Since its definition as ‘community art’ in this country in the 1960s and 1970s, there has been a remarkable change in fortune for art practice aimed at engaging the wider community in cultural production. From being perceived as a radical and anti-institutional movement, the practice of involving the community through visual art has become part of ‘core business’ for some larger cultural institutions.
Taking its cue from the Vic Health Access Gallery at the National Gallery of Victoria and the Immigration Museum in Melbourne, the newly re-opened State Library of Queensland has put artistic community engagement and presentation front and centre within its program.
‘I Cherish This’ is the opening exhibition in the State Library of Queensland’s ground level Studio space and it has been designed to connect the experiences of the general public with a national blockbuster travelling exhibition of precious items, ‘National Treasures from Australia’s Great Libraries’. If ‘national treasures’ are those items that Australians should be able to identify as precious to all of us, ‘I Cherish This’ has been designed and created with the central idea that the precious items, memories and stories of ‘ordinary’ Australians are also deserving of public attention.
The exhibition is made up of two sections; a children’s exhibition created by young students from Brisbane’s Junction Park State School and the AEIOU (Autism Early Intervention Outcomes Unit), and a ‘grown up’ component where individuals with remarkable stories to tell have contributed their cherished memories in an installation format with the assistance of a team of artists and designers.
The Studio offers very particular challenges as an exhibition venue. Firstly, it is flooded with natural light, making illuminated works and projections difficult to