUSE SHOP AND MAILORDER $49.95 / MEMBERS $44.95 Published in association with University of NSW Press.

Remember! Members receive 10% discount on all titles from the Powerhouse Shop and mailorder

GRAEME DAVISON AND KIMBERLEY WEBBER (EDS)

NEW RELEASES FROM POWERHOUSE PUBLISHING

Yesterday’s tomorrows: the Powerhouse Museum and its precursors 1880-2005

WHAT MAKES A SPINNING TOP STAY UPRIGHT? WHY DO MAGNETS ATTRACT? HOW DOES A DOLL TALK? A NEW EXHIBITION HAS THE ANSWERS FOR CURIOUS MINDS OF ALL AGES.

science at play Understanding forces, energy, mechanics, optics and sound is easy — when it involves playing with toys. This was the inspiration for the new exhibition Toys: science at play, a joint project between Scitech Discovery Centre, Perth, and Scienceworks, Museum Victoria, now showing at the Powerhouse. ‘Experimenting with toys helps us to explore the science in our daily lives and promotes learning through discovery’, explains Museum Victoria senior curator Kate Phillips. ‘This exhibition provides plenty of opportunities for young and old people with enquiring minds to tinker with toys.’ Visitors can fly a helicopter, catch magnetic fish and spin a zoetrope. Kids can make a giant jigsaw, create sound effects for a short animation and look through a huge periscope. There are over 40 interactive exhibits ranging from robots and dolls, to building blocks and kaleidoscopes.

The exhibition is divided into sections covering different scientific concepts. ‘Mysterious’ explores the invisible forces of gravity and magnetism through play with hula hoops and magnetic fishing. It also uses spinning tops and building blocks to explain the concept of balance or ‘centre of gravity’. ‘Moving’ is about energy; from the explosive stored or potential energy of a Jack-inthe-box, to the kinetic energy of a rolling ball. ‘Creative’ delves into the theory of sound, revealing how sound vibrations can be produced and transmitted using an old-fashioned string telephone or a computer chip in a karaoke toy. The ‘imaginary’ section looks at some of the games that take us to other worlds, with the help of our imagination and miniature models, talking dolls and optical instruments such as 3-D viewers.

Of course toys have been part of human culture for thousands of years. Today’s kids play with high-tech toys but also enjoy ‘ancient’ toys such as marbles and balls. You may be surprised to discover that yoyos are one of the most enduring toy crazes — their use was first depicted on ancient Greek vases. A toy timeline in the exhibition celebrates the ‘birthdays’ of the most popular toys from 1901 to the present, including Meccano, Barbie, Slinkys, Rubik’s cubes, Tonka Trucks and Matchbox cars. The exhibition also reveals the favourite toys of five of Australia’s leading scientists.

Toys: science at play highlights how playing with toys helps to build physical and mental skills, foster creativity and critical thinking, and connect adults to children. With toys, fun is just the beginning. Toys: science at play is on display until 18 July.

Greek treasures: from the Benaki Museums in Athens A fascinating insight into the life and beauty of the Greek world and its succession of colonies and empires spanning eight millennia. Beautifully illustrated with ceramics, gold jewellery, toys, textiles, Byzantine painted icons, metalware, ornate weaponry and oil paintings (see story page 8). 264 PAGES WITH OVER 110 IMAGES, RRP $45.00 – SPECIAL PRICE FROM THE POWERHOUSE SHOP AND MAILORDER $39.95 / MEMBERS $35.95

See the mailorder inserts in this issue.

Powerhouse books are available from the Powerhouse Shop, good bookstores and by mailorder. For more information or to order contact Powerhouse Publishing on (02) 9217 0129 or email [email protected] www.powerhousemuseum.com/publish

CHILDREN CAN HAVE FUN WHILE DISCOVERING THE FUNDAMENTALS OF PHYSICS IN TOYS: SCIENCE AT PLAY.

+ 07

powerline autumn 05

experimenting with art NEW ART AND TECHNOLOGY COME TOGETHER IN BETA SPACE.

Beta Space is an exciting new experimental environment for interactive art research located inside the exhibition Cyberworlds: computers and connections. It is also the first collaboration between the Powerhouse and the Creativity and Cognition Studios at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). Beta Space will host new media works created at the UTS lab and by artists from around the world. It is designed to give people the opportunity to be creatively involved in the development of new forms of artistic expression, as well as to provide an insight into the creative process of artists and technologists.

IAMSCOPE IN ACTION. PHOTO BY MARINCO KOJDANOVSKI.

Why ‘beta’ space? A beta version is a new piece of software or hardware that needs testing and feedback from its users to help its creators make it better. Likewise, Beta Space is a laboratory where researchers in art and technology collaborate with Museum visitors to develop new experiences and inventions. The works in Beta Space may be at different stages of development, from early prototype to end product, but in every case visitors will provide valuable information for future versions.

How does it work? Inside Beta Space visitors observe images and listen to sounds that respond instantaneously to their movements. A matrix of floor pads and a digital camera are also used to track their movements. The space is connected via the internet to UTS so that researchers in the lab can study images of visitors interacting with the works. These studies will feed into the development of new artworks, which can be programmed remotely into the space. The first work installed in Beta Space was the seductive multimedia Iamscope, by visiting Canadian artist Sid Fels. Iamscope allowed visitors to effectively become a colourful piece of glass inside a computergenerated kaleidoscope, their movements transforming into kaleidoscopic images projected on to a large screen. New artworks will be installed in Beta Space regularly so don’t forget to drop in to Cyberworlds when you next visit the Powerhouse.

+ 08

powerline autumn 05

A NEW EXHIBITION CELEBRATES EIGHT THOUSAND YEARS OF GREEK CREATIVITY AND ACHIEVEMENT. story_PAUL DONNELLY, CURATOR, INTERNATIONAL DECORATIVE ARTS AND DESIGN

greek treasures A stunning selection from the renowned collection of the Benaki Museum in Athens has been gathered for display at the Powerhouse Museum. Greek treasures illustrates the vibrancy of Greek domestic, political and artistic life over a period of eight thousand years. The exhibition’s historical span and dazzling variety of media is an unrivalled opportunity for Australian audiences to marvel over the creative riches that this beautiful region has inspired. Totalling nearly 170 objects, such a range of Greek material has never before been seen in a single exhibition in Australia. Like the Benaki Museum in Athens, the exhibition is organised chronologically — presenting the cultural and stylistic development of Hellenism from 6000 BC to the Greek War of Independence (1821-29). The exhibition highlights the creativity of the Greek world in isolation, but also reveals how local creativity incorporated influences from east and west. Reflecting the extraordinary breadth of the Benaki collection, it includes prehistoric and historic figurines and statuary, ceramics, jewellery, painted icons and metalware, architectural fittings, ecclesiastic vestments, embroidered textiles, costumes, ornate weaponry, watercolours and oil paintings. Also represented are objects made in the Greek diaspora, such as textile fragments from Egypt which have survived from about 600 AD thanks to that country’s dry climate and optimum conditions for preservation. The highlights of the exhibition are many. Some of the earliest material includes Neolithic pottery (about 5800 BC) and a marble sculpture from the Cycladic islands at the heart of the Aegean Sea (about 2600 BC). Known as a ‘Cycladic idol’, the stylised human form of sculptures such as this are famed for their apparent modernity, an attribute which influenced 20th-century artists such as the British sculptor Henry Moore. Antiquity is further represented by a superb selection of gold jewellery, sculpture and ceramics from the Mycenaean, Geometric, Archaic, Hellenistic and Roman periods (about 1600 BC to the fourth century AD). Beautiful marble heads from the Archaic to the Classical periods show regional variety, including the revival during the Roman period of much admired classical-style sculpture. Of special note is a spectacular gold wreath dating to the Hellenistic period (after the death of Alexander the

Great in 323 BC). While emulating the victory wreaths of sporting heroes, this gold example from a tomb was used to crown the deceased as a symbol of youthful achievement and everlasting victory.

One of Elgin’s most famous critics is depicted in Lord Byron’s oath on the tomb of Marcos Botsaris. Byron’s death in 1824 while fighting for Greek independence inspired greater European support for the cause.

Objects from later periods convey the splendour of Hellenism as the Christianised successor to Rome at the empire’s new centre in Constantinople (modernday Istanbul). Founded by Constantine the Great in 324 AD, it was originally called Byzantium in early antiquity and its extensive territories are known as the Byzantine Empire — Byzantine being the name by which Greek culture of this period (fourth to 15th centuries AD) is identified. With the fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II, the empire’s borders shrank and Greece-proper once again became the centre of Hellenic culture, albeit under Ottoman rule.

Athens, Greece and the world are fortunate that a family had the generosity and foresight to create the Benaki Museum and its numerous branches. Now run principally by the Benaki foundation, the Benaki family founded the museum from the collection formed principally by Antonis Benaki (1873-1954). By pooling each family member’s shares in the Neoclassical mansion in Athens, the family gave the collection a permanent home where it opened in 1931. The Benaki family had lived in Alexandria, Egypt, and whilst a part of that Greek diaspora Antonis Benaki eagerly collected Islamic art — a part of the collection recently housed in its own museum in Athens. Antonis Benaki was also a patriot, however, and the scope of the Greek collection reflects his love of Greece. That original collection has grown significantly to ensure the Benaki has one of the most extensive collections of its kind in the world today.

To many people Byzantine art is most readily identified with inspiring religious icons, and examples in the exhibition demonstrate the tradition between the 1400s and 1700s. But the exhibition also showcases secular Byzantine material, including a carved wooden window frame with shutters, a child’s tunic and sandals, elaborate bronze lamps and gold jewellery. From later in the Byzantine period can be seen an incense burner, an illuminated manuscript from Mount Athos and a delightful glazed bowl depicting a dancer playing castanets. The Greek islands are well represented in the exhibition by objects made during the Ottoman occupation. Maritime-themed jewellery is inevitably prominent and includes exquisite golden caravel earrings. Rare complete costumes from the 18th and 19th centuries demonstrate regional variety, changing dramatically from island to island. Oil and watercolour paintings from the early to mid19th century illustrate iconic scenes from Greece’s struggle for independence, often by sympathetic western Europeans. The famous Greek boy by Alexandre-Marie Colin dates to the first year of independence (1829-30) — the young boy is fully armed and in traditional dress as an allegory for Greece’s freshly regained nationhood. Paintings of Athens include historically valuable views of the Parthenon, as it was prior to Lord Elgin’s desecration.

The Benaki exhibition is the most recent in a string of collaborative projects between the Powerhouse and a number of museums in Greece. Last year the newly built Benaki Cultural Centre was the venue for Our place: Indigenous Australia now, an exhibition developed by the Powerhouse and Museum Victoria for the Cultural Olympiad of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. This exhibition was a reciprocal gift following the Hellenic Republic’s generous loan of ancient sculpture and sports-related antiquities for the Powerhouse exhibition 1000 years of the Olympic Games: treasures of ancient Greece, during the Sydney Olympics. Thanks to the generosity of the Benaki Foundation and the director Angelos Delivorrias and his staff, our cultural bonds with Greece are further strengthened with this exhibition of treasures documenting the rich, complex history of Greece through the millennia.

Greek treasures: from the Benaki Museum in Athens opens on 5 May. The exhibition is accompanied by a beautifully illustrated publication (see page 6). Media Partners: Seven Network and SBS Radio.

FISH-SHAPED BRONZE FLASK, PROBABLY USED FOR PERFUMED OIL, EGYPT, ABOUT 400 AD; HEAD OF HERAKLES WITH A LION-SKIN, CYPRUS, ABOUT 500 BC; CARVED WOODEN WINDOW FRAME WITH SHUTTERS, EGYPT, ABOUT 700 AD; GLAZED BOWL, CONSTANTINOPLE, ABOUT 1200 AD. © BENAKI MUSEUM

+ 10

powerline autumn 05

THE GENEROSITY OF MS ANNE SCHOFIELD AM HAS ENRICHED THE MUSEUM’S COLLECTION OF 19TH-CENTURY JEWELLERY

a striking donation ‘Please try and send half dozen really striking brooches’ wrote John Hardy from Sydney to his brother Samuel in London in March 1862. John Hardy was an English watchmaker who founded Hardy Brothers in Australia in 1853. The business was for many years based both in London and Australia, in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. In its early years, Hardy Brothers was almost exclusively a retailer and most pieces were imported from England through the offices of Hardy’s brother Samuel, who was based in London. The brothers had a volatile relationship and in 1859, John Hardy bitterly protested about the lowquality stock Samuel was sending to the colony and urged his brother to send more brooches as they sold well in the colony. A recent donation by Anne Schofield of a brooch retailed by Hardy Brothers could well be one of the ‘striking brooches’ sent from London to pique the colonial interest. Made of chased and engraved gold, the brooch is scrolled and outlined with fine line ropework and beading with swags of gold chain terminating in gold tassels. Finished with emeralds and opals, the brooch shows the influence of exotic taste, specifically Moorish decoration. This style was influenced by archaeological discoveries as well as France’s invasion and annexation of Algeria in the 1830s and 40s. Moorish style was also encountered through objects shown in the international exhibitions, which were a major source of inspiration to jewellers and fashion in general. Anne Schofield is a long-standing supporter and benefactor of the Museum. In 2001 she was awarded the title of Life Fellow, the highest honorific title bestowed by the Powerhouse Museum. Ms Schofield has made generous donations of jewellery, costume, juvenilia and fashion to the Museum’s collection. This most recent donation of 19th-century jewellery also includes another colonial brooch and a demi-parure. The brooch is in the form of a leaf set within a rusticated frame, enamelled with turquoise blue and set with emeralds and diamonds. It came with a box

labelled ‘Walsh and Sons Jewellers, 53 Collins Street, East Melbourne’. Walsh and Sons was founded by Henry Sallows Walsh who later worked with his sons, Alfred and Frederick. Little is known about the retailer. The demi-parure, a suite of jewellery that included earrings and a brooch, is marked with the initials of J M Wendt, a prominent firm of Adelaide silversmiths, jewellers and retailers. Established by German-born Jochim Mattias Wendt (1830-1917) in 1854, the firm was awarded ‘a First Degree of Merit for Jewellery and Silverware’ at the Sydney International Exhibition of 1879. The demi-parure complements a number of significant Wendt pieces in the collection, including commissioned presentation pieces such as silvermounted emu eggs adorned with images of Australian Aborigines and native flora and fauna. Along with the colonial jewellery, Anne Schofield has donated a cast-gold mourning locket decorated with seed pearls, gold wire and curled hair-work on a blue background. The reverse of the brooch is inscribed: ‘Harriet Bower was born July 8th 1809 died March 15th 1826, Caroline Sophia Bower was born June 23rd died 1812 Jan 9th 1826’. This latest addition to the Museum’s collection of mourning jewellery is certainly among the most important. It is identical to a locket held by the British Museum, and both probably include the hair of the sisters it commemorates. Mourning jewellery containing locks of hair was popular throughout the 1800s and became a major industry inspired by Queen Victoria’s overt and sustained mourning for Prince Albert, who died in 1861. The mourning locket and colonial jewellery generously donated by Anne Schofield under the Cultural Gifts Program can be seen on level 4 from March, before going on display in the new exhibition Inspired! Design across time opening in August. Louise Mitchell, Curator, Decorative Arts and Design

FROM TOP: MOORISH BROOCH OF GOLD, OPALS AND EMERALDS, POSSIBLY MADE IN ENGLAND, RETAILED BY HARDY BROTHERS IN SYDNEY ABOUT 1860S. MOURNING LOCKET MADE BY JOHN WILKINSON, ENGLAND, 1826. BROOCH OF GOLD, ENAMELLED TURQUOISE, EMERALDS AND DIAMONDS, RETAILED BY WALSH AND SONS JEWELLERS, MELBOURNE, ABOUT 1855-61. PHOTOS BY MARINCO KOJDANOVSKI.

powerline autumn 05

JOIN OUR NEW DIGITAL MEDIA CLUB EXCLUSIVELY FOR TEENAGE MEMBERS

iop TM

soundhouse workshops for teenagers

DIGITAL MUSIC, ANIMATION AND VIDEO ARE COVERED AT SOUNDHOUSE WORKSHOPS FOR TEENAGERS. IMAGE BY TRIGGERDESIGN

This month SoundHouse, the Museum’s digital music lab, is launching a new club-style program exclusively for teenage members. In an informal atmosphere, young people can produce original music, animations and videos in collaboration with our expert media tutors. Participants in SoundHouse Workshops for Teenagers build their media production skills and networks as they work together in project teams on each step of the creative process — from idea to final

+

news and photos

+

prizes to be won

DVD or CD (which they can take home). Experienced tutors are on hand to provide tips and techniques along the way. Each month workshops will cover a different aspect of digital media practice, giving participants the opportunity to build up their understanding of how the various programs intersect.

+

exclusive events

+

family activities

+

special offers

SoundHouse Workshops for Teenagers are held on the last Saturday of each month. Check the events calendar for details.

Members e-newsletter

Powerhouse members celebrated in style at the annual New Year’s Eve party at Sydney Observatory (pictured on page 14). Along with fabulous food, great company and stunning fireworks, the comet Machholz put on quite a show for us as it shot across the night sky. Of course this New Year’s Eve we also remembered the tsunami victims, and everyone contributed to our fundraising raffle. The lucky winner, Tim Disher, received a Name-a-Star pack courtesy of Sydney Observatory.

We would like to welcome all of our new members who have joined since The Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy – The Exhibition opened. We know that many of you have already enjoyed our exclusive members viewings, but if you haven’t then don’t miss the final viewing which will include a tour of the exhibition led by curator Kerrie Dougherty.

members

+

+ 11

If you would like to receive the regular Members e-newsletter with updates on all members events please call (02) 9217 0600 or email [email protected] with your membership number and e-newsletter in the subject line.

+ from the members team

FROM THE GREEK TREASURES EXHIBITION, A GOLD KYLIX (CUP), GREECE, MADE ABOUT 1200 AD. © BENAKI MUSEUM

We’re also pleased to announce that IMG, the company recently appointed to jointly manage the Museum’s retail stores, would

like to welcome members to the new look Powerhouse Shop by offering a series of discount shopping days throughout the year. The first of these events will be in May, just in time for Mother’s Day (see events calendar for details). We encourage you to pop up to the Members Lounge and meet the Members team next time you visit the Museum. The Members team

+ 12

powerline autumn 05

+

Wednesday 16 March Exclusive members viewing The Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy – The Exhibition

Back by popular demand! This is your final opportunity to enjoy the exhibition without the crowds. Join curator Kerrie Dougherty on a tour of the exhibition and explore the costumes, weaponry, models and special effects that made Middle-earth come alive. A light meal will be available from the Museum’s cafe (cost not included).

march

6.00 – 9.00 pm Cost: members $25 adults / $15 child / $60 family (2A & 2C).

SEE EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS WITH THE TRILOGY’S CAST, CREW AND DIRECTOR IN THE LORD OF THE RINGS MOTION PICTURE TRILOGY – THE EXHIBITION. PHOTO COURTESY © NLP, INC

+

Wednesday 6 April Sydney Observatory Einstein for beginners

This year is the International Year of Physics and a celebration of the 100th anniversary of Einstein’s special theory of relativity. Although a century old, this theory is our best description of the way space and time work together. Find out why when Dr Paul Payne demonstrates Einstein’s concepts with entertaining multimedia animations and demonstrations suitable for all those interested and students of year 11/12 Physics. The evening includes a short break with a telescope viewing of stars, Saturn and Jupiter (if weather permits) and light refreshments.

april

6.00 – 9.00 pm Cost: members – $12 students & adults; guests – $15 students & adults. Teachers/adults accompanying a minimum of two students are free. Bookings essential on (02) 9217 0485 pr 9241 3767.

+ may

Sunday 1 May

Wednesday 4 May

Mother’s Day shopping Members discount shopping day

Exhibition launch: Greek treasures: from the Benaki Museum in Athens

The Powerhouse Shop invites all members to a special shopping day. Choose from our range of simple, stylish and sumptuous gifts — there’s something for every mother. Just show your membership card to enjoy a special 20% discount on most items and free gift wrapping.

This exciting collaboration between the Powerhouse and the Benaki Museum in Athens brings to Australia a selection of treasures spanning eight millennia of Greek history and prehistory. Members are invited to celebrate the opening of this outstanding exhibition, which will be launched by the director of the Benaki Museum, Mr Angelos Delivorrias. Includes refreshments.

10.00 am – 5.00 pm Cost: free.

6.00 – 8.00 pm Cost: members $35 (adults only).

+

Coming soon ... the Annual Members Dinner is not to be missed. Look out for details in the next issue of Powerline.

autumn 05 members’ calendar

+ 13

powerline autumn 05

Sunday 20 March

Saturday 26 March

Kids workshop Alphabet wings

SoundHouseTM Workshops for Teenagers Digital Video with Sony Vegas

Alphabet wings is a new children’s book that takes young readers on a world journey flying through 26 cities, beginning with Amsterdam and ending with Zurich. Each visit introduces the reader to a unique aspect of that city by exploring festivals, foods, legends, sounds, smells and architecture. Every city is in a different country and together they represent all the major continents. Join author Ilana Kresner for a reading of the book and a fun workshop making a character from Alphabet wings. Suitable for 5 to 10 year olds.

Create your own video project in this workshop which combines digital imaging and sound production skills. You’ll learn how to use video editing software Sony Vegas, that turns your computer into a virtual television studio. This hands-on workshop includes time for project development.

Signed copies of the book will be available for purchase on the day.

+

1.00 – 5.00 pm Cost: members $60; guests $90 (includes student membership).

10.30 am – 12.00 pm Cost: members $25 child; guests $30 (accompanying adults free).

Join our new digital media workshops, exclusively for teenage members.

Tuesday 19 April

Saturday 30 April

Sydney Observatory Jupiter Party Day

SoundHouseTM Workshops for Teenagers Digital Audio with Sony Sound Forge

This is a fantastic day of Jupiter fun suitable for children ages 3 to 8 years old. Included in entry is a photograph of Jupiter, a floating Gas Giant balloon, face painting, games, a Jovian Moon passport and a 3-D Space Theatre experience. Parents can enjoy our Jupiter Cafe Express refreshment bar.

Sony Sound Forge is an industry standard, audioediting system. In this workshop you’ll discover what a powerful tool it is for manipulating a wide variety of sound files. You will also learn how to use digital sound-processing effects such as EQ, compression and reverb. Sound Forge is the ideal software with which to ‘post produce’ your soundtrack using mastering techniques. This workshop includes project development time.

10.30 am – 2.00 pm Cost: members $8 child; guests $10 child (accompanying adults free). Jupiter party bags $10. No need to book.

1.00 – 5.00 pm Cost: members $60; guests $90 (includes student membership).

GOLD MEDALLION WITH BUST OF APHRODITE AND EROS, ALEXANDRIA EGYPT, 200 BC. © BENAKI MUSEUM. THE TERMINUS WAS THE PUB AT THE END OF THE PYRMONT TRAM LINE. PHOTO BY JEAN-FRANCOIS LANZARONE.

Saturday 7 May

Saturday 28 May

Saturday 28 May

Exhibition and walking tour Paradise, Purgatory and Hellhole: a history of Pyrmont and Ultimo

SoundHouseTM Workshops for Teenagers Stop Motion Animation with Stop Motion Pro

VectorLab Introduction to Photoshop and digital imaging

Stop Motion Pro is an Australian product for creating ‘stop frame’ animation projects, where stories are captured image by image, frame by frame, into the computer via digital camera. Let your imagination run free as you design and produce your own short story. Includes project development time.

Unlock the creative possibilities of digital photography and imaging with this workshop designed to give a step-by-step introduction to the major elements of creating and manipulating digital photos. The workshop covers topics such as cropping, cutting, montage, layers, digital drawing, adding text and outputting images for both print and web. It will also discuss digital cameras and computer hardware.

Join exhibition curator Anni Turnbull for a tour of the new exhibition Paradise, Purgatory and Hellhole: a history of Pyrmont and Ultimo. Anni will describe why certain stories and objects were chosen to tell the history of the area. She will also lead a short walking tour of Ultimo, revealing more of the fascinating stories associated with the suburb. 10.30 am – 12.30 pm

1.00 – 5.00 pm Cost: members $60; guests $90 (includes student membership).

Cost: members $10; guests $15.

10.00 am – 3.30 pm Cost: members $100; guests $130.

how to book for members events

payment for members events

Due to limited places, bookings are essential for every event. Please ring the Members hotline on (02) 9217 0600 to make your booking before you send in payment. For events at Sydney Observatory, please ring (02) 9217 0485. Please leave a message quoting your membership number, what event you are booking for and the number of members and guests. We will confirm your booking.

We accept: credit card payments by phone, fax or mail; cheques; money orders; or cash at the level 4 entrance to the Museum. We pay for all events once bookings are confirmed, so if you are unable to attend your event, please let us know ASAP or we will charge you to cover costs. All events are held at the Powerhouse Museum unless otherwise stated. All dates, times and venues are correct at time of publication.

+ 14

powerline autumn 05

members scene

FABULOUS FARE, INCLUDING A GELATO BAR, WAS ON OFFER THROUGHOUT THE NIGHT.

MEMBERS RELAX AND ENJOY THE VIEW FROM INSIDE THE OBSERVATORY MARQUEE .

Powerhouse members celebrated in style at our fabulous New Year’s Eve party at Sydney Observatory. It was an evening of stunning fireworks and great company.

THE SPECTACULAR VIEW FROM THE OBSERVATORY, SIMPLY ONE OF THE BEST PLACES IN SYDNEY TO ENJOY THE FIREWORKS.

PHOTOS BY SOTHA BOURN AND MIKE JONES.

MEMBERS CELEBRATE IN THE OBSERVATORY COURTYARD.

THE PAT POWELL QUARTET ENTERTAINED PARTYGOERS WITH SWING JAZZ.

A YOUNG STARGAZER.


win a New Zealand holiday

To celebrate The Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy – the Exhibition, Powerhouse Members are offering the opportunity for one lucky member to win a family holiday to New Zealand, where you will experience the scenery that made Middle-earth come alive.

The winner will receive flights courtesy of Air New Zealand; a tour of some of the film locations around New Zealand; five nights accommodation in the heart of Wellington, only a short distance from the TePapa Museum; and all transfers. All memberships current on 31 March 2005 will automatically be entered into the draw. For full terms and conditions visit www.powerhousemuseum.com/members. Authorised under NSW Permit No TPL 04/13604

+ 15

powerline autumn 05

suburb of dreams A NEW EXHIBITION MAPS THE CHANGING FACES OF PYRMONT AND ULTIMO. ‘I always thought it was a suburb of dreams’ says Raymond Kersh, who grew up in Pyrmont in the 1950s and now runs the Sydney restaurant Edna’s Table with his sister Jennice. He has happy memories of their childhood, living in public housing in Ways Terrace. ‘We were poor but had a strong community.’

reminded one visitor of the German spa town of Pyrmont. At that time Ultimo was a grand rural estate, complete with grazing deer, owned by the surgeon and magistrate John Harris. Few traces of the area’s early colonial past remain, although a brick from Ultimo House has survived in the Museum’s collection.

In the new exhibition Paradise, Purgatory and Hellhole: a history of Pyrmont and Ultimo, the diverse memories of residents, past and present, conjure up the area’s grit, smoke, noise and above all, sense of community. One resident’s memories are based on smell; from the sweet smell of the sugar refinery to the less agreeable power stations.

The exhibition contains a collection of objects, paintings and photographs which reflect the dramatic changes the area has undergone over the past 200plus years. One artist who painted the area for over a decade during the intensive development of the 1980s and 90s, recalls how everything she painted was pulled down or condemned. Jane Bennett would sometimes start a sketch only to return the next day and find her subject matter in ruins.

Industry looms large in the story of Pyrmont and Ultimo. The area provided Sydney with power for its lights and trams, and was a major centre for the distribution of Australian wool, milk, flour and other foodstuffs. Pyrmont’s quarries also provided the sandstone used to build many of the city’s landmarks such as Sydney University, Town Hall and St Mary’s Cathedral. These quarries, locally known as Paradise, Purgatory and Hellhole, gave Sydney its distinctive look but in doing so literally carved away much of the peninsula. The suburb’s more picturesque past is also recalled in the exhibition. Pyrmont, which was once the estate of Captain John Macarthur, was so-named in 1806 because its ‘pure and uncontaminated spring’

BIRD’S EYE VIEW OF PYRMONT, 1919. ‘POWERHOUSE, ULTIMO’ LINOCUT BY BRUCE GOOLD, 1988.

Together with presenting a rich visual record of lost buildings and industries, the exhibition invites you to experience the many human stories that emerge from a community that hasn’t stopped changing and shifting. The opening of the exhibition coincides with a community celebration, the annual Ultimo and Pyrmont Uptown Festival, which will be held on Quarry Green on Saturday 19 March.

Paradise, Purgatory and Hellhole: a history of Pyrmont and Ultimo opens on 19 March. Anni Turnbull, Assistant Curator, Australian History

+ 16

powerline autumn 05

A NEW EXHIBITION EXPLORES THE MUSEUM’S FOUNDING VISION: TO EXPLAIN ‘THE SCIENCE OF EVERYDAY LIFE’.

weird and wonderful In 1893 the museum we now know as the Powerhouse was called the Technological Museum. One of the first purpose-built technology museums in the world, it was organised into a strict hierarchy of objects with minerals on the ground floor, vegetables on the first and animals on the second. But what was a ‘Technological Museum’ and what did it do? While museums of art and natural sciences have a long history dating back to the renaissance, the idea of collecting and exhibiting ‘technology’ was the direct result of the industrial revolution. The Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, which opened in Paris in 1802, was the first to attempt what its founder Abbé Gregoire described as ‘une encyclopedie en trois dimensions’. It would be half a century before similar museums were formed in Britain with the Industrial Museum of Scotland (1855) and the South Kensington Museum of Science and Art (1857). What was unusual about these museums was that rather than collecting the rare and curious, they collected the ‘everyday’. For their chief purpose was to explain ‘the science of everyday life’. At the time colonial children left school at 12 after a rudimentary education in reading, writing and arithmetic, perhaps with additional lessons in geography and book-keeping for boys and needlework for girls. Although expected to operate quite complex machines in factories, on farms or on

construction projects most had little understanding of the physics or chemistry on which they relied. Museum exhibits — by the careful selection of objects, diagrams and photographs — could remedy this failing and, aided by technical colleges, thereby improve the innovative capacity of the nation. This Museum’s first curator, Joseph Maiden, had been employed by Thomas Twining, one of the founders of the movement to educate working people, to deliver lectures on scientific subjects to London’s working men and women. Not surprisingly, therefore, under Maiden’s direction — and that of his successors — Sydney’s new Technological Museum focused on collecting and exhibiting animal, vegetable and mineral objects that explained the ‘science’ behind the food people drank, the clothes they wore, the homes they lived in and the machines they operated. The new exhibition Animal, vegetable and mineral: the weird and wonderful world of the Powerhouse Museum 1880-1939 explores the acquisition and organisation of these collections. In so doing it brings to light some great treasures not seen for many years. After the loss of the first collection in the Garden Palace fire, Maiden embarked enthusiastically on a collecting program. With money to spend — and new companies producing models, diagrams and charts for technology museums and colleges — he was able to quickly fill his exhibition space in the

Domain and, later, the Harris Street museum. Among the fascinating objects in the exhibition are the framed ‘object lesson cards’ which illustrate the products of particular animals, vegetables and minerals; the collection of horses teeth that shows ‘common frauds’ and the models of silkworms and moths articulated to show the different parts. Also on display are some of the watercolours of native plants of ‘economic value’ commissioned for the new Museum, and examples of the products collected for research in the Museum’s laboratories on possible commercial applications of these plants.

Animal, vegetable and mineral is a rare opportunity to see the marvels collected and exhibited by the Museum in its early years. It also helps us understand why 19th-century technology museums grew and prospered, evolving into some of the great museums of the world. Animal, vegetable and mineral: the weird and wonderful world of the Powerhouse Museum 18801939 opens on 6 April. Dr Kimberley Webber, Senior Curator, Australian History This exhibition is the result of research currently being undertaken for an Australian Research Council linkage grant between the Powerhouse Museum and Sydney University by Dr Kimberley Webber and Emeritus Professor Roy MacLeod.

THIS MODEL OF ‘EDIBLE AND NON EDIBLE FUNGI’, FROM THE PARISIAN WORKSHOP OF DR AUZOUX, WAS AMONG THE BOTANICAL AND ZOOLOGICAL MODELS ACQUIRED BY JOSEPH MAIDEN IN THE 1880S.

+ 17

powerline autumn 05

EMINENT HISTORIAN AND AUTHOR GRAEME DAVISON HAS CO-EDITED A NEW HISTORY OF THE MUSEUM. HE DESCRIBES THE EXPERIENCE HERE.

yesterday’s tomorrows

Like most Melburnians, I have a secret love of Sydney. Sydney is the id to Melbourne’s ego, the urban pleasure-ground that Melburnians love to visit, even if they do not stay. For 25 years I have been coming here, often staying at the Palisade Hotel on Miller’s Point while I worked in the Mitchell Library or the archives, savouring the morning views towards the bridge and down Darling Harbour towards the Maritime Museum and the Powerhouse. In the 1980s, when I helped write one of the Bicentennial History series, I met some of the team of young historians devising exhibits for the new Powerhouse Museum. It was a Museum unlike any I had known before, and its commitment to bring Australian history to the people in threedimensional form became a model for the kind of vivid social history we were also attempting in our writings. Our histories were launched just as the Powerhouse opened. They were children of the same exciting moment. Over the years I’ve kept coming back to the Powerhouse. For years I had taught the history of the industrial revolution, introducing students to the great technological changes that made the modern world. I had visited the Science Museum in London and seen its array of steam engines; but until I entered the Powerhouse shortly after its opening in 1988 I had never enjoyed the awesome spectacle of an original Boulton and Watt engine working under steam. Ever since, the Powerhouse has been for me the standard-setter among Australian museums with striking and innovative exhibitions like Beyond architecture, Cars and culture and Lucien Henry. So Kevin Fewster’s invitation to participate in researching and writing a new history of the Powerhouse and its precursors was irresistible.

CLOCKWISE: GRAEME DAVISON WITH CO-EDITOR KIMBERLEY WEBBER. PHOTO BY SOTHA BOURN. DETAIL OF THE ‘STRASBURG’ CLOCK. MADE IN SYDNEY IN 1888 AS A ‘GIFT’ TO THE COLONY, IT QUICKLY BECAME ONE OF THE MUSEUM’S MOST POPULAR EXHIBITS. PHOTO BY ANDREW FROLOWS. WATT BEAM ENGINE MODEL MADE BY CARL SCHRODER IN GERMANY AND ACQUIRED BY THE MUSEUM IN 1884. AT A TIME WHEN STEAM ENGINES WERE COMMONPLACE, MODELS WERE VALUABLE INSTRUCTIONAL TOOLS AND STANDARD MUSEUM EXHIBITS. PHOTO BY MARINCO KODJANOVSKI.

Early on in the project, we decided that the Powerhouse’s history was too rich and varied to be written as a single-author, chronological narrative.

Too much of its life overlapped the walls of the institution itself and flowed into the broader history of the state and the nation. This was a history in which objects were as important, and required as careful a reading, as documents. So we began to explore the idea of a volume in which Museum curators and academic historians, insiders and outsiders, would work together to open up the diverse themes that characterised the Museum’s endeavours over its 125 years. Yesterday’s tomorrows, the result of our collaboration, is not one story, but many; each refracting an aspect of the multi-sided institution that has long been Sydney’s window on the world. For me, personally, the project has brought many pleasures. Since writing a history of time telling in Australia, The unforgiving minute, I have been fascinated, as generations of Sydneysiders have been, by one of the Museum’s most famous objects, the ‘Strasburg’ clock. In one of the chapters of the history I explore the ‘secret life’ of the clock and its remarkable owner Richard Smith. In another I have worked with one of the Museum’s curators, Debbie Rudder, to explore the steam-powered world launched by Boulton and Watt. I’ve gained some insights into the public culture of the city and state that created and nurtured the Museum over its first 125 years. And, with the help of my talented and patient co-editor Kimberley Webber, I have got to know much more about the ideas, achievements, quirks and foibles of the numberless people — curators, directors, collectors, visitors — who, as much as its collections and buildings, are the Powerhouse Museum. I’ve had a ball. Professor Graeme Davison

Yesterday’s tomorrow’s: the Powerhouse Museum and its precursors is available from May. See page 6 for details.

+ 18

powerline autumn 05

THE MUSEUM’S TALENTED FIRST CURATOR PUBLISHED LAVISHLY ILLUSTRATED WORKS ON ‘USEFUL NATIVE PLANTS’. story_DR KIMBERLEY WEBBER, SENIOR CURATOR, AUSTRALIAN HISTORY

beautiful and useful From its inception, this museum was envisioned as more than just a single museum serving the people of Sydney. It was to be an active research institute where the curator and his assistants would broadly communicate the ‘science’ behind everyday life to the public, through exhibitions, lectures, branch museums, catalogues and publications. It was this broad vision that undoubtedly led to Joseph Maiden being appointed the Museum’s first curator. Although only aged 22 when he first arrived in Australia, Maiden’s English education in science and art at South Kensington, combined with his experience teaching science to working people, must have made him an attractive proposition for the museum’s first management committee. On 3 October 1881 he took up the position ‘assisting in arrangement and general work’ in the Technological Museum then being established in the Garden Palace. With first the Garden Palace Museum to set up and then, after the disastrous fire of 1882, the Museum in the Outer Domain, Maiden had little time for publications in these early years. But he remained mindful of the importance both of research and of communicating that research to a broad audience. A laboratory was set up in the Museum and (having trained in botany) Maiden was quick to recognise the potential of research into the commercial possibilities of native plants. He undertook forays into the bush himself, gathering leaves, seeds, barks and gums for investigation back at the Museum. But the demands of his young family must have limited his opportunities to travel extensively. In 1886 therefore he engaged a ‘collector’, William Bäuerlen: ‘To procure from this botanical terra incognita, tan barks, grasses, salt bushes, gums, resins, kinos etc and other economic products, many of which it is confidently hoped, will be new to Science and Commerce’. Maiden took a keen interest in Bäuerlen’s work and the two corresponded regularly. He must have soon realised that in his collector he had a man who was prepared to endure great hardships to secure the best examples of native plants, but also had a keen

eye and ear for significant — and surprising — applications of these plants. It would appear that Bäuerlen moved easily among Aboriginal people and his letters are rich in detail about their names for plants and uses of them. In 1886, for example, he wrote from Monga on the NSW south coast that he had observed Aboriginal men in the area catching fish by throwing leaves of Acacia penninervis into a waterhole and catching the fish as they rose to the surface. At Quidong, near Bombala, while collecting the gum of Eucalyptus stuartiana, he was approached by two women who told him, ‘they know of nothing which cleanses teeth so quickly and so effectively … put a bit of gum into the mouth and let it dissolve’. It is clear from Maiden’s annotations on these letters — ‘very important’, ‘Mr Cole to note’ — that he realised the potential Bäuerlen’s researches had for publication. In 1889 Maiden brought out the Museum’s first major publication, The useful native plants of Australia (including Tasmania). Approval had been given by the board of management almost two years earlier but by the time it reached the printer the proposed ‘little book’ had grown to almost 700 pages. Maiden’s original intention had been to publish a catalogue of the Museum’s specimens of ‘plants indigenous to Australia’. In the course of finalising the text, however, more new plants kept arriving at the Museum and Maiden realised the catalogue would never be complete. His solution was to extend it ‘to include all Australian plants … known to be of economic value or injurious to man and domestic animals’. The result is an extraordinary compendium where plants are grouped according to their economic use such as for timber, drugs or food. Drawing heavily on the observations of Bäuerlen and others, Maiden argued that his book was the essential accompaniment for anyone travelling into the Australian bush. ‘Knowledge in regard to the indigenous food resources of these colonies should be considered an absolute necessity by those whose avocations take them out of beaten tracks … we are indebted to the aboriginals [sic] for a method of obtaining water … no adult in Australia should be ignorant of it.’

Without the benefit of a university education and with no research experience outside the Museum, Useful native plants was a remarkable achievement for Maiden and he was justifiably proud of the results. Some 750 copies were printed and many were sent off to colleagues and friends in Australia and overseas. At the same time he energetically pursued possibilities for sales, sending 250 copies to a London bookseller with the belief that the recent Colonial and Indian Exhibition had fostered ‘an intense desire amongst the people of Great Britain to learn about Australia and her resources’. No records survive to attest whether or not this was the case. Although Useful native plants received little attention in the scientific press, Maiden must have been pleased with the results as it marked the beginning of an active publication program. Practical leaflets — such as his hints on collecting raw materials for a technology museum and his booklet on cultivating wattles and wattle barks for the tanning industry — alternated with more extensive publications. In 1895, two years after the successful move to Ultimo and shortly before he became director of Sydney’s Botanic Gardens, Maiden brought out his most lavish work and one that set a high standard for future publications, The flowering plants and ferns of New South Wales, with especial reference to their economic value. Conceived as a series to be issued in parts, each plant was beautifully illustrated with a full colour plate ‘not … overburdened with structural detail, and every effort will be made to secure pictorial accuracy’. Seven of the proposed eleven parts were issued over the next three years until, as Maiden later confessed, publication ceased because ‘it was represented to me that I was ruining the country by such extravagance’. Despite its incomplete status, Flowering plants remains a beautiful and useful guide to selected flora of New South Wales. It established high standards in writing, illustration and production, that successive Museum curators and directors have sought to emulate.

RIGHT: A PAGE FROM FLOWERING PLANTS. THE PLATES WERE PRODUCED BY EDWARD MINCHEN, A LITHOGRAPHIC ARTIST, AND HENRY BARON, A DRAFTSMAN, UNDER THE DIRECTION OF MAIDEN. LIKE ALL MUSEUM PUBLICATIONS IT WAS INTENDED TO FOCUS ON PLANTS OF ‘ECONOMIC VALUE’, HOWEVER MAIDEN COULD NOT RESIST INCLUDING THIS IMAGE OF SYDNEY’S GOLDEN WATTLE, ACACIA LONGIFOLIA. ADMITTING THAT NEITHER ITS TIMBER NOR ITS BARK WERE PARTICULARLY USEFUL COMMERCIALLY, NONETHELESS ‘IN FULL BLOOM ITS APPEARANCE IS SIMPLY GORGEOUS’. ABOVE: A FORMAL PORTRAIT OF MAIDEN AFTER HE HAD LEFT THE MUSEUM TO TAKE UP HIS POSITION AS DIRECTOR OF THE BOTANIC GARDENS.

stories from the archives

+ 019

powerline autumn 05

+ 20

powerline autumn 05

AS PART OF OUR 125TH CELEBRATIONS, WE INVITED SOME OF OUR LONGEST SERVING STAFF TO SHARE THEIR MEMORIES. story_JUDITH MATHESON photos_JEAN-FRANCOIS LANZARONE

twenty year club

When Museum deputy director Howard McKern interviewed Keith Landy for a job in September 1970, he told the young electrician that the Museum had big plans for expansion and this was his opportunity to ‘get in on the ground floor’. Keith took the job and over the next three decades was part of the most dramatic and exciting growth in the Museum’s history. Keith is now the Museum’s longest serving employee and he is one of a group of 34 people who have worked at the Museum for 20 years or more. Interestingly, three quarters are men, and almost one third are curators.

John was one of six museum attendants, a job that covered gallery officer, security officer, museum guide and showcase cleaner. The Boulton and Watt engine and Locomotive No 1 were kept at the rear of the Museum and it was the attendants’ job to keep them polished. ‘They weren’t advertised exhibits. Visitors had to ask the attendant to see them.’ Other jobs that fell to John included handing out pennies to children to play the music boxes on the second floor, and pressing the button at precisely seven minutes to three each day to start the pre-recorded tape for the ‘Strasburg’ clock.

Back in 1970 the Museum was a vastly different place. There were just over 50 staff, ‘mostly older men’ and Keith worked alongside carpenters, painters, fitter and turners and mechanics in a basement workshop of the old Museum building in Harris Street. Some of the most popular exhibits were the transparent woman, the planetarium and demonstrations of colour television. The Museum’s chemistry and botany laboratories were still operating and Castle Hill was a working eucalypt farm. Keith divided his time between lighting exhibition showcases and general maintenance. ‘It was full on but very ordered,’ he says. He also did regular trips to the country branch museums in Goulburn, Albury and Bathurst, ‘but not Broken Hill — it was too far to send me’.

‘We had lots of regulars. Some people came in and read books all day. On the first floor we had an area for school holiday activities. Ultimo and Pyrmont were still working class suburbs in those days so the locals would drop their kids off in the morning and pick them up at five when the Museum closed. We had big crowds back then too. I think the most popular exhibition was the hologram exhibition (Space-light 1982). There were people queued up around the block and back to Central Station.’

John Browne had an odd introduction to the Museum in 1978. ‘On my first day,’ John recalls, ‘the head attendant took me up to the top floor to meet all the managers and staff. They were all wearing dust masks and caps, clearing out the storage area which hadn’t been touched in about 50 years,’ he says.

Sydney Observatory was still a working research centre with four astronomers when Rob Renew began working there two nights a week as an evening guide in 1975. Carey Ward joined in 1980, looking after the maintenance of the scientific instruments. ‘It was a strange quasi-government outpost that no one really knew about,’ says Carey. ‘People were amazed to find this place largely unchanged for 100 years and still functioning. It seemed absurd to have an optical observatory in the middle of the CBD,’ adds Rob.

‘I was the first person employed by the Museum to work at the Observatory after they took it over,’ says Jeanie Kitchener who joined as a guide in 1983. ‘It was only open to the public on a Wednesday afternoon. I would open the door and there would be a queue of people all down the path and out the gate. The 29 cm telescope was in the dome and there were wooden seats all around it. The north dome wasn’t motorised and we had to move it by hand.’ After 1982 the Observatory no longer kept the official time clock, but it continued to operate the time ball. ‘I would go up to the top of the tower every day and raise the ball at six minutes to one and then drop it at exactly one o’clock. I had to cheat and use the pips from the ABC news,’ says Jeanie. In 1980 the Museum opened a restoration workshop in Arncliffe to prepare exhibits for Stage 1, the first exhibition area in what had been the old Ultimo tram sheds. Iain Scott-Stevenson began working there in May and Keith Potter joined in September 1980. ‘We prefabricated a railway station for Loco No 1 at Arncliffe and we also built a full-size cockpit for a Qantas jumbo flight simulator that was going on display. Even though it was bolted to the floor, it was so real, people used to hang on when the plane ‘landed’,’ says Iain. Stage I was the prelude to the opening of the Powerhouse Museum itself and staff began gearing up for this major project. ‘The entire period of setting up for the Powerhouse Museum was a time of challenge — we were sleeping here. People did it to get the thing open and there was a great sense of achievement,’ says Keith Potter. ‘Watching the

+ 21

powerline autumn 05

Twenty-year club members

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: JACOB DEL CASTILLO, JEANIE KITCHENER, GEOFF FRIEND, COLIN ROWAN, ROB RENEW, KEITH LANDY, GRAEME PLAT.

building being constructed — they were very exciting times and the enthusiasm was extraordinary. I was asked to build a model of the new building which was on public display. Most people can’t read architectural plans so they would come and look at the model. People began to see how vast it was going to be,’ says Iain Scott-Stevenson. Many new staff were hired in the years leading up to 1988. Graphic designer Colin Rowan joined the Museum in 1983, the year after it had closed to the public to become the project base for the Powerhouse. ‘The building was deserted apart from a troupe of ballerinas — the top floor had been loaned to a dance company by the director. When I finally found what was to become my office, I just looked at the cast iron wall and door. I was told that it had originally been the herbarium for research into eucalyptus oils.’ Carpenter Graeme Plat was only 20 when he started in the workshop in 1983. ‘Getting the Museum up and running for 1988 was an exciting time — seeing the loco moved into place and the planes suspended from the roof. We were building things from scratch, like the habitation module in the Space exhibition.’ Artist Jacob del Castillo joined the Museum in 1984. ‘It was a good opportunity for me because they were in the process of making the new Museum. I joined the design department which was part of the workshop. We were using very different techniques back then, like screenprinting labels. The process was very long but it was fun.’ Geoff Friend joined Photography later that year. ‘The Museum was in project stage and we

1970

Keith Landy

1975

Jan Garland*

1976

Denise Teale*

1978

Jennifer Sanders, John Browne

1979

Nick Lomb

1980

Pat Townley, Andrew Grant, Ian Debenham, Carey Ward*, Iain Scott-Stevenson, Keith Potter, Anne Watson

1981

Kathy La Fontaine, Linda Larsen, Rob Renew*

1982

Andrew Novosel, Robert Chancellor, Ian Banks

1983

Kerrie Dougherty, Des Barrett, Jeanie Kitchener, Colin Rowan, Graeme Plat, Kevin Laker, Toner Stevenson, Brad Baker

1984

Jesse Shore, Matthew Smith, Ross Goodman, Charles Pickett, Jacob Del-Castillo, Ann Stephen, Geoff Friend

*Joined Sydney Observatory, which became part of the Museum in 1982.

were doing some really adventurous stuff. And on a regular basis we were documenting the progress of the building. We could get an ‘aerial perspective’ from the top of a building on the corner of Macarthur and Harris Streets that showed the Powerhouse in the context of Darling Harbour.’ Rob Renew led the team that created the Museum’s interactive exhibits. This was new territory back in the mid 80s. ‘We pioneered the art of computer-based interactives. We had to invent a way of designing, making and testing these exhibits. In 1987 Commodore released a computer that made everything we had done up till then obsolete so we had to scrap it all and start again. Everything we’ve done since is a descendent of the programming we developed then.’ ‘The most constant thing since 1978 has been change,’ says Keith Landy. ‘We’ve opened museums, we’ve closed museums. Nothing has stood still. I’ve enjoyed the excitement of each new venue and thinking “What are we going to do with it?” And now we are working on Castle Hill. When I started it was all trees. Now we have huge stores there.’ Today almost everyone laments that the Museum is now too big to enjoy the close cooperation across departments that existed 20 years ago. So what is it that keeps people here? For most it’s the variety of work and the diversity of people. ‘You are never, ever bored,’ says Keith Landy. ‘I’ve worked on some great exhibitions.’

Jacob del Castillo says, ‘This is not a factory. We do so many interesting things here. The people I’ve worked with — they are very different characters with different attitudes but everyone is trying to make the museum work.’ ‘I do a bit of everything — carpentry, metalwork, plastic fabrication, a little bit of restoration work,’ says Graham Plat. ‘There’s nowhere else you can have a job like this,’ says Iain Scott-Stevenson. ‘Commercial model-making is big business but it’s dead boring. Here I can come up with my own ideas and see them through.’ For others it is an abiding love of the collection. Carey Ward made the move from conservation to registration three years ago. ‘I knew the PATH project (moving the Museum’s stores to Castle Hill) would be exciting and I thought I could make a real difference. We’ve had the opportunity to build new stores and plan it intensively. We are unpacking boxes and finding objects we didn’t know we had. It’s given us the opportunity to analyse the collection, store like with like, and ultimately make it more accessible to the public.’ ‘I’ve been collecting since I was a kid and through my job I have access to this amazing collection,’ says Keith Potter. ‘Some of our collections are the best in the world, like the early aircraft engines, the mineral collection, botanical specimens and the wool collection. I get paid to do what I like doing and that’s the most exclusive club in the world.’

+

powerline autumn 05

observe

+ 22

SEE JUPITER’S MOONS AND MEET THE AUTHOR OF ‘STARGAZING MEMORIES’.

f the moons of Jupiter Throughout human history Jupiter has appeared as a bright wandering star. This view changed in 1609 when Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) introduced the telescope to astronomy. From his garden in Padua, Italy, he observed that Jupiter was a round disc. More puzzling were the four nearby stars moving around it, like the moon circling the Earth. This discovery led him to conclude that Jupiter was a planet, like Earth, orbited by four moons. These moons were later named Callisto, Europa, Ganymede and Io. In the photographic montage above, reddish Io (upper left) is nearest Jupiter, then Europa (centre), Ganymede and Callisto (lower right). Today we know that Jupiter is like a miniature solar system. The largest of the planets, a staggering 12 times wider than Earth, Jupiter is a big ball of gas surrounded by a ring and 64 moons (including the Galilean moons). Most of our knowledge of the planet has been discovered using robotic

JUPITER AND ITS FOUR PLANET-SIZE MOONS, THEY ARE NOT TO SCALE BUT ARE IN THEIR RELATIVE POSITIONS. COURTESY NASA

We put the spotlight on Jupiter, the massive planet that is like a miniature solar system.



spacecraft, beginning with Pioneer 10 in 1973. The latest, named Galileo, studied Jupiter between 1995 and 2003. During its mission Galileo took the first close-up picture of an asteroid, discovered an asteroid with a moon, and witnessed a comet collide with Jupiter. It found evidence of salty oceans — a possible place where life might exist — trapped under the icy surfaces of Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Galileo’s close fly-bys of Io showed that the many volcanoes that cover its surface are still active. It also studied Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, a huge storm that’s three times the size of Earth. Galileo ended its mission in 2003 by plunging into Jupiter’s atmopshere. Jupiter and its four large moons can be viewed through the telescopes at Sydney Observatory from March 2005, bookings essential. Dr Martin Anderson

Sydney Writers’ Festival Peter Hill was only 19 years old when he worked as a lighthouse keeper off the coast of Scotland in 1973. From these rocky outcrops and uninhabited islands he came of age listening to the tales of older keepers, all of whom had lived fascinating lives around the world. Stargazing: memoirs of a young lighthouse keeper is a poignant, passionate and funny tribute to a way of life that no longer exists, but that will always capture the imagination and stir the soul. Glasgow-born Hill is an artist and lecturer at the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales, and art critic for

The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney Observatory, in association with Sydney Writers’ Festival, is excited to present an evening talk by Peter Hill, followed by a book signing session and stargazing through the telescopes. Saturday 28 May, 6-8.30 pm. Includes a glass of wine, light supper and telescope and exhibition viewing. Adults $27, concessions $25; members $22, concessions $20. Bookings and prepayment essential on tel (02) 9217 0485 or 9241 3767, email: [email protected]

+ 23

powerline autumn 05

THE POWERHOUSE MUSEUM GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGES THE SUPPORT OF THE FOLLOWING ORGANISATIONS

+principal partners

DICK SMITH SPORT: MORE THAN HEROES & LEGENDS

THE LORD OF THE RINGS MOTION PICTURE TRILOGY — THE EXHIBITION

DICK SMITH AUSTRALIAN EXPLORER BELL 206B JETRANGER III HELICOPTER

INTEL YOUNG SCIENTIST 2004, SOUNDHOUSE™ AND ONLINE PROJECTS

COLES THEATRE, TARGET THEATRE, GRACE BROS COURTYARD, K MART STUDIOS

ECOLOGIC: CREATING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

STEAM LOCOMOTIVE 3830 STEAM LOCOMOTIVE 3265

POWERHOUSE WIZARD

THE LORD OF THE RINGS MOTION PICTURE TRILOGY — THE EXHIBITION

OUR PLACE: INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIA NOW

THE LORD OF THE RINGS MOTION PICTURE TRILOGY — THE EXHIBITION

THE LORD OF THE RINGS MOTION PICTURE TRILOGY — THE EXHIBITION

THE LORD OF THE RINGS MOTION PICTURE TRILOGY — THE EXHIBITION

POWERHOUSE MUSEUM @ CASTLE HILL

+senior partners

GREEK TREASURES: FROM THE BENAKI MUSEUM IN ATHENS

+partners

+supporters

ENGINEERS AUSTRALIA, SYDNEY DIVISION

RAILCORP

TRANSGRID

ARAB BANK AUSTRALIA

RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA

ENGINEERING EXCELLENCE 2004

LOCOMOTIVE NO.1

PACIFIC SOLAR PROJECT

THE CURIOUS ECONOMIST: WILLIAM STANLEY JEVONS IN SYDNEY

THE CURIOUS ECONOMIST: WILLIAM STANLEY JEVONS IN SYDNEY

INDESIGN MAGAZINE

SBS RADIO

WESTRAC

D FACTORY

GREEK TREASURES: FROM THE BENAKI MUSEUM IN ATHENS

OUR PLACE: INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIA NOW

MINCOM LIMITED

SOUNDHOUSE™ MUSIC ALLIANCE

LIFE FELLOWS DINNER 2004

SOUNDHOUSE™ MUSIC AND MULTI MEDIA LABORATORY

NOVOTEL SYDNEY ON DARLING HARBOUR OFFICIAL SYDNEY HOTEL

YAMAHA MUSIC AUSTRALIA

NSW TREASURY

YAMAHA DISKLAVIER GRAND PIANO

THE CURIOUS ECONOMIST: WILLIAM STANLEY JEVONS IN SYDNEY

NIKON SYDNEY OBSERVATORY

+platinum corporate members

+gold corporate members

+the powerhouse foundation

+silver corporate members

BOEING AUSTRALIA

EBSWORTH AND EBSWORTH

2DESIGN

STREET VISION

THE GREATOREX FOUNDATION

PDC CREATIVE

INTEL AUSTRALIA

ARAB BANK AUSTRALIA

SWAROVSKI INTERNATIONAL (AUST)

DR K FEWSTER AM

MASSMEDIA STUDIOS

CAPITAL TECHNIC GROUP

TAFE NSW: SYDNEY INSTITUTE

JANET MCDONALD AO

MULTIPLEX

DUNLOP FLOORING AUSTRALIA

THE RACI INC, NSW BRANCH

WILLIAM SAWAYA TRUST FOUNDATION

NHK TECHNICAL SERVICES

NSW DEPARTMENT OF LANDS

THOMSON TELECOM AUSTRALIA

TRUST COMPANY OF AUSTRALIA

PETTARAS PRESS

WEIR WARMAN LTD

DR K M WEBBER B J WILLOUGHBY KYLIE WINKWORTH

+foundations

+australian government partners

+ state government partners THE POWERHOUSE MUSEUM IS A STATUTORY AUTHORITY OF, AND PRINCIPALLY FUNDED BY, THE NSW STATE GOVERNMENT. CASINO COMMUNITY BENEFIT FUND NSW

AUSTRALIA COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS AUSTRALIAN RESEARCH COUNCIL

DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND TRADE

DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT AND HERITAGE

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES AND GIVING TO THE POWERHOUSE MUSEUM PLEASE CONTACT MIRANDA PURNELL ON (02) 9217 0577.

GORDON DARLING FOUNDATION BRUCE AND JOY REID FOUNDATION VINCENT FAIRFAX FAMILY FOUNDATION

exhibitions at a glance MARCH_APRIL_MAY 2005 The Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy – The Exhibition LEVEL 4, UNTIL 3 APRIL 2005

Animal, vegetable and mineral: the weird and wonderful world of the Powerhouse Museum 1883-1939

Don’t miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go behind the scenes of the hugely successful film trilogy and see props, costumes, artefacts and film footage, as well as discover the secrets behind the trilogy’s award-winning special effects.

LEVEL 3, 6 APRIL – 18 JULY 2005

Toys: science at play

The curious economist: William Stanley Jevons in Sydney

LEVEL 3, UNTIL 18 JULY 2005

What makes a spinning top stay upright? How does a doll talk? This exhibition has the answers for curious minds of all ages.

In 1893 the Museum’s exhibits were organised into the three kingdoms of nature – animal, vegetable, mineral. This exhibition tells the story of the Museum’s founding vision: to explain the ‘science’ of everyday life.

LEVEL 4

Discover the remarkable story of William Stanley Jevons, the founder of modern economics who lived in Sydney from 1854 to 1859.

Greek treasures: from the Benaki Museum in Athens

DesignTech

LEVEL 4, FROM 5 MAY 2005

LEVEL 3, UNTIL 6 MARCH 2005

From one of the largest and most renowned collections of Greek treasures in the world, this exhibition tells the story of Greece over a period of eight thousand years. It includes prehistoric and historic figurines, ceramics, gold jewellery, Byzantine painted icons, metalware and oil paintings.

DesignTech showcases outstanding major design projects by 2004 Higher School Certificate students of Design and Technology.

Paradise, Purgatory and Hellhole: a history of Pyrmont and Ultimo

Engineering Excellence LEVEL 4, SUCCESS AND INNOVATION GALLERY, UNTIL NOVEMBER 2005

Outstanding projects from the Engineers Australia, Sydney Division, Engineering Excellence awards.

LEVEL 3, 19 MARCH – 10 OCTOBER 2005

Australian Design Awards

Experience some of the many human stories from a community that hasn’t stopped shifting and changing; from rural estate to industrial suburb and today’s highly developed urban environment.

LEVEL 4

The Powerhouse selection from the Australian Design Awards features outstanding achievements in design. From Palace to Power House LEVEL 3, UNTIL MAY 2005

Student fashion FROM APRIL 2005

Award-winning designs by students from Sydney’s top fashion schools.

A lively display of objects and photographs that illustrate the Museum’s 125-year history.

FROM LEFT: GREEK TREASURES: GOLD WREATH WITH IVY LEAVES, FIRST CENTURY BC © BENAKI MUSEUM; SCIENCE IS CHILD’S PLAY IN TOYS; 19TH-CENTURY BOTANICAL MODEL FROM ANIMAL, VEGETABLE AND MINERAL.

exhibitions at Sydney Observatory

Broken Hill Geocentre 16 APRIL – 3 JULY 2005

Intel Young Scientist 2004 Transit of Venus: the scientific event that led Captain Cook to Australia UNTIL JUNE 2005

Discover why these rare astronomical events have played a pivotal role in Australian history.

Orange City Library UNTIL 6 MARCH 2005

Tamworth Library 9 MARCH – 26 APRIL 2005

Northern Regional Library, Moree 29 APRIL – 6 JUNE 2005

travelling exhibitions

Works wonders: stories about home remedies Esbank House Museum, Lithgow

Sport: more than heroes and legends

UNTIL 20 MARCH 2005

Newcastle Regional Museum UNTIL 1 MAY 2005

Illawarra Museum, Wollongong 1 APRIL – 16 MAY 2005

Scitech Discovery Centre, Perth 17 MAY – 23 OCTOBER 2005

Albury Regional Museum, Albury 28 MAY – 17 JULY 2005

Gambling in Australia: thrills, spills and social ills

Our place: Indigenous Australia now

Albury Regional Museum

National Museum of China, Beijing

+

UNTIL 3 APRIL 2005

6 APRIL – 16 JUNE 2005

Give a gift membership www.powerhousemuseum.com

TURN OVER FOR DETAILS

Powerhouse Museum 125th Anniversary Membership Package To mark the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the Powerhouse Museum, Powerhouse Members offer a special commemorative membership package. For $125 you can purchase a family membership, two bottles of the limited edition Powerhouse Museum 125th Anniversary 2003 Bimbadgen Estate Chardonnay and 2002 Bimbadgen Estate Shiraz, and an invitation for you and your friends to attend a private wine tasting at Bimbadgen Estate in the Hunter Valley, redeemable anytime within the next year.

GIFT MEMBERSHIP RECIPIENT Name Membership number (if applicable) Address Suburb

Postcode

Phone (H) Email Delivery Instructions

HOUSEHOLD MEMBERSHIP DETAILS I wish to purchase Powerhouse Museum 125th Anniversary Membership Package $125.00 Two adults and all students up to the age of 18 at the same address

Number in household

adults

students < 18 yrs.

Name on 1st card Name on 2nd card Additional cards are available at a processing cost of $3.50 per card.

Number of children in each age bracket Under 5 yrs

5 to 12 yrs

12 to 18 yrs

PAYMENT DETAILS Total cost of membership: $125.00 I would also like to make a donation of $ to help the work of the Museum (donations are tax deductible). Total amount to be paid $ I enclose a cheque/money order for this amount made payable to Powerhouse Members. Please charge this amount to my credit card: Visa

Amex

M/card

Diners

B/card

Card number

Expiry

/

Cardholder name Signature I hereby declare that I am over the age of 18 years and I will take full responsibility to ensure that no person under the age of 18 years will take delivery of this wine.

GIFT MEMBERSHIP GIVER Name Membership number (if applicable) Address Suburb

Postcode

Phone (H)

Phone (W)

Email Message to go on gift card Please send this gift to:

giver

the recipient

Future renewal notices to be sent to:

giver

the recipient

Date that gift should be received by While all effort will be made to meet deadline, please allow 14 days processing.

Please complete all relevant sections and return to the members department: + By fax on 9217 0140 + By post to: Powerhouse Members PO Box K346, Haymarket, NSW 1238 or phone the Members hotline on 9217 0600. Please phone the Members Hotline for information about other gift membership categories or visit: www.powerhousemuseum.com/members

from the collection On 12 May 1883, eight months after the fire that destroyed the Museum’s first home, the curator Joseph Maiden purchased for £12 models of a queen bee, worker bees and honeycomb from the Parisian workshop of Dr Auzoux. Established in 1827 and best known for producing anatomy models for medical students, the workshop also made a wide range of botanical and zoological models for museums.

The bees were intended for a larger display of insects ‘arranged to distinguish between [those] injurious to man and those which work for his benefit’ according to a report in The Sydney Morning Herald on 15 December 1883. At that time the Museum’s exhibits were divided into the ‘three great kingdoms’ of the natural world — animal, vegetable and mineral (see story page 16). This bee is on display in the exhibition From Palace to Power House until May 2005.

ISSN 1030-5750 01

9

771030

575004

www.powerhousemuseum.com