Exhibition program

Developing and presenting exhibitions are key functions of the National Museum of Australia, as specified in the Museum Act. This year, the temporary and travelling exhibitions program continued to be strong, and included content that supports the Museum’s core themes of land, nation and people, linked to the National Historical Collection.

In 2013–14, the Museum delivered four temporary exhibitions and toured five travelling exhibitions.

Glorious Days: Australia 1913 (7 March – 13 October 2013), Temporary Gallery, 23,481 visitors (52,501 total visitation)

Glorious Days transported visitors back in time to explore the fashion, cars, designs and ideas that expressed a nation’s dreams before the world changed forever. In 1913, Australians saw their new nation as progressive, and free to make its own future in the world. The new capital, Canberra, was the expression of a national dream and the year culminated in the arrival in Sydney Harbour of Australia’s own navy.

Glorious Days featured artworks and costumes, music and newsreel footage from Australia a century ago. The Temporary Gallery was transformed into a streetscape from 1913 and immersed visitors in the colour and vibrancy of what has been described as a ‘hinge year’ in Australia’s history.

Old Masters: Australia’s Great Bark Artists (6 December 2013 – 20 July 2014), Temporary Gallery, 33,823 visitors (41,003 total visitation)

Old Masters: Australia’s Great Bark Artists presented 122 works on bark from east and west Arnhem Land, from the National Museum of Australia’s extensive bark painting collection — the largest held anywhere in the world.

Old Masters celebrated the genius and art of 40 master bark painters including Narritjin Maymuru, Yirawala, and Mawalan Marika. Feedback from the visitors book in the exhibition and in the media was overwhelmingly positive.

Warakurna: All the Stories Got into Our Minds and Eyes (7 December 2012 – 3 November 2013), First Australians Focus Gallery, 37,742 visitors (95,699 total visitation)

This was an exhibition of contemporary paintings and sculptures that document a new art movement emerging from the Western Desert community of Warakurna, by artists such as Eunice Yunurupa Porter, Judith Yinyika Chambers, Dianne Ungukalpi Golding, Jean Inyalanka Burke and Dorcas Tinamayi Bennett.

In September 2013 the Museum was successful in obtaining an Australia Council for the Arts Visions of Australia: Regional Exhibition Touring Fund grant to tour Warakurna across Australia for three years. Warakurna will travel to 11 venues across four states over the period.

On Country: Connect, Work, Celebrate (22 November 2013 – 20 July 2014), First Australians Focus Gallery, 48,430 visitors

On Country: Connect, Work, Celebrate was supported by the Department of Environment (previously the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities) and featured photographs from the department’s Working on Country and Indigenous Rangers program.

The exhibition showcased contemporary Indigenous land and sea management practices across Australia. Indigenous land and sea management practices build a connection to country and this connection is strengthened through caring for country, being on country, and celebrating country.

In 2013–14, five exhibitions travelled to a total of six different venues across New South Wales, Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia.

Of these venues, five were in metropolitan areas and one was in a regional area, and they attracted a total of 127,326 visitors. Yiwarra Kuju: The Canning Stock Route, Warakurna: All the Stories Got into Our Minds and Eyes and Inside: Life in Children’s Homes and Institutions were national travelling exhibitions. Inside was supported by the Department of Social Services and Warakurna was supported by the Australia Council for the Arts Visions of Australia: Regional Exhibition Touring Fund.

Number of exhibitions at venues, 2004–13

Note: date spans are for duration of exhibition, but figures are calculated from 1 July 2013.