Past Events
For 2007 events click here
January 2008
Mummies Alive! School Holiday Program
Monday January 7 – Friday 11 January
Nicholson Museum, 12 noon
KIDS’ MUSEUMS. Discover the world of ancient Egyptian mummies these school holidays. Meet archaeologists who will talk about mummies, wrap yourself up as an ancient Egyptian, discover the true stories about curses, see our real ancient bodies and handle Egyptian archaeological artefacts. Ages 4–15.
12 noon each day of the week
Free entry
Bookings essential: (02) 9351 2812
Self-guided worksheets and other kids’ activities are available at the Nicholson Museum throughout the summer school holidays.
Light and Vision: An Introduction to the Macleay Museum’s Historic Photograph Collection
Sunday 20 January
Macleay Museum, 2pm
To celebrate the re-opening of the Macleay Museum following recent renovations, Senior Curator Dr Jude Philp, and Rebecca Conway and Jan Brazier, Curators of Ethnography and History respectively, will speak on the many and varied historic photographs in the Macleay collections (approximately 50,000 images dating from the 1840s).
A great way to discover the breadth of the photographic collection, and a taste of the forthcoming exhibition People, Power, Politics (opening 1st February).
Free entry
Bookings: (02) 9036 5253
Public Talk: Dr Adam Geczy. "Video = 'I See': consolations of a new medium
Sunday 27 January
University Art Gallery, 1pm
To celebrate the opening of the exhibition Greatest Hits/Previously Unrealeased Tracks, Sydney College of the Arts lecturer Dr Adam Geczy will speak. Geczy is both an artist and critic/historian, and has exhibited in both Australia and overseas.
Free entry
Bookings: (02) 9351 6883
February 2008
Rattus rattus: The Year of the Rat
Sunday 3 February
Macleay Museum, 12 noon – 4pm
In conjunction with the City of Sydney’s 2008 Chinese New Year Festival, celebrate the Chinese New Year in the Macleay Museum with a series of children’s events examining Chinese culture and Rattus rattus as we welcome in The Year of the Rat with children’s stories in Mandarin and English.
Free entry
Bookings: (02) 9036 5253
Carillon Recital: Chinese New Year
Sunday 3 February
Quadrangle, 2 – 3pm
In conjunction with the Macleay Museum’s celebrations of The Year of the Rat, there will be a performance by University Carillonist, Dr Jill Forrest.
For a full program of Carillon Recitals in 2008 visit: www.carillon.org.au/usyd
Public Lecture: Maurice Whelan
Imagining Freud
Thursday 7 February
Nicholson Museum, 6 for 6.30pm
What if Sigmund Freud came among us today? What might he have to say to us, about us? Through the use of Freud’s own words and stories about his life, and a few speculations of his own, Maurice Whelan imaginatively recreates the presence of the founder of psychoanalysis by reading a letter that Freud might have written in 2008!
Whelan is a practicing psychoanalyst and Chairman of the Sydney Institute for Psychoanalysis.
Click here for invitation
Cost: $25, $20 for Friends of the Nicholson Museum, $15 Students
Bookings essential: (02) 9351 2812
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Public Talk: Janine Burke
The Gods of Freud
Sunday 17 February
Nicholson Museum, 2pm and 3.15pm
The 2pm talk is now booked out, please reserve seats for the 3.15 presentation
Meet and hear Dr. Janine Burke, author of The Gods of Freud: Sigmund Freud’s Art Collection. Burke will speak on the Freud collection of antiquities and its role in Freud’s life and work.
Click here for invitation
Free entry
Bookings: (02) 9351 2812
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Mardi Gras Fair Day
Sunday 17 February
Nicholson Museum, Macleay Museum, University Art Gallery, 12 noon – 4pm
Sydney University Museums will be open during the Mardi Gras Festival’s Fair Day, held in Victoria Park.
Public Lecture: Dr Robert Kaplan
Freud, Jews and Judaism
Wednesday 20 February
Nicholson Museum, 6 for 6.30pm
In conjunction with the Sydney Jewish Museum. Author, historian and forensic psychiarist, Dr Robert Kaplan, explores the life of Freud.
Arguably the most famous Jew of the 20th century, Freud was deeply ambivalent towards his Jewishness.
This talk will explore Freud’s Jewish paradox and look at the wider Jewish contribution to the cultural explosion in fin-de siecle Vienna.
Cost: $25, $20 for Friends of the Nicholson Museum and Friends of the Sydney Jewish Museum, $15 Students
Bookings: (02) 9351 2812
Click here for invitation
Click here for related events.
People, Power, Politics
Friday 22nd February
Macleay Museum 4pm
Public talk: Dr Joe Neparranga Gumbula and Dr Aaron Corn
“Recovering the Music of Arnhem Land”
Dr Gumbula and Dr Corn have been working with the Anthropology Department archives held at the University of Sydney unearthing the stories, photographs and songs recorded in North-East Arnhem Land.
Come and hear music and learn more about the continuing importance for peoples of the region.
Free entry
Click here for invitation
(Please note, this talk was originally scheduled for the Sunday 17th Febraury but the date has been changed to the Friday 22nd February)
Putting the Penis into Envy: On the Couch with Sigmund Freud
Sunday 24 February
Nicholson Museum, 2 – 4pm
To celebrate Mardi Gras, the Nicholson Museum will be hosting a Sunday afternoon champagne cream tea and entertaining panel discussion on the relevance and influence of Sigmund Freud.
The panelists are:
Professor Louise Newman - Chair of Perinatal and Infant Psychiatry at the University of Newcastle www.wpa2007melbourne.com/newman.php
Diana Simmonds - commentator, art critic & University of Sydney Alumni magazine editor www.stagenoise.com/about.php
Mark Pesce inventor, educator and regular panellist on the ABC’s New Inventors www.abc.net.au/tv/newinventors
Vras Karalis - Assoc Professor of Modern Greek
www.arts.usyd.edu.au/departs/moderngreek/vrasidas
Anastasia Mavromatis - writer & editor Lucrezia magazine on-line www.lucreziamagazine.com
Click here for invitation
Cost: $25, $20 for Friends of the Nicholson Museum and New Mardi Gras Members
Bookings essential: (02) 9351 2812
Click here for related events.
Native Curios, Natural Patrimony, Primitive Art
Museum Tour with Dr Jude Philp and Seminar by Professor Robert Foster
Friday March 7
Tour 2.15-3pm; Macleay Museum
Seminar 3.15-4.30; Macrae Room, Main Quad
Click here for more information
A talk by Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir AC CVO, Governor of New South Wales and Chancellor of the University
The Legacy of Freud
Tuesday 11 March
Nicholson Museum, 6 for 6.30pm
NSW Governor, and University of Sydney Chancellor, Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir takes a look at Sigmund Freud and his lasting legacy.
Click here for related events.
Curator’s Choice #4: Michael Turner
The Mystery of the Death of Freud
Sunday 16 March
Nicholson Museum, 1pm
Senior Curator of the Nicholson Museum, Michael Turner, examines the death of Sigmund Freud and events following his cremation.
Free entry - Bookings: (02) 9351 2812
Click here for related events.
Exhibition launch: Djon Mundine
Footprints in the mythic landscape
Sunday 16 March
Macleay Museum, 2pm
To mark the new selection of bark paintings on exhibition, Djon Mundine, Indigenous Curator of Contemporary Art at Campbelltown Regional Gallery, will talk about the history of Aboriginal painting from the ceremonially oriented work exhibited in Footprints to the contemporary masterpieces of the MCA.
Free entry
Public Lecture: Assoc. Prof. Vrasidas Karalis
Freud and Oedipus: A Family Romance
Tuesday 18 March
Nicholson Museum, 6 for 6.30pm
Explore the relationship between Freud and Classical mythology with Assoc. Prof. Vrasidas Karalis, Head of the Department of Modern Greek at the University of Sydney.
Cost: $25, $20 for Friends of the Nicholson Museum
Bookings essential: (02) 9351 2812
Click here for related events.
Performance: Music and Memory in Northern Australia
Sunday 30 March
Macleay Museum, 2pm
Over the past year, Joe Gumbula and Aaron Corn have worked in the University of Sydney Archives to unearth stories, photographs and songs recorded in Arnhmen Land by early anthropolgists. They will perform traditional Manikay from Arnhem Land and present photographs discovered in the University of Sydney Archives. Joining them is Allan Marett, who will be accompanied by Joe Gumbula in singing mesmerising wangga from NW Australia.
Free entry
Bookings: (02) 9036 5253
Click here for invitation
Exhibition launch: Prof Jane Goodall with Karin Findeis
“Taxonomies of wonder”
Sunday 6 April
Macleay Museum, 2pm
Jane Goodall will talk about a variety of traditions of collecting and the appeal of collecting and order in the popular imagination now and in earlier periods of history. She will be joined by Karin Findeis who has explored similar themes in her exhibition samples. Professor Goodall is author of Out of the Natural Order: Performance and Evolution in the Age of Darwin and has written widely on performing arts and the natural sciences.
Free entry
Bookings: (02) 9036 5253
Click here for invitation
Free Heritage Tours: Guided Walking Tours of the Quadrangle
Tuesday 8 April, Wednesday 9 April and Thursday 10 April
University Quadrangle Clocktower,
12 noon sharp
For NSW Seniors Week (6 – 13 April), University Heritage tours offer three free one-hour tours of the Quadrangle building and of Sydney University Museums.
Free tours
Bookings essential: or (02) 9036 5409
The lives of the city: people and places in Sōsaku hanga
A talk by Rhiannon Paget
Sunday 13 April, 2pm
In association with the exhibition Cuts both ways - linocuts and woodcuts from the 1920s-40s and the rise of modernism currently showing at the University Art gallery, Rhiannon Paget will present a talk on the Sōsaku hanga (creative prints) art movement in early 20th century Japan.
This art movement saw the evolution of the artist/printmaker as the sole creator of an artwork. This talk will examine figures such as workers and youth that emerged in prints through the interaction with post-earthquake Tokyo.
Click here for invitation
Bookings: 9351 6883 or
Kids' Museums. Ancient Greek Myths – A School Holiday Program
Monday 14 – Friday 18 April
Nicholson Museum, 11am
Discover the world of ancient Greece, through the myths of the gods, goddesses and heroes of Olympus. Each day you can hear our bards recite the stories of ancient Greek myths and be transported back in time. Dress up as a god or goddess, and see the myths painted in ancient Greek art with an archaeologist.
Ages 4–12.
In conjunction with the Greek Festival of Sydney.
11am each day of the week
Free entry
Bookings essential: (02) 9351 2812
Self-guided worksheets and other kids’ activities are available at the Nicholson Museum throughout the school holidays.
Kids' Museums. What is Anthropology? – A School Holiday Program
Monday 14 – Friday 18 April
Macleay Museum, 1pm
Discover anthropology at the Macleay Museum.
Each day you are invited to put on your explorer’s pith helmet, and explore the cultures you meet in the exhibition – People, Power and Politics. Keep a journal of your travels and of the people you meet and draw maps of your journey.
Ages 4–12.
1pm each day of the week
Free entry
Bookings essential: (02) 9036 5253
Self-guided worksheets and other kids’ activities are available at the Macleay Museum throughout the school holidays.
Public talk: Dr Gillian Cowlishaw and Dr Diane Austin-Broos
“The Aboriginal Question: race, anthropology and things that endure”
Wednesday 16 April
Macleay Museum, 6pm
Gillian Cowlishaw, ARC Professorial Fellow, Faculty of Humanities at the University of Technology, Sydney and Diane Austin-Broos, retiring Professor of Anthropology at the University of Sydney will explore this central theme of 19th and 20th century anthropology.
Free entry
Bookings: (02) 9036 5253
Click here for invitation
Ancient Greece Family Day
Sunday 20 April
Nicholson Museum, 12 noon–4pm
A day for the family – discover ancient Greece, with child-friendly talks, arts and craft activities for kids and a chance to handle artefacts from ancient Athens and Sparta. Discover what a hoplite did, what an ostraka was, and how much influence ancient Greece has on the modern world.
In conjunction with Greek Festival of Sydney
Free entry
Information: (02) 9351 2812
Carillon Recital: All Greek
Sunday 20 April
Quadrangle, 2pm
In conjunction with the Nicholson Museum’s Ancient Greece family day, carillonists Louise and Edward Grantham perform Greek music, including pieces by M. Theodorakis and M. Katzidakis.
Visit: www.carillon.org.au/usyd for a full program of Carillon Recitals in 2008
May
Public Lecture: Dr Craig Barker
Indiana Jones and the Portrayal of Archaeologists in Pop Culture
Tuesday 6 May
Oriental Studies Room, Main Quad, 6 for 6.30pm with reception to follow in the Nicholson Museum
This light-hearted illustrated talk, takes us on a journey through cinema, novels and other forms of popular culture, looking at the way archaeologists have been portrayed. From romantic action adventure heroes, such as Indiana Jones and Lara Croft, through to the bumbling harbingers of doom in mummy movies and science fiction, discover the reality of the hat, whip and gun.
In conjunction with National Archaeology Week 2008.
Cost: $25, $20 for Friends of the Nicholson Museum, $5 students
Bookings essential: (02) 9351 2812
Public Lecture: Dr Brian Brennan
How Spartan were the Spartans? Beyond the mirage of austerity and conformity
This event has been cancelled due to illness. We apologise for the inconvenience and hope to reschedule in the future.
Dr Brian Brennan presents an overview of Spartan society using new archaeological material, recent scholarship and a reappraisal of literary evidence. How much of the Spartan military myth is real, and how can archaeological evidence provide a new way of shedding light on Spartan daily life?
In conjunction with National Archaeology Week 2008.
Cost: $25, $20 for Friends of the Nicholson Museum
Bookings essential: (02) 9351 2812
Click here for invitation
International Museums Day at Sydney University Museums
Sunday 18 May
Nicholson Museum, Macleay Museum,
University Art Gallery, 12 noon – 4pm
We celebrate ICOM International Museum Day at Sydney University Museums with a series of events looking at the role of museums as agents of social change and development.
Free entry
Public talk: Dr Diane Losche and Dr Jude Philp
Margaret Mead in the Sepik
Sunday 18 May
Macleay Museum, 2pm
Diane Losche, Senior Lecturer at NSW University’s COFA and Jude Philp,
Senior Curator at the Macleay Museum will talk about the work and collections of the infamous anthropologist Margaret Mead who, with her ex-husband Reo Fortune and future husband Gregory Bateson, received funds from Sydney’s Anthropology Department to conduct research in the Sepik region of Papua New Guinea in the 1930s.
Click here for invitation
Curator’s talk: Rebecca Conway
Sunday 18 May 3pm Macleay Museum
The Macleay Museum’s Curator of Ethnography, Rebecca Conway, will lead a tour of the exhibition People, Power, Politics exploring some of the hidden stories behind the exhibition and the anthropologists of Australia’s first Anthropology Department at Sydney University.
Public Lecture: Professor Roland Fletcher
The Archaeology of Angkor and the Khmer Empire
Thursday 22 May
Nicholson Museum, 6 for 6.30pm
In conjunction with National Archaeology Week, Professor Roland Fletcher will talk on the archaeology of Angkor from the 12th to the 16th centuries AD, and on the recent work by the Greater Angkor Project (GAP) investigating the decline of urbanism.
In conjunction with National Archaeology Week 2008.
Cost: $25, $20 for Friends of the Nicholson Museum
Bookings essential: (02) 9351 2812
Click here for invitation
Museum. A Sydney Writers' Festival Event
With Robyn Stacey and Ashley Hay
Friday 23 May 2pm
Macleay Museum
Sneak into the Macleay Museum with photographer Robyn Stacey, who enjoyed unprecedented access to the Museum's peerless natural history collections over more than five years.
Join Robyn Stacey and her co-author Ashley Hay as they reveal some of the wonderful creatures and stories they found in this little known repository while making their book, Museum: the Macleay's their collections and the search for order (CUP 2007).
Copies of Museum will be available at the event.
Click here for invitation
RSVP or 90365253
Archaeology Day
Sunday 25 May
University Museums and the Australian Museum, 9.30am – 4pm
A day for the whole family! The Nicholson and Macleay Museums join forces with the Australian Museum for our annual Archaeology Day. Hear talks about archaeology in Australia and abroad. Handle artefacts from the Nicholson and Macleay collections: Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Australian and Pacific artefacts. Kids’ activities include workshops and excavations. Discover what a dig is all about.
Cost: Free after general entry fee to the Australian Museum.
See the Australian Museum or www.archaeologyweek.com for more details.
Please note that this event will take place at the Australian Museum, 6 College Street, Sydney.
In conjunction with National Archaeology Week 2008.
Public talk: Dr Gaynor Macdonald with Marina Gold and Vicki Grieves
Government and the Anthropologists
Wednesday 28 May
Macleay Museum, 6pm
From the kinship studies of the flamboyant Radcliffe-Brown to the engagement of the more dour Elkin with the Aborigines Welfare Board, Sydney’s Department of Anthropology maintained a commitment to research and policy inputs regarding Aboriginal peoples of NSW. Gaynor Macdonald will lead discussion of the value and purposes of this often controversial work, and its significance for the relationships between Anthropology, Aboriginal peoples and Government at the time and since.
Free entry
Bookings: (02) 9036 5253
42 books about Art
Artist David Sequeira discusses his work
Sunday 1 June
University Art Gallery, 2pm
David Sequeira will discuss his works currently exhibited at the University Art Gallery. These works were commissioned to coincide with Sydney Writers' Festival.
The talk will be followed by refreshments to celebrate the opening of the exhibition.
Click here for invitation
Celebrate Mabo Day at the Macleay Museum
Tuesday 3 June
Macleay Museum, 4pm
This year for Mabo Day Professor N Martin Nakata (B.Ed.Hons.PhD) will talk about his book Disciplining the Savages-Savaging the Discipline. Martin is Chair of Australian Indigenous Education & Director of Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning at the University of Technology, Sydney and Honorary Research Fellow Mitchell Library. He is the first Torres Strait Islander to receive a PhD in Australia.
Download the flyer here.
Free entry
Bookings: (02) 9036 5253
Mabo Day is held every year on 3 June to celebrate the achievements of the Murray Island Land Case and Mabo Decision which altered the foundation of land law in Australia by overturning the doctrine of terra nullius (land belonging to no-one) on which British claims to possession of Australia were based.
Mabo Day is named in honour of one of the five Meriam-le plaintiffs, Eddie Koiki Mabo, James Rice, Dave Passi, Sam Passi and Celuia Salee. Mabo Day acknowledges all Indigenous Australians who have empowered and inspired each other.
Antique Fair
Sunday 8 June and Monday 9 June
Great Hall
University Museums will be open over the long weekend as the 12th Annual Antique Fair is held in the Great Hall at the University of Sydney.
Public talk: Dr Jim Specht and Dr Ian MacLean
Frank Hurley, J.P. Murray and colonial rule
Wednesday 11 June
Macleay Museum, 6pm
When Papua was an Administrative Territory of Australia, enormous interest about its peoples, and their so-called ‘savage’ way of life, was generated by showmen like photographer Frank Hurley. At the same time the people of the Territory were being counted, measured, and documented and new systems of education, health and work were implemented. Curator Jim Specht and anthropologist Ian MacLean will discuss the intricacies of these often conflicting goals.
Free entry
Bookings: (02) 9036 5253
Public Talk. Professor Peter Sutton, University of Adelaide
Ursula McConnel as Public Intellectual
Sunday 15 June
Macleay Museum, 2pm
Through the lens of McConnel's life it is possible to see the interconnected nature of modern psychology, sexual liberalism, female emancipation, secularisation, unconventional spirituality, modern gardening, Indigenous welfare reform, environmental protectionism, the hiking, bushwalking and other vitalist movements, the arts and crafts movement, and modernist Australian letters. McConnel's life is in many ways a personal reflection of these various but intertwined and incipient 'decolonisations' and modernistations that, in her time, were occurring across broad spectrum Australian culture.
Free entry
Bookings: (02) 9036 5253
Mummies Alive! Day
Sunday 22 June
Nicholson Museum, 12 noon – 4pm
KIDS’ MUSEUMS. Explore the world of ancient Egypt and come face to face with ancient mummies in this fun day of activities.
Talks on mummification, a chance to handle ancient Egyptian artefacts, take part in our archaeological digs, and learn how to wrap a mummy. Find out if curses are real, and why Egyptians buried their dead for the journey to eternity.
Free entry
Information: (02) 9351 2812
Carillon Recital: Mummies Day
Sunday 22 June
Quadrangle, 2-3pm
In conjunction with the Nicholson Museum’s Mummies Day, hear a soundtrack guaranteed to raise the dead! A performance by carillonist Liz Cartwright.
Visit: www.carillon.org.au/usyd for a full program of Carillon Recitals in 2008
June
Curator's talk and exhibition opening: Dr Kyla McFarlane, Monash University Museum of Art
Siri Hayes: Landscapes
29 June
University Art Gallery, 2pm
Dr Kyla McFarlane, Assistant Curator, Exhibitions, from Monash University Museum of Art, gives a guided tour of the exhibition, followed by refreshments.
Free entry
Bookings: (02) 9351 6883
July
Kids' Museums: School Holiday Activities
Monday 7 - Friday 11 July and
Monday 14 - Friday 18 July
Children's activities focused on the world of archaeology and anthropology.
11am in the Nicholson Museum:
Ancient Olympic Games
Talks, work sheets, and activities designed to bring the Ancient Greek Olympic Games to life.
1pm in the Macleay Museum:
What is Anthropology?
Discover how anthropologists learn about cultures different from their own.
Programs are aimed at children 5 - 10 and run for one hour.
Free entry but bookings essential as spaces are limited.
Bookings: (02) 9351 2812
Public Lecture: Dr Elena Govor and Dr Chris Ballard, Australian National University
N.N Miklouho-Maclay as Anthropologist: the 1879 New Hebrides Trip
Wednesday 9 July
Macleay Museum, 6pm
This talk outlines the intellectual context for Miklouho-Maclay’s anthropological and ethnological fieldwork, and explores some of the interpretive potential of his New Hebrides sketches, particularly through interviews with living ni-Vanuatu communities.
Free entry
Bookings: (02) 9036 5253
Public Lecture: Professor Costas Fotakis, University of Crete
Optical Sciences in the service of the future of our past: Lasers in the preservation of cultural heritage
Thursday 10 July
Nicholson Museum, 6.30pm
In this lecture Professor Fotakis discussed the ways in which laser based analytical techniques have been used successfully on cultural heritage material. Explore how optical sciences have contributed new non-intrusive techniques of analysis and diagnosis of heritage, and discover the use of modern laser science and technology on cleaning and restoration of cultural material.
In this talk Professor Fotakis will discuss how pulsed laser systems have been successfully implemented for the cleaning of artefacts and of ancient monuments, especially the Parthenon of Athens.
Professor Fotakis is in Australia to present a plenary lecture at the 21st Congress of the International Comission for Optics and to visit MQ-Photonics, Department of Physics, Macquarie University. His visit is supported by the International Science Linkages program of the Department of Education, Science and Training and a Macquarie University Research Development Grant. Hist talk at the Nicholson Museum is presented in conjunction with the University of Sydney's School of Physics.
Cost: $25, $20 for Friends of the Nicholson Museum
Bookings essential: (02) 9351 2812
click for invitation
Public Lecture: Dr Denise Donlon, University of Sydney
Physical and Forensic Anthropology: Past and Present
Thursday 17 July
Macleay Museum, 6pm
This talk will explore how forensic anthropology in Australia grew out of physical anthropology and anatomy, as well as its rich history at the University of Sydney. Denise will discuss how research in the field has been based primarily on collections of Australian Aboriginal skeletal remains. Recently there has been a rise in the interest in forensic anthropology and the police and the Australian Defence Forces are now using it in a variety of cases.
Free entry
Bookings: (02) 9036 5253
click for invitation
Classical Fantasies Lecture Series 1: The Great Artists and their Patrons
Thursday 17 July
Nicholson Museum, 6.30pm
Public Lecture: Dr Monica Jackson, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries
The Castellani Genius: The Lost Art of Italian Archaeological Jewellery
The 2008 Alexander Cambitoglou Lecture and official opening of the exhibition Classical Fantasies
The rise of the Castellani, a 19th century Roman family of goldsmiths and jewellers, is one of the most fascinating and remarkable stories in the long history of jewellery and luxury arts. This lecture follows the fortunes of the Castellani family set against the changing face of 19th century European Grand Tourism and the turbulent politicaql events that resulted in the unification of Italy. It discusses the remarkable achievements of the family in reviving and replicating jewellery styles and techniques of the ancient Etruscans, Greeks, Egyptians and Romans.
Talk presented by the Nicholson Museum in conjunction with SoMA: The Society of Mediterranean Archaeology.
Cost: $40, $20 for Friends of the Nicholson Museum
Bookings essential: (02) 9351 2812
click for invitation
Exhibition Talk: Judy Annear, Art Gallery of NSW
Ideas of place in Australian Contemporary Photography
Sunday 20 July
University Art Gallery, 2pm
A talk on the exhibition Siri Hayes: Landscapes by Judy Annear, Senior Curator Photography at the Art Gallery of NSW.
Free entry
Bookings: (02) 9351 6883
Public talk: Vicki Grieves, University of Sydney
More than Family History: Aboriginal Families and Australian History
Sunday 20 July
Macleay Museum, 3pm
In the last of the series of lectures to accompany the exhibition People, Power, Politics Vicki Grieves will talk about the potential of Indigenous Knowledges and the difference of Aboriginal history.
Free entry
Bookings: (02) 9036 5253
Public lecture: Dr John Armstrong, University of Melbourne
Goethe's Italian Journey: Travels in Search of Beauty, Sex and the Meaning of Life
Wednesday 23 July
Nicholson Museum, 6.30pm
John Armstrong is the author of the best selling Love, Life and Goethe: how to be happy in an imperfect world (2006)
This talk will look at the extraordinary two years (1786-88) that Goethe spent travelling in Italy - much of the time incognito. Goethe's very personal description of his adventures in Venice, Rome, Naples and Sicily in particular rank as one of the finest examples of travel writing and its intimacies.
Cost: $25; $20 for Friends of the Nicholson Museum
Bookings essential: (02) 9351 2812
Exhibition Talk: Dr Chiara O'Reilly, University of Sydney
Photography and Landscape: Composing Nature
Sunday 27 July
University Art Gallery, 2pm
A talk on the landscape photography in conjunction with Siri Hayes: Landscapes, by Chiara O'Reilly, Lecturer in Museum Studies.
Free entry
Bookings: (02) 9351 6883
Public Lecture: Professor Oliver Taplin, Oxford University, 'Theatre and Vases in the Greek World of South Italy'
Thursday 7 August, 6.30pm
Nicholson Museum
A chance to hear one of the world's great Classical scholars. Professor Taplin will speak on the depiction of theatrical themes on South Italian red figured vases of the fourth century BC, including the Nicholson Museum's world famous Tarporley Painter vase.
Presented by the Nicholson Museum in conjunction with the Department of Classics.
Cost: $25, $20 for Friends of the Nicholson Museum
Bookings: (02) 9351 2812
Click for pdf invitation
Kids Museum: Ancient Olympic Games Day
Sunday 10 August
12noon - 4pm
Nicholson Museum
A family day in the Nicholson Museum exploring ancient Greek culture and the Ancient Olympic games. While modern athletes compete at the Beijing Olympics, discover more about their ancient counterparts with a series of talks for kids, dress-ups and hands-on activities.
Free entry
Information: (02) 9351 2812
Les Murray reads Les Murray
Join Australian poet Les Murray as he reads and discusses his work.
Opening of New Victorians
University Art Gallery
Tuesday 19 August, 6.00pm
The exhibition New Victorians will be opened by John Harwood, author of the best selling Victorian era ghost novels The Seance 2008 and The Ghost Writer (2004).
Free entry
Phone: (02) 9351 6883
Behind-the-scenes at the Electron Microscope Unit
A behind-the-scenes tour of the University's Electron Microscope Unit. Join this very special tour with the people who make it all work.
Click for invitation and more information
Public Lecture: Dr Gerard Vaughan: 'Charles Townley' - The 'genius' of the 18th Century grand tourist, antiquarian and collector
Nicholson Museum
Thursday 21 August, 6.30pm
Dr Gerard Vaughn, Director of the NGV takes us on the Grand Tour and introduces us to Charles Townley, the famous antiquary and collector of marble sculptures.
Cost: $40, $20 for Friends of the Nicholson Museum
Bookings essential: (02) 9351 2812
Indigenous Lecture Series: 'Being Collected'
Macleay Museum
Monday 25 August, 5.30pm
Darlene Johnson, a NSW film maker from the Dunghutti tribe will introduce her recent film River Of No Return about the work of Yolngu actress Frances Djulibing.
Free entry
Booking essential: (02) 9036 5253
Click for invitation
Frances Djulibing in River of No Return
Public Lecture: Dr Judith Field (Electron Microscopy Unit)
Plant Use in Prehistory and How it Changed the World
Wednesday 3 September, 6pm
Macleay Museum
The development of particular plant processing technologies has been argued as one of the key prerequisites for the colonisation of new environments by modern humans. Using examples, Judith will talk about how the microscopic analysis of ancient starches has contributed to our understanding of the past and human uses of plant life.
Free entry
Booking: (02) 9036 5253
Click here for invitation
