The Potter Museum of Art (The Potter) has announced it will reopen in 2025 with a landmark exhibition celebrating the longevity and brilliance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art.
Titled 65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art, the exhibition will feature more than 400 artworks
The Potter is located on the University of Melbourne campus and has undergone extensive redevelopment by Wood Marsh Architects. Key to the design is a new entrance and improved spaces for the Museum’s leading collection-based learning programs.
65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art has been curated by Professor Marcia Langton AO, Associate Provost, Ms Judith Ryan AM and Ms Shanysa McConville in consultation with Indigenous custodians.
In a statement released today (Monday 24 June), Langton says ‘The ironic title of this exhibition refers to the belated and reluctant acceptance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art into the fine art canon by Australian curators, collectors, art critics and historians in the last quarter of the 20th Century.
‘65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art celebrates Indigenous art as it is increasingly recognised in galleries and collections around the world – as the greatest single revolution in Australian art,’ she added.
Seven new commissions from leading contemporary First Nations artists will be a major feature of the exhibition, which is made possible through a significant donation from principal supporters Peter McMullin AM and Ruth McMullin, and the generosity and leadership of Mr Peter Jopling AM KC, Chairman of the Potter Museum of Art.
Professor Duncan Maskell, Vice-Chancellor at the University of Melbourne says: ‘Alongside the recently released Dhoombak Goobgoowana: A History of Indigenous Australia and the University of Melbourne, this program is an important exercise in truth-telling for the University, including histories of scientific racism, and the collecting of ancestral remains.
‘It will provide a vital platform for Indigenous storytelling and encourage dialogue about the importance of Indigenous culture, history and art,’ Maskell adds.
The University’s Director of Art Museums, Ms Charlotte Day, notes: ‘Since 1853, the University has collected works of art, cultural objects and records that form a profoundly important archive, and for the first time these Indigenous collections will be exhibited together and interpreted by authoritative Indigenous scholars and other leading experts.’
Thames & Hudson will also release a comprehensive publication titled 65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art on 24 September 2024, ahead of the exhibition’s opening.
The Museum will slowly release further details of its reopening program, which will extend across the entire year, in 2025.
