Listen here!

Our Members’ event for July was an illustrated talk by Zoe Rimmer entitled Indigenous Culture, Here and Overseas.

Zoe Rimmer is TMAG’s Acting Senior Curator Indigenous Culture and her very informative and beautifully illustrated talk was appreciated by around 50 Members.

After an acknowledgment of the traditional owners of the land where TMAG now stands, Friends’ President John Sexton welcomed Members to a talk which, as he said, was in many ways overdue: it had been some time since the Friends had heard of the latest developments at TMAG in Indigenous Culture.

Guest speaker Zoe Rimmer told Members of her trip to North America and Europe last year on a Churchill Fellowship. She had visited a number of museums in several countries where items of great importance to Tasmanian indigenous culture were held, including several items that were, to the best of her knowledge, unique.

She also reported on her recent discussions in London and Paris regarding the latest round of repatriation talks with several major museums. She was able to report on the success of some of these talks with several museums, but also reported that there was a need for further discussion with some others. Overall, however, Members were left with the impression that considerable advances had been made in matters of repatriation, and that more success could be expected in the future.

We're delighted to advise that payments for Friends of TMAG memberships, renewals, events and donations can now be made directly online on our website using Paypal.

You can use your credit card or funds directly from your bank account. Next time you are on the website and need to make a payment, you'll see 'Pay Online' as an option. Click on that and the system will step you through the process - it's very easy and secure.

Of course, you can still make payment by our other methods too - cheiques and direct deposit into our account. And the good people at the TMAG shop can accept cash payments for membership renewals and donations - just pop in and take your membership renewal form with you.

Find out more about using Paypal

On June 10 2015 Members enjoyed an event with a slightly different format from the usual: a walk and talk by the artist Patrick Hall around his exhibition Things I Once Knew.

After the usual refreshments, around 50 Members were welcomed by Friends’ Vice-President Chris Thomas, on behalf of President John Sexton who was interstate. Chris briefly introduced Patrick Hall with reference to Patrick’s career as well as some personal anecdotes, and then Patrick led Members off for a walk around the exhibition, explaining different items in terms of their conception, production and with reference to some hidden aspects of some of the displayed pieces.

Because of the usual museum rules of not touching art-works, a number of Patrick’s pieces can only normally be seen from the outside, as it were. The artist, however, was able to show members how several of the pieces opened up or had other inner hidden aspects which viewers are usually not able to see. This revealed a whole new area of understanding which even those Members who were familiar with the exhibition found interesting and informative, adding greatly to their enjoyment and appreciation of the exhibition.

A number of Members reported that they particularly enjoyed this format and felt it was one of the best Members’ Functions they had been to. Our sincere thanks go to Patrick Hall for his generosity in taking part in this event and for leading such an entertaining and informative discussion.

On May 21, around 60 Members enjoyed a visit to the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts. The Allport, as it is usually known, is one of those places that we all know about but keep forgetting to visit – or at least that is what a number of our Members said to us on the night. So for many people this was a very welcome chance to catch up with one of the lesser-known glories of Hobart’s cultural scene.

After refreshments and then a welcome from Friends’ President John Sexton, we heard from the Allport’s Curator Caitlin Sutton who gave us an illustrated talk about the Allport family and the story behind their bequest to the people of Tasmania, a bequest made up of fine and rare books, colonial works of art and early nineteenth century furniture, silver, glass and fine china.

We were then privileged to hear from artist Lauren Black who spoke to us about the current temporary exhibition at the Allport, Memento Mori: Art, Medicine and the  Body.  Lauren Black’s work explores both Western and Eastern medical traditions, and her explanation, again accompanied by illustrations, was fascinating.

After the talks, Members had the opportunity to wander through both the permanent exhibition and the temporary Memento Mori exhibition. Several Members commented upon both contrasts and parallels they found between the two very different exhibitions, and many also mentioned how much they enjoyed the chance to have an informed  guide to this delightful museum and gallery.

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.

The WWI exhibition development team is searching for a small to medium size round or rectangular wooden dining table (or the like) to be used in an interpretive space within the exhibition, which will run for a year from March 2015-March 2016.

It is likely that the table will be covered with a tablecloth so marking and stains may not be a problem. As hundreds of members of the general public will sit at the table looking through photo albums and other paraphernalia, it will need to be sturdy and have all four legs in good working order.

If you think you have a suitable table that you can loan the exhibition team for an entire year — perhaps something that is out in the back shed — please send an
image with rough dimensions to Trudy Woodcock at Trudy.woodcock-outram@tmag.tas.gov.au or get in touch via the details below:

Trudy Woodcock | Acting Exhibition Manager
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery | Department of State Growth
19 Davey Street, Hobart TAS 7000 | GPO Box 1164, Hobart TAS 7001
Ph (03) 6165 7071 | Fax (03) 6211 4112 | Mobile 0404 423 437

Following the AGM held on 25 September 2014, the new committee for 2014-2015 is

President John Sexton

Vice President Christopher Thomas

Treasurer Noel Harper

Secretary Julie Hawkins

Committee members Jean Boughey, David Coleman, Ruvé Etchell, Digby Longhurst, Andrew Ross, Matt Spencer

Ex Officio Jennifer Storer, TMAG Acting Director

Thank you to all those members who have responded thus far and renewed your membership for the coming year - well over half our members who fell due in July have renewed, with more coming in daily.

We are planning to issue personalised, credit-card style membership cards, to replace the cardboard cards we've previously used. This will occur in late October; meanwhile, please continue to use your old card, or bring along or print out a copy of your membership receipt, to claim membership benefits.

If you are reading this, you have clearly found your way to the new Friends of TMAG website. Your committee has been hard at work, getting the site ready for you. In future this will be the major point for dealing with membership applications, renewals, registration for events and more.

For now, we are populating the site with what we hope will be useful and interesting information for members. On the Home page, for example, you can download copies of recent Friends Newsletters.

In the About Us section, we have placed a copy of our Constitution document, for interest and reference. (This is a scanned copy of the hard copy we have - if any member has the current constitution as a word processor document, could you please forward it to us at friends@tmag.tas.gov.au - we'd be grateful and it will save someone a lot of typing!)

Also on the About Us page you'll find our new Privacy Policy. Like any organisation in Australia, the Friends of TMAG is subject to the Australian Privacy Principles and associated legislation. The Policy details what personal information we collect, how it is managed and what uses it is put to. 

Your personalised membership renewal letters and forms are on their way to you. There is even a reply-paid envelope to return the form, plus we have offered a range of options for payment.

We hope you find the renewal process easy, and encourage you to renew promptly so you don't miss out on any of the events that we have coming up.