Our April event for Members was a talk and walk through the exhibition The Suspense is Awful.  About 50 Members were able to enjoy this event, beginning as usual with refreshments and a social chat before President John Sexton introduced two speakers: firstly, the newly appointed Director of TMAG, Janet Carding; and then TMAG’s Senior Curator of History, Ian Terry.

Members were delighted to hear first-hand from our new Director as she explained something of her extensive background and experience as a museum professional with stints in several museums, including the London Science Museum, as Assistant Director at the Australian Museum in Sydney, and as Director of the Royal Ontario Museum.

Ms Carding explained that she couldn’t yet claim to have a clear and defined vision for TMAG, because, having been in the job for only a few weeks, she was finding there was still much to learn about TMAG’s operations, and she was looking for the chance to find out more from the various stake-holders, including the Friends of TMAG, before formalizing hew views on the museum’s future.

We then heard from Senior Curator of History, Ian Terry, who gave us a very informative and interesting talk about the current exhibition, The Suspense is Awful, which presents a fascinating view into the lives of those who were left at home when many Tasmanians went off to become participants in various ways in the campaigns of the First World War. Many of those who went off to war kept diaries, sent postcards home and in various other ways recorded their experiences for those at home, and many of these artifacts have survived to become a part of this exhibition. With many of the Members who attended having personal connections to the War, the exhibition and Ian Terry’s explanation of it was a fascinating and engrossing event which many Members told us they enjoyed very much.