Untangling 'Tangled Destinies' - exhibition critiquing seminar

[Mike Smith]

Museums Australia (ACT) - presents its first exhibition critiquing seminar on the National Museum's 'Tangled Destinies' exhibition 

Saturday, 2 November, 2-5pm, National Museum of Australia Studio 

Bookings essential - 6208 5021
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Following the exhibition critiquing format established at Museum Australia's national conference, the National Museum's permanent exhibition on the interaction between people and the environment will be described and then critiqued.  Participants in the session are invited to view the exhibition from 1.00-2.00pm.  The schedule for the afternoon is as follows:

2.00-2.10pm:  Introduction and outline of critiquing process - Vicki Northey - Facilitator (Aust. War Memorial) 

2.10-2.35pm:  Dr Mike Smith (Program Director, Tangled Destinies) - describes the development of the exhibition's intellectual content 

2.35-2.50pm:  Matt Kirchman (Interpretative Planner, Amaze Design, Boston, via video conference) - describes the key challenges from an interpretative planning and design perspective 

2.50-3.10pm:  Dr Libby Robin (previously Content Developer, Tangled Destinies) -  the role of Tangled Destinies in environmental history

3.10-3.40pm:  Afternoon tea (provided) 

3.40-4.40pm:  Critiquing of exhibition by Dr Richard Gillespie (Melbourne Museum), Penny Morrison (Melbourne Museum) and Jude Savage (Aust. War Memorial). 

4.40-5.00pm:  Vicki Northey - discussion and closing remarks


Bookings essential - 6208 5021
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Tangled Destinies - a summary

Tangled Destinies is an environmental history of Australia.  It picks up the idea that a society is shaped - maybe even defined - by the way it responds to the challenges and opportunities of its environment. 

Tangled destinies attempts to integrate stories of people and land, natural history, ecology and climate history.  The exhibition traces the physical and intellectual settling-in of Australians over the last 200 years and the changing relationship between land and people.  The title Tangled destinies refers to these sorts of intertwined histories - the interaction of people and environment, the interplay of natural and cultural histories in Australia, the land as a link between black and white histories, and the way in which the histories of introduced animals are entangled with those of Australia's people.