1. Outlawed! Discover the Stories Behind the World's Rebels, Revolutionaries and Bushrangers
Outlawed! Discover the Stories Behind the World's Rebels , Revolutionaries and Bushrangers will explore the stories of 22 intriguing bushranger and outlaw heroes from Australia, the United Kingdom, Italy, Mexico, China, India, Japan, the United States and New Zealand. From Ned Kelly to Robin Hood, from Jesse James to Phoolan Devi, the exhibition will examine how these outlaws and revolutionaries lived and died and the popular stories which made them legends. The exhibition will open at the Museum in November 2003 and will then tour to venues around Australia.
This year saw significant focus on development of the exhibition. With the assistance of the Museum's specialist consultant, Associate Professor Graham Seal, exhibition content was refined from biographical case studies of the selected outlaws, using 490 objects sourced from Australia, New Zealand, China, India, Japan, Italy and Mexico, as well as 299 images and approximately 160 edited films. The Melbourne company, Convergence Design, was successful in winning the exhibition design tender which will include a children's trail and activities for under-five year olds. The exhibition will also use diverse multimedia including film, touchscreens, information kiosks and interactive modules. Draft exhibition text has been prepared and early in 2003-2004 will be reviewed for accuracy and accessibility. Text will also be prepared for children.
2. Cartoons 2003
The Museum will open its seventh annual political cartooning exhibition in Brisbane in January 2004 and discussions are underway for the exhibition to tour to at least four other states and territories during the year.
3. 23° South: Archaeology and Environmental History of the Southern Deserts
23° South: Archaeology and Environmental History of the Southern Deserts will be a major international exhibition in September 2004, placing Australian deserts and their human histories in a global context, comparing Australian arid lands with those in the Kalahari and Namib deserts of southern Africa and the Atacama desert of South America. Extensive planning in 2002-2003 for this exhibition included a content workshop with international experts held in January 2003 to scope the southern African component of the exhibition.
Consultations commenced during the year with bush communities about their inclusion in the exhibition, including a visit to the Museum in June by members of the Ikuntji (Haasts Bluff) community from the Northern Territory.
A committee was established to provide expert planning and advice throughout the development of the exhibition. Members include:
- His Excellency Cristobal G Valdes, Ambassador of Chile
- Mr Tjaart Steyn, First Secretary, South African High
Commission
- Professor John Beaton, Executive Director, Academy of the
Social Sciences
- Dr Michael Dodson, Chairperson, Australian Institute of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Council
- Associate Professor Roslynn Haynes, University of New South
Wales
- Emeritus Professor John Mulvaney
- Dr Ken Johnson, Director of Desert Knowledge Australia
- Emeritus Professor Jack Golson, Centre for
Archaeological Research
- Professor Martin Williams, Environmental Studies University of Adelaide.
The first meeting of the panel was held on 17 February 2003.
4. Beauty
Beauty is being developed through a unique partnership between the Museum and the National Gallery of Victoria. Curators from both institutions are working together to prepare the exhibition, which will examine the nature, history, appreciation, power and appeal of the human form. As a collaborative project between an art gallery and a social history museum, this exhibition will provide a model for other cultural institutions in crossing disciplines and sharing expertise on subjects of common interest. It is expected to attract a wide audience of both traditional and non-traditional museum visitors, as the broad range of disciplines incorporated into the exhibition, such as social history, anthropology, art history and psychology, as well as the cross-cultural nature of the exhibition, will appeal to a diverse audience.
The exhibition will open in Melbourne in September 2005 at Federation Square, and at the National Museum in December 2005.
