annual report/2006 - University of Melbourne

knowledge transfer/
The University continued its
engagement with regional Victoria
during the year. Outreach activities
included an exhibition by the University
Archives of photographs from the 1920s
for the Benalla Family History project
at the Benalla Art Gallery, continuing
sponsorship of the Shepparton Arts
Festival and events at the University’s
Dookie campus.
The Arts
Strategic Priority
• Engaging society through the Arts
Achievements
During the year the University
reviewed and developed policies for
making outstanding collections and
other cultural resources, such as the
Melbourne Theatre Company and
Asialink accessible to wider audiences.
Council approved a Cultural Policy
Statement, clarifying how arts and
cultural activities fit with the University’s
aims, and setting out principles that,
in future, will be used to ensure the
University’s resources for cultural
activities are more focussed on its
objectives and used more explicitly
for extending the University’s work
to the community.
Council also adopted the Policy and
Minimum Requirements for the
Management of Cultural Collections to
set a strong framework for improved
management of its collections. The
Management Policy sets out guiding
principles which assist the University
to configure its many collections and
cultural programs to best serve the
whole community.
In a move to make the collections
more accessible, two new web sites
were created. An overview of all the
Cultural Collections is now presented
at (http://www.unimelb.edu.au/
culturalcollections/), while a discrete
site at(http://www.unimelb.edu.au/
malcolmfraser/highlights the Malcolm
Fraser collection.
The University’s collections exhibited for
the first time an outstanding gift of rare
early music scores, manuscripts and
treatises. In honour of the generosity
to the University of the late Louise
Hanson-Dyer who had amassed the
collection, the University’s Music Library
was renamed the Louise Hanson-Dyer
Music Library, to mark the occasion and
a catalogue of the collection published.
In 2006, the University continued to
provide access to theatre, music and
visual arts that enrich and add to the
diversity of Australian culture. The
Faculty of Music and the Victorian
College of the Arts offered an extensive
program of performances and
exhibitions to the public, drawing on
their extensive staff and student talent.
Particularly notable was the world
premiere performance by the Faculty
of Music in April of Vivaldi’s Dixit
Dominus, a work discovered at Dresden
by Faculty musicologist Dr Jan Stockigt.
The University’s engagement with
partner arts organisations continues
to be intensive and extensive.
Among these:
• With the National Library of Australia,
the exhibition, Facing Percy Grainger,
ran at the National Library, Canberra,
drawing chiefly on the University’s
Grainger Museum collection;
• The Australian Literary Review was
launched to explore the work of the
country’s leading writers and thinkers
across a wide range of disciplines.
Published monthly in The Australian,
the Review is co-sponsored by the
University, Melbourne University
Publishing, the Australia Council
and News;
• Melbourne University Publishing
published 73 titles, continuing to build
its business and its publishing list.
Notable successes under the MUP
imprint included The Wayward Tourist
by Mark Twain (introduction by Don
Watson), A Conga line of Suckholes
by Mark Latham and My Israel
Question by Antony Lowenstein,
and, under the Miegunyah Press,
imprint books included The Student
Chronicles by Alice Garner,
Botanical Riches by Richard
Aitken and The New McCulloch’s
Encyclopaedia of Australian Art;
• The Melbourne Theatre Company
maintained its commitment to new
Australian work by including in its
season plays by Joanna Murray-
Smith (Female of the Species),
Tony McNamara (The Give and Take),
Steven Rogers (Ray’s Tempest) and,
Jane Bodie (A Single Act). The 2006
Season had subscriber numbers at
record levels for the sixth season in
a row;
• The Ian Potter Museum of Art, which
houses one of the largest collections
of art in Victoria, hosted a diverse
and exciting program of exhibitions,
often linked closely with City of
Melbourne events. Game on!: Sport
and Contemporary Art was part of
the 2006 Commonwealth Games arts
festival, while Under the Burning Sun
of the Colony was an integral part of
celebrations for the 150th Anniversary
of the eight-hour day movement.
Other notable exhibitions included:
Norman Lindsay: Selected works
from the University of Melbourne
Art Collection and Creation Tracks
and Trade Winds: Groote Eylandt
bark paintings from the University of
Melbourne Art Collection, funded by
the Gordon Darling Foundation;
• The University became a founding
member of the new Victorian Opera
Company, providing $200,000 towards
its inaugural season in 2006;
• With the Melbourne Symphony, the
Sidney Myer Free Orchestral Concerts
in February again attracted crowds
of over 40,000 to the Sidney Myer
Music Bowl;
• Meanjin, restyled as ‘The University of
Melbourne’s Quarterly’, was assisted
to lift its circulation.
The University of Melbourne Annual Report 2006
39