Federation University Australia Art Collection

Full description

There is a searchable index and brief description of all works held in the Federation University of Australia Art Collection.

The University seeks to develop and maintain a permanent collection of high quality works of visual art for the cultural enrichment and research purposes of its student body, staff and wider community. The art collection consists largely of works by Australian artists, the earliest of which is a work by Posenby Carew-Smith dated 1879. An interesting early donation is Waterloo Claim. This work depicts the Ballarat goldfield at the location on which the Ballarat School of Mines (SMB) was built. Works from the 1920s and 1930s showcase students from the Ballarat Technical Art School, but the greatest period of art collection occurred at the Ballarat Teachers' College during the 1950s and 1960s.

The Art Collection at the Ballarat Teachers' College had a modest beginning in 1951 when two Lionel Lindsay woodcuts were purchased for the College (then located at Dana Street). These were followed with works by Max Middleton and Vogel; and in 1954 works by Kenneth Jack and Tate Adams were purchased. When the College moved to the new Gillies Street building in 1958 the collection grew steadily with acquisitions by Rupert Bunny, Peter Clarke, Max Coward, Arch Cuthbertson, William Frater, James Gleeson, Pro Hart, George Lambert, Murray Griffen, David Newbury, and many others. Leonard French was commissioned to paint the mural Tapestry in 1959. Another mural, Symbols of Life by George Johnson, was commissioned in 1965. These two works, along with Inge King's welded steel sculpture Organic Form, was purchased with funds raised by student and staff contributions.

Following the merger with the tertiary division of the School of Mines to form the Ballarat Institute of Tertiary Education, then the Ballarat College of Advanced Education, Ballarat University College and finally the University of Ballarat, these works have been augmented with various contemporary prints, ceramics, graphics, paintings and sculptures  by Australian artists, including work by graduates, postgraduates and staff of the University, such as Claire Blake, Peter Blizzard, Bridget Bodenham, Loris Button, Maryanne Coutts, Neville French, Victor Greenhalgh, Nornie Gude, Gwen Hansen-Piggott, Ian Hemingway, Duncan Lannan, Ros Lawson, Geoff Mainwaring, David Noonan, Peter Pilven, Iain Reid, Ewan Ross, Anne Saunders, Wes Walters, Marcus Wills, Carole Wilson and Doug Wright.