KYABRAM TOWN HALL GALLERY

 

In 1992 the Kennett Government came to power in Victoria with significant electoral success: 66% of the seats in the Legislative Assembly [the “lower” House], and 77% of the seats in the Legislative Council [the House of review].  One of Kennett’s electoral planks had been the reform of the State’s system of municipal government – to place emphasis on microeconomic matters such as “reductions in operating expenditures” and “the efficiency, effectiveness and competitiveness of service delivery”. The implementation of policy had initially been voluntary restructuring, but soon became coercive and compulsory.

 

One outcome of Kennett’s reform was the creation, in 1994, of the local government area, the Shire of Campaspe - established by the forced amalgamation of the city of Echuca, the town of Kyabram, and the shires of Rochester, Waranga and Deakin.  Echuca became the hub, and the former municipal functions of the other four areas were centralised or abolished.

 

Thus, the one-time Kyabram Town Hall [originally the Mechanics’ Institute, until 1954], lost its principal function, and for a while was a lost soul, although functioning for some years as the Kyabram public library (now relocated).  This until 2012, when a brave committee secured ownership of the (by now) dilapidated premises from the Shire of Campaspe, and proceeded to renovate the Hall to its present functionality as a public art gallery

As part of the 2014 renovation the original “hall” area of the Town Hall was divided into two: one half retaining the original ceiling, with its series of wooden arches; the other half with a lowered ceiling, modernised and with much improved lighting.  So: two discrete and significant display areas.  

 

At the time of our visit the modernised part of the Gallery had an exhibition: Portraits and Caricatures by Victorian painter, Pete Conroy.  Conroy’s caricatures are a little more distinctive than his “straight” portraits but, in reality, every picture has an element of caricature.  The painting technique is consistent throughout, as is Conroy’s palette.  The tonings are invariably bright, and even the caricatures have a happy feel about them.  Dare I say that this is admirable, given that Conroy was incapacitated in a surfing accident.  The programme note describes him as “a high functioning quadriplegic” who, post tragedy, pursues his full-time painting career from “a hot shed in rural Victoria”. That rural Victoria is nearby Echuca.  Pete Conroy can be found on the internet, with images of some hundred paintings for sale, including a number of those that were on show at Kyabram.

The “older” part of the Gallery was occupied by Linda Steele – in Conjunction with Waverley Patchworkers.  Linda Steele is a professional patchworker, and her work is extraordinary – not conventional bedspreads with “traditional” patterns, but break-out shapes and designs and colours.  “Fabric, colour, thread, embroidery and quilting has been her life since 1997 when she first discovered the joy of making a quilt.  It was not long before Linda realised that she was more interested in making quilts as art for the wall rather than a bed cover.  Over the years she has designed and made many Applique and Crazy Quilts……a natural progression towards designing and making Art Quilts.”  Linda Steele has exhibited widely, including in the USA, France, and China.  She has won numerous prizes and awards.

 

The Linda Steele display was mounted in conjunction with a selection of quilts made by members of Waverley Patchworkers.  Waverley Patchworkers is a very active Melbourne group, with over 250 members.  My wife, Annie, is a long-time member, a frequent exhibitor at Waverley’s annual shows, and an occasional winner at their judged competitions.  A number of her miniature quilts were on display at Kyabram to accompany the Linda Steele display.  These were “Art Quilts”, made by each member of a small group to freely reflect a common theme. The themes drawn on for display at Kyabram included Helen Maudsley, Maps, Virginia Cuppaidge, Windows, Gustav Klimt.  I have to say, without any prompting, that the Art Quilts of the Waverley Patchworkers were imaginative and superb.

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There is a third exhibition space in the former Town Hall, named the Isobel Harvie Room.  I’m guessing that this space was the former administrative headquarters of the municipality, now a generous open space with no echo of former offices.  This room currently houses a collection of locally-sourced household artefacts enhancing The George Rathbone Collection of naïve art. 

 George Rathbone (1900 to 1980) lived in the Echuca region, and was a schoolteacher for nearly half a century. He took up painting in retirement, and made numerous paintings of the district in earlier times.  The naïve style is not perhaps to today’s tastes, but Rathbone’s works are an unique representation of the river port in times past, and the diversity of nineteenth century pursuits.

 

The 72 paintings of the Rathbone collection were given to the Shire of Campaspe, and are kept permanently at the Kyabram Town Hall Gallery – although examples are frequently on loan to other institutions.  A small sample of Rathbone’s works is currently displayed in the Isobel Harvie Room, and helpfully positioned next to each painting is a full description of the subject matter.  The paintings adorn the walls; the rest of the exhibition space - as you can see - is brimming with memorabilia of domestic life in the late 1800s/early 1900s.  I accepted with incredulity the fact that this material is not the property of the Gallery or of the Shire, and that it has been sourced by the Gallery manager from local contacts.  And has then been expertly displayed!  When the current exhibition ends shortly the Rathbone paintings will return to storage, and the domestic memorabilia will be returned to its owners. 

Having heard this story I picked up a couple of dinner plates, and saw that there was no label underneath – so I taxed the ladies at the desk: How will the manager know where to return each of the hundreds of items?

 

Surprised looks:  “Oh, she will know.”

 

This Isobel Harvie Room has a curious recent history, a history not told to me.  The ladies at reception during the two days of our visit were unaware of events prior to their involvement (and weren’t asking), and the lady who chairs the committee, and runs the venue, was aware but unwilling to be specific.  

 

In short, this is what I have pieced together.  Isobel Harvie was a prime mover in the 2014 resurrection of the Town Hall as a Gallery; and she made available to it her massive and extraordinary collection of historical costumes and accompanying paraphenalia.  I am quoting from published sources: “Kyabram Town Hall (re)opened on 7^th November 2014 as a Community and Tourist Information Centre; Gallery space for community or visiting artists; and, especially, to provide a permanent home to The Isobel Harvie Collection of Victorian and Edwardian historic clothing.  A generous donation of A Stitch Back in Time to the Town of Kyabram, by Isobel and Keith Harvie in March 2013, on the condition that a permanent home could be found for the collection, inspired an enthusiastic group to approach the Shire of Campaspe with the suggestion that the vacant Kyabram Town Hall would be an ideal location to house the collection.”

 

This duly happened, and there was a subsequent series of Isobel Harvie exhibitions:  A Stitch Back in Time [WW1 and ANZAC clothing and memorabilia]; An Edwardian Tea Party [experience the elegance of the Edwardian era]; The Boudoir Collection [a selection of Victorian underwear and sleepwear]; Forever Bridal Collection [more than 100 wedding dresses from the late 1800s to today]; Cherished Memories [all about children’s wear 1900s to present day]; Fabulous Fifties [stepping out of the war years…..]; Masquerade Ball [exhibiting exquisite masks and gowns]; Wonders of Winter [experience the furs, coats, capes, hats from all eras]………this last exhibition held July through November 2018.

 

Some while after this there was an estrangement.  The Isobel Harvie collection was no longer available to the Gallery either by way of gift or by way of loan, and I was told that the collection has likely been sold.  Except that the Gallery was able to acquire around 50 display dummies, these for use should the Gallery some day mount an exhibition of clothing – albeit not sourced from Isobel Harvie!  One hopes that the new owner of the extraordinary Isobel Harvie collection is attuned to its uniqueness, and that the collection is not broken up.

 

A sorry story, perhaps, but Gallery management is philosophical.  It is all right to move on from the Harvie connection, and the Committee has been able to embrace a busy future programme.  And there is a final gracious note: there has not, I am told, been any suggestion that the Isobel Harvie Room should be re-named.

 

Gary Andrews

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SWAN HILL REGIONAL ART GALLERY

 

You wonder whether the public art gallery in Swan Hill could do better.  And then you wonder whether it matters anyway.  But it does matter: there must always be room for “improvement” in man, beast, machine, building or institution.  However, such improvement needs must occur in the real-world context where there are diverse issues – where, for instance, aspiration collides with lack of resources, or where aspiration collides with the agendas of others.

 

The Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery did “do better” when it moved into its present building in 1987.  Its origins had been unique, but modest. The paddle steamer Gem, which had plied the Murray River since 1876, was wet docked in a coffer dam within the precincts of the Swan Hill Pioneer Settlement, a splendid tourist village on the banks of the Murray.  The Pioneer Settlement was established in 1963, and is Australia’s first open air museum.  In 1966, after a variety of landlocked uses, Gem became the foundational home of the Gallery.  

 

Gem these days serves as the entry point to the Pioneer Settlement.  

Across the way, is the present single storey 1987 Gallery building, designed by architect Ian Douglas.  As conceived with locally-sourced mud bricks and red gum beams, it has an affable farm building feel about it.   This has been enhanced by the 1990 extension. 

But it remains a small gallery.  The brochure helpfully includes a floor plan, and by my estimate about half the total area of the building is taken by the foyer and shop, offices, storage, and amenities.  The other “half” comprises the main gallery and a small studio gallery.  

So, back to my point.  Twenty-one years was a long time to wait for the new post-Gem premises, and although today’s building is perfectly functional (to the eyes of this unpractised observer, at least), it was and is simply too small.  It could do better – if it were larger.  This point was made manifestly obvious on the day of our visit: the whole gallery was devoted to an exhibition of works by Aboriginal artists of the nearby river country, and the entire permanent collection was in storage for the duration!  Although the Swan Hill permanent collection is modest in size, surely generous examples should always be on show.  

The attendant on duty on the day of our visit was most engaging, and she advised that they are always happy to retrieve works from storage for private viewings - but would appreciate a couple of days’ notice!  She was the only staff member present, one other being on leave, and another being “away”.  [Apart from the difficulties of being the sole front of house, there are the obvious safety issues consequent upon being alone in a venue open to the public.]  We were the only visitors for the half hour of our time at the gallery, and the attendant was happy to be monopolised, and to augment for us the information publicly available on the internet and available from the “short guide” leaflet.

 

The Gallery’s web page indicates that it has 400 artworks and, helpfully, has a full alphabetical listing of the collection, although with no images.  However, that listing is seriously out of date, and we were told that it should contain 503 works.  Blame lack of resources for the out-of-date public information – but ask, and receive, friendly help and an updating.  Part of this help, in our case, was a peek at the screen at the front desk, where they have photo images of the collection, sadly not yet on line.  Clearly, the spirit of the Gallery team is willing, but the funding is weak.  [While the Gallery’s own website has fallen behind, the Swan Hill Gallery’s page on the victoriancollections.net.au website lists and describes 503 “featured items”.]. 

 

In the meantime, those artworks that are listed on the Gallery’s website are described with full provenance, so much so that the listing runs to 135 pages.  And from a slow trawl through that listing I see that the permanent collection holds two Ray Crooke screen prints; one Russell Drysdale pen and ink wash; two Pro Hart oils on hardboard; two Robert Ingpen works, one a pen and ink wash on paper, the other a watercolour on paper; five Kenneth Jacks – two lithographs, two oils on hardboard and one ink on paper; two Louis Kahan works on paper, one pencil and one lithograph; a Henry Moore lithograph on paper; one John Olsen lithograph and two Sydney Nolans – a lithograph and a silk screen print [these three on loan from the National Gallery of Victoria]; one Clifton Pugh etching and one oil on composition board; two Andrew Sibly pencil on paper; four Fred Williams works, two pencil on paper, one ink on paper, and one pen and ink wash on paper.  

 

Enough!  These may not all be important works, but they are works by important artists.  And obviously they are rendered more important by the relative modesty of the Swan Hill collection, and – it follows – that they or works of equivalence should by on permanent view regardless of the space requirements of visiting and occasional exhibitions.

 

Gallery management and trustees do not need to be told that the Swan Hill venue is inadequate for today’s needs.  Indeed, our helpful guide indicated that there has been an initiative to expand the gallery space - specifically, to relocate and rebuild within the grounds of the Pioneer Settlement.  That proposal has been rebuffed.  I sense that capital funding might not be the sticking point; and – returning to my theme - the message to present day planners is “do better”: negotiate harder, or look elsewhere, or re-think your present site.

 

The aforementioned exhibition of works by local Aboriginal artists is titled Connections – Contemporary Aboriginal Art from the Swan Hill Region, and is scheduled to run until 17 July.  This is a “survey of contemporary Aboriginal art…..(it) celebrates this rich and unique country and waterways, the plants, the fauna, the foods, and the history.”

 

I am not equipped to comment on Aboriginal art, but I happily accept that the display of artefacts and artworks was consistent with the foregoing description. 

  

The tightly-framed display of quandong seeds, Suzanne Connelly-Klidomitis’s Quandong Tracks, gave out the contradictory message of fecundity in the midst of desert.

Young visitors have not been overlooked, and with Nathalie “Lucy” Williams Connelly’s Looking Through My Eyes children are asked to search the thirty 59cm x 50cm panels for “How many koalas can you see?”

As I conclude this reflection on the Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery I wonder whether my comments about the smallness of the Gallery and the sequestering of its permanent collection have been too unsympathetic.  The Gallery’s website informs that it has hosted some twenty exhibitions in the past twelve months (meaning, perhaps, the year before Covid), and has managed five outreach exhibitions to neighbouring communities.  This is a lively exercise of the Gallery’s desire to inform and to educate – and perhaps a source of precious revenue that a static permanent display might not be. The Gallery even embraces concerts “featuring our magnificent 1923 Steinway & Sons grand piano”.

 

And, sensibly, the focus of the Gallery’s collection has been kept narrow (Australian naïve art; Australian prints and drawings from the 1970s onwards), and kept local (Works of art that relate to the Swan Hill region).

 

So, with penitent demeanour, I recognise – all considered – that the Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery does indeed do better.

 

Gary Andrews