Education

Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts Annual Report
The mission of the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts (ALMFA) is to ensure that the bequest which Henry Allport made in 1965 is
highly valued and enjoyed by its beneficiaries, the people of Tasmania, and is recognised for its major contribution to Australia’s heritage.
The objectives and principles which support that mission are:
• providing maximum access to the collection within the limits of preservation and security considerations
• maintaining the highest standards in collection development and service
• encouraging the Tasmanian community to participate in the development and preservation of the collection.
Exhibitions
and displays
National Year of Reading – exhibition
An exhibition was held from July to September to coincide
with the National Year of Reading in 2012. Printmaking
group Hunter Island Press exhibited Reading Tasmanians:
An Interpretation which saw each printmaker choose a text
by a Tasmanian author to inspire their work.
North Lyell Mine Disaster – exhibition
October 2012 marked 100 years since Tasmania’s worst
mining disaster in Queenstown. The Tasmanian Archive
and Heritage Office (TAHO) hold the majority of the
Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company records,
and an exhibition was planned to coincide with the
Queenstown Heritage & Arts Festival. So many voices
lost to us: North Lyell Mine Disaster 1912 was opened on
4 October 2012. Both the Queenstown community and
local clients expressed positive opinions about the display,
with comments such as “very powerful”, “humanness in
this exhibition really good to see”, “superb”, “excellent
exhibition”.
Come to Tasmania the Wonderland –
poster exhibition
A travelling version of the poster exhibition, Come to
Tasmania the Wonderland was developed to enable other
LINCs across the state (Huon LINC, Devonport LINC
and Launceston LINC) to display reproductions of the
posters locally.
Thylacine Exhibition
The photographic and text based mixed media exhibition
Like Something Which I’ve Never Seen was opened on
28 February 2013. It was the result of collaboration
between local photographer Rachael Duncan and
writer Emily Bullock, examining the culture surrounding
twentieth century thylacine sightings in Tasmania.
The exhibition included documentary material and
Thylacine prints from TAHO.
Collaboration with the Queen Victoria
Museum and Art Gallery
The Convict Stain: Vice, Virtue & John West was developed
by the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery and
displayed in Launceston throughout 2012. It was then
modified as a travelling exhibition, with additional objects
from the TAHO collections included in the Hobart display.
It coincided with the 160 year anniversary of the end of
convict transportation to Van Diemen’s Land in 1853.
Merchandise
Tasmanian linocuts by Curzona Frances Louise Allport
were reproduced as prints for sale as merchandise.
Access
There were 8,682 visitors in 2012–13, representing a
10% decrease from 2011–12. However, 2011–12 saw
particularly high visitor numbers. Visitor trends over the
longer 2011–12 to 2012–13 period still demonstrate a 35%
increase on the 2009–10 to 2010–11 period.
Visits and tours were held throughout the year from
groups including the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
volunteer guides, Heritage Tasmania staff, several Probus
clubs, Friends of the Newcastle Gallery and schools
including Mt Carmel College, Lenah Valley Primary School
and Albuera Street Primary School.
Publicity and
promotion
Items from the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts
collection were reproduced in 2012–13 in a wide range of
books, reports, brochures, signs, exhibitions and television
and film documentaries. The collection and exhibition
program was also promoted widely in the media:
• Mercury newspaper article ‘Mining Horror
100 Years Ago’, 5 October 2012
• ABC Local News, 7 October 2012,
‘Disaster Centenary’
• Australian Mining, ‘Mount Lyell Disaster questioned’,
by Vicky Validakis, 8 October 2012
• 936 ABC Radio interview with Ross Latham and
Louise Saunders, 9 October 2012
• ABC News 24 (National) coverage of
‘Disaster Centenary’ news story
• Promotion of North Lyell Mine Disaster exhibition
on Edge Radio (University radio station)
• Mercury newspaper article, ‘Allport Buys Errington
art’, on the acquisition of colonial works by Eliza
Errington from the Ruth and John Clemente auction,
November 2012
• So many voices lost to us and Allport Colonial Gallery
listed in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
‘Spring Gallery Guide’
• Mercury newspaper article, ‘A tragedy not to be
forgotten’, review of So many voices lost to us by
Clyde Selby, 1 December 2012
• Mercury newspaper article, ‘Celebrating yesteryear’,
article on Curzona Frances Louise Allport prints
recently reproduced, 23 February 2013
• Mercury newspaper article, ‘Like somebody that we
use to know’, article by Kane Young on the exhibition
Like Something Which I’ve Never Seen, 1 March 2013
Required Reporting » Other Annual Reports
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