This weekend celebrates the 150th birthday of the national gallery Of Victoria. They had planned a huge weekend of celebrations,a nd when I arrived about 330pm there were kids adults and activity everywhere The themed Orange balloons were visible everywhere as the trail of activity led from Fed Square to the International gallery
It was 24 May, in 1861 that the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) was founded. But it was also the first public art gallery in Australia. There was a painting of Alfred Felton of Felton bequest fame established in 1904 who made his money supplying to those travelling to the gold fields. He had purchased art himself and when he died left #338,000 (pounds not dollars) (invested) to the gallery. With that the gallery has bought $20million worth of more than 15,000 pieces! Just paintings includes some Rembrandt, Tiepolo, Monet, Cezanne, van Gogh, Turner and William Blake. as well as other types of art.
To celebrate the NGV’s 150th birthday, the gallery unveiled 173 important indigenous works of art gifted to the gallery by the Felton Bequest. Since the NGV opened in St Kilda Road in 1968, the total collection has doubled in size to more than 60,000 works of art.
The story of trying to build on the site is a story in itself and an engineering breakthrough that led the world.
They ran a competition to name your top ten favourite pieces and the piece that was voted most popular in the competition.. John Bracks... Collins St 5pm
As well NGV Kids Space opened at NGV International; a dedicated gallery designed for children of up to 8 years old and their families. It is located just on the right of the main foyer .
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| Easy to find with all the pushers! |
Featuring works from NGV collections and exhibitions, children and families can have fun together as they discover art, explore multimedia and hands-on activities while sharing new ideas. II came across some parents from the yacht Club who said they had been sitting for 45 minutes while the children explored; very restful they said!! t was an interesting space with lots of hands on stuff. The theme for the opening exhibit was Kaleidoscope of colour.
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| The figure is hidden by the Light Pole! |
Along the walk from Fed Square to the International gallery there were balloons and cut out figures These were paintings from the Gallery with the Victorian College of the Arts' students in a life pose. At times the public were taken into the picture and draped in clothes to join in.
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| This was a picture of musicians |
The Gallery was open till midnight with talks about some main pieces, musicians in some of the formal galleries. After 5 there was free champagne for the members, where I got chatting to a woman there who had taken advantage of the 2 for one membership offer.
In the great hall there had been kids doing art work on creating mosaics, and that was being cleared for the indigenous music concert planned at 5pm
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| Kids and parents at work Photo at 340pm |
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| photo at 515pm Cleaned up quickly!! |
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| The ceiling |
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| My friend the Chocolate Cake |
However I didn't stay round after 545 as I had come in early especially to get a ticket to the sold out My friend the Chocolate Cake concert, and as I had learnt from my thespian sister there are always tickets for guests etc. kept.
They were on in teh Fairfax studio. They have released a new album and the crowd was a group of devotees as well as new new fans I expect. There were a lot of children in the audience as well; maybe students of violin or cello. The show was great as expected and good fun. David the pianist and singer was entertaining (love his voice) and accompanied for 2 songs by his daughter (about 14 yrs I think)
A really great fun day and evening
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