Uni gallery highlights the past

FEDERATION University’s Post Office Gallery generally displays past works in their exhibitions, but their latest one will hold a magnifying glass up to history more than ever before.

This month will see the opening of the Educating Artists exhibition, which will display student projects and artefacts from the Ballarat Technical Art School between 1907 and 1940.

Over 30 works were compiled from research by graphic designer Dr Elise Whetter who said the program serves as a celebration of the college’s creative innovation during the era.

“I think a contemporary art student would be flabbergasted at the level of work and the discipline involved, and it really catered to a lot of different cohorts” she said.

“There were three art schools here that merged under the control of Ballarat School of Mines, but people really did talk about the place almost as a separate institute in a lot of instances.

“That was one of the special things about it, and the reason why I’m focusing on principal H.H Smith’s tenure, because he was able to elevate and champion arts within our local institutes.

“So, you can come and look at this as an art exhibition or you can look at it as an explanatory exhibition of almost museum pieces.”

Dr Whetter compiled the history of the works over six years as part of her doctoral thesis at Federation University’s School of Arts.

The pieces will vary from student artworks to competition posters and learning tools, alongside informational panels written by Dr Whetter to help the audience “fathom the history” behind each item.

The majority of works were selected from Fed Uni’s Mount Helen archives, with the rest donated by of the artists’ families.

Gallery curator Shelley Hinton said the exhibition will be their first time focusing on a specific era of one of Ballarat’s colleges.

“We’ve had exhibitions where we’ve drawn a number of historical works from our Mount Helen collection that help tell the story about whatever theme we’re conveying,” she said.

“But this is the first we’ve centred on a particular timeframe, 1907 to 1940, and invested in it for an entire series.”

Educating Artists will open on Saturday, 23 April and will run until Sunday, 17 June.