Uncover Ballarat’s past with collections program

THE Australian Centre for Gold Rush Collections’ 2025 program will be announced tonight, Friday 14 February, at the first Pecha Kucha event of the year.

Pecha Kucha is a series produced by thinkers and creatives where they have 20 slides and 20 seconds per slide to share their work and ideas.

The aim of the presentations is to inspire and inform attendees.

“We ran this series last year and it’s become a very popular event in the calendar,” head of collections and curatorial Lauren Bourke said.

“Come and have a chat, have a drink and be really inspired; it’s a really dynamic presentation format.

“Our first one for the year is the theme of collection and this leads into why we’re launching our program as part of the event.”

This year’s program will include a range of back-of-house collection tours about topics such as women’s experiences, Chinese culture and fashion.

There will also be talks held throughout the year about topics such as Halloween traditions and women on the goldfields, as well as more events announced as the year goes on.

Ms Bourke encouraged the community to stop by and see what the centre has to offer.

“We have such a rich collection here that we’re really privileged to care for,” she said.

“We live in a place that has so many amazing stories and we’re very lucky as a regional city to be able to have that history but also to be able to come in and see these objects.

“It is quite special for a museum to offer.”

To purchase a ticket to Pecha Kucha or view the program, visit the Sovereign Hill website.