Education, art and community heritage in Maitland [ 2012-01-01 - ]

Research Project

Researchers: Associate Professor Janis Wilton ,  Janis Wilton

Brief description

Funded by a federal government Your Community Heritage Grant, this project is researching the history of Maitland Regional Art Gallery and its neighbourhood.  The outcomes will include an audio-tour of the site.

Full description

Background and overview

Maitland Regional Art Gallery (MRAG) is housed in an iconic and award winning adaptive re-use of a heritage building located in the main street of Maitland, NSW. The building and the Art Gallery are a part of plans to revitalize the heart of Maitland and to engage Maitland residents and visitors with stories relating to the city’s mixture of late 19th and 20th century streetscapes, river frontage, and legacy of a history of flooding.  Within this context, this project is working with community members to collect the stories and memories of the MRAG building (its former use was as the Maitland Technical College and Technological Museum), and to share the ways in which they illuminate aspects of the locality’s heritage.

Janis Wilton is the historian who is engaged to research and collate the historical material through the Heritage Futures Online Database. The research data is being used to develop an audio tour of the site and other interpretive publications and activities.

Data time period: 1880-01-01 to 2013-01-01