Art for the Country : The Story of Victoria's Regional Art Galleries / Don Edgar.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Edgar, Donald Ernest, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Art museums.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (498 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

North Melbourne, Vic : Australian Scholarly Publishing Pty Ltd, [2019]

Summary:

Victoria's regional art galleries have a colourful history replete with political drama, directors vilified, battles with arts bureaucrats, generous benefactors and dedicated citizens fighting for a better deal for the arts in everyday life. The early galleries in Ballarat, Bendigo, Warrnambool and Geelong grew out of post-Gold Rush wealth and the desire of prominent citizens to improve the quality of cultural life. In the post-War years a new movement, beginning in Mildura, began to fight for the rights of all rural citizens to have exposure to the arts, through improved government funding and assistance from the National Gallery of Victoria. The new galleries had a regional focus, led by visionaries and not always supported by local councils and ratepayers whose priorities lay with practical needs such as paved roads, sewers and sporting fields. The conflicts continue to this day. This is the ongoing story of Art for the Country.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

PREFACE A Personal Discovery of Art in the Country

INTRODUCTION Times When the Arts Could Thrive

1 An Extraordinary Man -Ballarat Art Gallery, 1884

2 Old Timers Wanting More - Bendigo Art Gallery, 1887

3 Not the Archibald - Warrnambool Art Gallery and Museum, 1886/87

4 Trying to Keep Up - Geelong Art Gallery, 1896

5 Comfortable Castlemaine, 1913-1931

6 A Small Civic Start - Shepparton, 1936

7 Some Early (Halting) Moves to Support the Provincial Galleries

8 Mildura - Intrigue, Community Conflict and Individual Drive

9 Getting the Galleries Together - A 'Reluctant' National Gallery

10 Hamilton - Squatter Legacies - Upstaging the Others?, 1961

11 Benalla - Patronage in a Community Divided

12 Centralism and the Struggle for Control

13 Smaller Towns Seeking a Place at the Table

14 Swan Hill Pioneer Settlement, 1965 - What Qualifies as a Gallery?

15 Regionalism as a Guiding Concept

16 A New Constitution (RGAV), 1970

17 Ambitious but Ambivalent- Westbrook and the NGV

18 Suburban Rivalry - McClelland Gallery, 1961 and Mornington Peninsula Gallery, 1969

19 Gippsland Competitors - Sale, 1965 and Morwell, 1971

20 It's Too Much Work - The Battle for an Executive Officer

21 Warrnambool -Cleaning with Ajax

22 Bendigo - Shaken, Not Stirred

23 Ballarat - Flagging Its Wares

24 Geelong - One Direction or Multiple Directors?

25 Hamilton - Political Favouritism and the Sandby Collection

26 The Smaller Galleries Hit Their Straps

27 Mildura Arts Centre, 1966: Boot Him Out!

28 Geelong Arts Centre - Infighting in an Ugly Town. 29 New Beginnings, or the Beginning of the End?

30 The Galleries Today: Public Response and the Future

Notes

APPENDIX Public Galleries Under the PGAV in 2018

List of Illustrations

Bibliography

Acknowledgements

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781922454706

1922454702

OCLC:

1243553304