Kelly, Julia
‘Theatrical Allusions in the Roman Art of Campania to 79AD’.
PhD, La Trobe University, Department of Art History, School of Arts and Media, 2000. (Ian McPhee, Joan Barclay Lloyd.)
This thesis examines allusions to the theatre found in the domestic art of Roman Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabiae, and the villas of Oplontis, Boscoreale and Boscotrecase.
The first part discusses depictions of poets, actors and stage scenery. The second part is devoted to a very popular motif in Campania, the theatrical mask, and examines the various ways in which masks are represented, for example as oscilla, in still-lifes, within pinakes, as a border motif and within architecture. The third part examines theatrical imagery within a decorative, functional and social context by considering the manner in which one may ‘read’ the decoration in a Roman house, the impact it might have had on the ancient visitor, and the importance of the house and its decoration to the public image of the prominent citizen. The thesis finishes with a close examination of the place of theatrical imagery in the decoration of three Pompeian houses.
Appended to the text is a catalogue of art works with theatrical imagery from the Vesuvian area. Details of location (original and current), date, and medium are given for each item, plus a brief description of the work and a list of references. This provides documentation for the reader who may look from the text to the catalogue for further details of the examples being discussed.
Doyle, Moira
‘Historical Context, Patronage and Decoration of the Melbourne Livy’.
MA, The University of Melbourne, School of Fine Arts, Classical Studies and Archaeology, 2000. (Margaret Manion.)
The end of the fourteenth century saw the production in Paris of translations of the Latin classics in a large, de luxe format, such as the Melbourne Livy manuscript. This thesis examines the historical development of French vernacular literature prior to these productions. It argues that the demand for vernacular translations was not a sudden phenomenon but resulted from a tradition that had begun three hundred years earlier, a tradition that was aided by the political, social and cultural climate existing in France at that time.
Possible reasons why Jean le Bon chose Pierre Bersuire for the task of translating Livy’s History of Rome are investigated. It is concluded that Bersuire was ideally suited for the task because he had access to the most complete Livy texts available at the time, was a renowned academic and humanist, and was a respected senior member of the Church. Examining the linguistics of the translation is outside the scope of this study but the success of the translation is measured by other factors: the dissemination of the text, the lavishness of its copies, the use of the manuscripts and the impact of the translation on other translations.
It is argued that the Melbourne Livy belonged to the Burgundian Court and was possibly a New Year’s Day gift to Philippe le Hardi from Dino Rapondi in 1400. Because of the lack of documentary evidence, this argument is based on stylistic comparisons between the Melbourne Livy and three other manuscripts, which are the only extant manuscripts that were produced by the Rapondi brothers for Philippe le Hardi. These comparisons concentrate on border decorations, but miniatures are also considered. The similarities in the decorative elements identified by these comparisons support the contention that the four manuscripts were all produced in the one workshop, and mat therefore have been intended for the one patron, Philippe le Hardi.
The illustrative programme is studied from the point of view of influences that impacted upon it as well as its possible aims. Apart from relating the Melbourne Livy programme to previous Livy manuscripts and the wider genre of historical narrative, political, social and didactic influences are also assessed. It is concluded that the Melbourne Livy adequately served the social and political aims of its patron.
Finally, in an attempt to answer the question raised by previous scholars regarding the number of artists involved in the programme, a detailed study of the miniatures is undertaken. It is argued that three, or possibly four artists were involved. These findings confirm the view of Millard Meiss that the miniatures of the first artist relate to the Cité des Dames Master; and that the second artist is most likely the Polycratique Master, as was suggested by François Avril. The remaining artist or artists were strongly influenced by this latter Master. Because of the highly collaborative nature of manuscript illumination, however, no decisive conclusions are drawn.
Beaven, Lisa Margaret
‘Cardinal Camillo II Massimi (1620—1677): Patron and Collector in Seventeenth-century Rome’.
PhD, The University of Melbourne, School of Fine Arts, Classical Studies and Archaeology, 2000. (David Marshall, Christopher Marshall.)
Cardinal Camillo II Massimi (1620—1677) was a patron and collector of exceptional discrimination and intelligence. He is best known today for his patronage of artists of the calibre of Nicolas Poussin, Claude Lorrain and Diego Velázquez. In his own day, however, Massimi was better known as a collector of antiquities and as an antiquarian scholar. It is the premise of this thesis that the two primary interests which motivated Massimi, contemporary art and antiquity, are inseparable and that his patronage and collecting were informed on every level by his love of antiquity. A large body of documentary material in the Archivio Massimo in Rome, including copies of his correspondence with the art theorist and antiquarian. Giovanni Pietro Bellori, are drawn on to provide evidence for this account of his patronage and his relationship with the artists he patronised. This evidence reveals the closeness of Massimi’s and Bellori’s attitudes to art and antiquity.
Massimi’s collection of art and antiquities in the Palazzo alle Quattro Fontane is reconstructed, drawing on his 1677 death inventory, an examination of the existing palace, and contemporary plans and views. Individual rooms on the existing piano nobile are identified with the rooms listed in the inventory and the sequence followed by those compiling the inventory is established. The picture hang in Massimi’s gallery is reconstructed and analysed in order to establish the ways in which he made connections between works, and conveyed political and personal messages to his audience. This allows new meanings to emerge for certain paintings and suggests ways in which Massimi himself might have interpreted key works, such as Poussin's Apollo and Daphne.
The thesis also explores the nature of Massimi’s relationships with Claude Lorrain, Nicolas Poussin and Diego Velázquez. Providing an antiquarian context for the works he commissioned from Claude and Poussin allows them to be interpreted in a new light. Massimi’s role in designing and constructing two small churches in Roccasecca dei Volsci, S. Raffaele and the Madonna della Pace, is explored and his intended programme for the internal decoration of S. Raffaele is revealed.
European Art, Eighteenth Century
Jones-O’Neill, Jennifer
‘Melancholy and Transformation: an Idea and its Representation in Eighteenth-century Britain’.
PhD, La Trobe University, Department of Art History, School of Arts and Media, 2000. (Robert Gaston.)
This study of melancholy in the visual culture of eighteenth-century Britain recognises its prevalence and examines its premises. Literary and medical scholars have long recognised the vitality and significance of the idea of melancholy in the period. No study, however, considers representations of melancholy in the visual arts as part of cultural history. This thesis addresses that gap through an analysis of the images of melancholy and their relatedness to philosophical, medical, literary and aesthetic discourses. It identifies and examines ideas on melancholy and their expression in the art of the period.
European Art, Nineteenth Century
Inglis, Alison Scott
‘The Decorative Works of Sir Edward Poynter and their Critical Reception’.
PhD, The University of Melbourne, School of Fine Arts, Classical Studies and Archaeology, 2000. (Ann Galbally.)
This thesis examines the decorative works of the nineteenth century British artist Sir Edward J. Poynter (1836—1919). His achievements as a decorative designer received considerable recognition during his lifetime but in more recent years have been overshadowed by his reputation as an academic painter. The neglect of this important component of Poynter’s oeuvre by twentieth-century scholarship is partly due to the destruction or dismantling of several of his major decorative commissions. Other schemes which were the focus of extensive public debate during the Victorian era–such as Poynter’s designs for the Central Hall of the Palace of Westminster, the Lecture Theatre apse at the South Kensington Museum and the decoration of the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral–were either not realised or only partially completed. This thesis aims to establish the extent and significance of Poynter’s decorative career by a comprehensive analysis of the individual commissions and their historical context. These works encompass a variety of media, including painted furniture, stained glass, mosaics, ceramic tiles and frescoes. The accompanying catalogue and illustrations document the commissions with particular reference to their design and the stages of their execution.
The thesis also locates Poynter’s decorative schemes in the context of a wider debate regarding the nature and role of mural decoration during the second half of the nineteenth century. It elucidates the crucial role played by materials and techniques in the contemporary reception of decorative works.
Another important issue that arises from this study is the previously unrecognised importance of the Gothic Revival for the development of Poynter’s career. Its influence is apparent in his belief in the role of architecture as a unifier of the arts, and in the emphasis in his decorative designs on eclecticism and craftsmanship. Poynter’s extensive involvement with the South Kensington Museum also had a major impact upon his decorative aesthetic. The strong Renaissance orientation of his mature work, which focuses on pictorial and narrative values, was directly reinforced by that institution.
Poynter emerges from this study as an important but neglected figure in the history of nineteenth century British art, whose career illuminates both the positive and negative attitudes to mural decoration that characterise the period.
Nicholls, Lara Nancy
The Duc d’Aumale and his Orientalist Paintings: a Study in the Taste for Orientalism in Nineteenth-century France
MA, The University of Melbourne, School of Fine Arts, Classical Studies and Archaeology, 2000. (Roger Benjamin.)
This thesis examines the Orientalist paintings acquired by the duc d’Aumale that he bequeathed to the Institute de France to form part of the Musée Condé in Chantilly, and presents the first study of Orientalism as a collecting phenomenon of the nineteenth century. Aumale’s Orientalist paintings fall into two distinct categories: those which serve as sophisticated aide-mémoires of the period he spent as an officer of the French army in Algeria, and those which evoke a sense of the East as an idea. Two key questions are examined. First, what roles did personal experience and taste play in the formation of Aumale’s small collection of Orientalist paintings? Second, what is the ideological significance of this group of paintings given France’s relationship with the countries depicted? To answer these questions the critical discourse regarding the political and cultural issues raised by Orientalism as an art-historical and literary genre are considered. Since the publication of Edward Said’s seminal text, Orientalism, it has become an orthodoxy to regard Orientalist paintings as an affirmation of the dominance of French imperial power structures in the colonised East. In presupposing such a monolithic model of Orientalism as a visual culture, the variety and diversity of the expressions that resonate throughout the genre are ignored. Furthermore, such an interpretation proves inadequate to understanding the ideological significance of Aumale’s collection. This thesis proposes that the Orientalist paintings assembled by the duc d’Aumale reveal a number of poignant interstices existing outside such an all-encompassing view of culture, thus suggesting that this model is inadequate and flawed. Indeed, by adopting a ‘totalising’ view of cultural expression we may fail to apprehend other important political messages and ideologies manifest in the collection.
Holland, Alison
‘The Interior Displays of the Higashiyamadono, Kyoto: The Aesthetic Principles and Presentation Protocols for Karamono’.
MA, The University of Melbourne, School of Fine Arts, Classical Studies and Archaeology, 2000. (Alison Inglis.)
In 1465, during the late Muromachi period in Japan, the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa (1436—1490) commissioned a palace retreat called Higashiyamadono in the Eastern Hills on the outskirts of Kyoto. Yoshimasa reconstructed in Higashiyamadono the mountain hut of a sage, drawing his inspiration from the utopias depicted in Japanese and Chinese literature. A circle of the cultural elite gathered at the palace under Yoshimasa’s patronage in order to secure the remains of his social and political influence through his virtuous role as a perpetuator of cultural knowledge. Yoshimasa’s cultural advisers, which included the doboshü Soami (d.1525), were central figures in the absorption of Chinese style into Japanese architecture and art, and into elite aspects of contemporary social performance. The most significant records of the Higashiyama culture were the Kundaikan Sochoki and Okazari-ki (1523), which document the Chinese works of art, or karamono, displayed at the palace. The Okazari-ki is compared with the interior of the Togudo, one of the two surviving buildings of the Higashiyamadono, with the support of additional documentation from the Muromachi period.
The architectural developments of the period after the Onin Wars are evident in the design of the buildings and gardens of the Higashiyamadono. It is argued that these changes also impacted on the protocols of the display of karamono and coincided with the emergence of wabi, an aesthetic principle, which favoured the imperfect and rustic. The five principal architectural settings, which have been identified from the analysis of the Okazari-ki, provide a spatial context and perspective from which to appreciate the protocols of Higashiyama culture and the aesthetic sensibilities of the doboshü. The doboshü’s preference for the juxtaposition of karamono created a dialogue of contrast and harmony between dissimilar objects, which helped to define their individuality in an art known as tori-awase. The five architectural settings, or modules, identified in the thesis will also provide curators of Asian Art collections in the future with a context for the display of medieval Japanese objects.
Australian Art, Twentieth Century
Jones, Gemma Patricia
‘Discourses of Nostalgia in Post-war Australian Visual Arts’.
MA, The University of Melbourne, School of Fine Arts, Classical Studies and Archaeology, 2000. (Christopher McAuliffe, Jeanette Hoorn.)
This thesis applies alternative theories of nostalgia to aspects of Australian post-war visual art practice, encompassing painting, photography, sculpture and installation. A history of nostalgia briefly contextualises new dimensions of nostalgic narrative. The terrain of Australian cultural specificity and contemporary conditions are also marked out, while the definition of ‘home’ is discussed as both a physical and metaphorical construct in relation to nostalgic concepts of homesickness, identity and origins.
Nostalgia’s use within alternative ideological structures (both conservative and progressive) and its various latent and manifest forms within Australian contemporary art, are mapped out across a number of key nostalgic tropes. Within this analysis the difference between being nostalgic, evoking nostalgia, and critiquing nostalgia identifies degrees of nostalgic engagement.
This thesis also examines the pertinence of personal experience and memory relative to the dimension of fantasy in nostalgic narratives, the phenomenon of ‘retro’ and the effects of simulacra in constructing new forms of nostalgia, and the realm of childhood and the site and memory of the maternal body as understood by way of psychoanalytic theory. Through figuring nostalgic loss as a product of both temporal and geographic dislocation, this thesis also considers collecting and souveniring as part of an artistic discourse of nostalgia, nostalgic space and scale with particular reference to excursive spaces and the significance of the miniature, and literal and metaphorical nostalgic journeying as both a cause and effect of nostalgia.
This thesis argues that nostalgia is a powerful undercurrent in Australian consciousness and characterises its various structures as a mode of bringing new meaning to Australian contemporary art.
Petitjean, Georges
‘"Where is the Story?": Paradoxes in Western Desert Art’.
PhD, La Trobe University, Department of Art History, School of Arts and Media, 2000. (Ian McPhee, Ross Bowden.)
This dissertation examines the contemporary Aboriginal acrylic painting movement from the Australian Central and Western Desert regions, the so-called Western Desert Art. It situates this movement in the context of the larger art world. These paintings came about in a climate of exchanges and interactions between Aborigines and the art world through the agency of dealers, artists and art advisers. Following the physical production process of the paintings ‘in the bush’ and their role in the daily life of the painters and their families, it explores the issues of representation that are inherent in the passage of the paintings into the art market and their perception in the European art world.
Australian Architecture, Twentieth Century
Drew, Daniel Francis
‘The Effect of the Implementation of the Decrees of the Second Vatican Council on the Art and Architecture of Roman Catholic Churches in Victoria’.
MA, The University of Melbourne, School of Fine Arts, Classical Studies and Archaeology, 2000. (Christopher Marshall.)
This thesis examine the changes that have been made to the liturgical art of Roman Catholic churches as a result of the implementation of the decrees of the Second Vatican Council, the first and most important of which, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, was promulgated on 4 December 1963, four hundred years to the day after the Council of Trent left it to the Holy See to effect liturgical reform.
The Council’s revision of the liturgy which introduced its celebration facing the people, brought about the adaptation and re-ordering of existing churches and changes to the architecture of new churches. The adaptation of existing churches caused dramatic changes to sanctuaries and resulted in the loss of some historically and culturally important works of art. The Council had appealed for respect to be shown to valuable works of art, but there were many interpretations of the decrees, which made it difficult and confusing for pastors who faced the task of deciding upon the form of adaptation of re-ordering.
Eight Victorian churches are chosen as the subjects of case studies because they reflected the diverse responses to the interpretation of the Council’s decrees. The eight churches include the Melbourne cathedral, two provincial cathedrals, and three metropolitan and two provincial parish churches.
The thesis examines the role of advisers and consultants in re-ordering these churches and their plans for meeting the intent and spirit of the conciliar decrees and instructions. An important development in the implementation of the decrees has been the growing involvement of the lay community, its confidence in interpreting the Council’s decrees and in challenging the opinions of pastors and their advisers. The role of the lay community in the planning of re-orderings in a number of churches is examined.
The provincial church of St Michael and St John, Horsham, purpose-built for the revised liturgy, is examined because it was designed to display an Australian character through the use of local building materials and native timbers, and by making symbolic reference to the physical features of the region. This church houses some relatively modern art designed to be compatible with the liturgy and to reflect the material and spiritual lives of the community.
A theme of this thesis is the need for the Church to accept accountability to the political community for the preservation and conservation of historical buildings and liturgical art. Heritage legislation protects some churches from alterations likely to be detrimental to their physical integrity, but changes of a liturgical nature are exempt from control. Liturgical changes can be as detrimental as structural works to churches and their art-historical patrimony, and this should be the basis for extending heritage legislation to all works within churches. It is proposed that the Church should accept such an extension in recognition of its responsibility to preserve and conserve buildings and liturgical art for the nation and for its community.
Boyle, Colleen Lorraine
‘Resolution: The Photographic Images of NASA’.
MA, The University of Melbourne, School of Fine Arts, Classical Studies and Archaeology, 2000. (Christopher McAuliffe.)
The arts and sciences have long been epistemological rivals. In terms of observation, the former is seen to rely upon the subjective and the latter upon the objective. A conventional reading of the photographs produced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is problematic as the images concurrently contain scientific and aesthetic qualities. To reduce one field of knowledge to the terms of the other leads to simplistic interpretations. This thesis advocates an experimental assessment of the images by way of a range of established ‘readings’ belonging to the broader epistemic field of vision.
Many of the ‘photographs’ referred to in this thesis are digitally composed. Some contemporary authors believe that digital imaging technology heralds a paradigmatic shift in representation, threatening our established notions of ‘truth’ and ‘reality’. It is argued that such a suggestion denies the complexities of the issue which demands a wider examination that incorporates human perception and conventional notions of reality. A phenomenological approach is explored as an alternative to the purely technical, and the indexical nature of the photographic image is examined in terms of ontology. Space photography has been instrumental in shifting our perceptions of the cosmos from the fixed stars to an infinite horizon, once again challenging our ontological status and re-mystifying the heavens by way of the rhetoric of the image.
The Earthrise image of 1968 is a landmark in both popular culture and space photography. An attempt is made to expose how and why this photograph has been capable of shifting our perception of ourselves. It is suggested that this image embodies Debord’s notion of ‘spectacle’ but perhaps in reverse, highlighting alienation while simultaneously allowing the planet to be seen as a whole. Moreover, the Earthrise image may function in a representational sense in the way that Foucault suggests for Velázquez’s painting Las Meninas: a complex model of the fold of vision. To see ourselves, we must paradoxically submit to blindness. We become caught in the utopian gap described by Marin, trapped between the subject and object, destined to play out both roles simultaneously, and to be denied the objectivity we desire. The photographic images produced by NASA fall within this gap: a terrain which is artificially demarcated by arbitrary labels such as ‘Art’ and ‘Science’.
Lakin, Shaune A.
‘Picturing the Democratic Vista: Reading the Photographic Books of Walker Evans and Edward Ruscha’.
PhD, The University of Melbourne, School of Fine Arts, Classical Studies and Archaeology, 2000. (Christopher McAuliffe, David Goodman.)
This thesis presents an examination of the photographic books of Walker Evans– American Photographs (1938) and Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941)–and Edward Ruscha–especially Twenty-six Gasoline Stations (1962) and Every Building on the Sunset Strip (1966)–in relation to efforts to conceptualise and represent the American way of life. It demonstrates that there exists a vital relation between the photographic book as it has been produced and circulated within American cultural practice and the effort of national self-representation. The thesis finds that the widespread presence of the photographic book in American photographic practice is in large part a legacy of its historical role as nationalist archive. The dissertation thus presents a close analysis of the relations between American photographic practices and the politics and ideology of self-representation.
The dissertation takes as its material foundation the books of Walker Evans and Edward Ruscha between 1938 and 1996, a period that bookends the two great periods of liberal, social reform politics in the United States (President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society), and one within which photography was itself given a critical role in the circulation and dissemination of tightly woven political and aesthetic ideologies. Evans’and Ruscha’s books are seen to provide astute efforts to locate and represent what are identified as key nationalist motifs: those of space, motion and community. The work of each photographic book maker thus presents a series of carefully articulated statements on American national identity that are seen both to exemplify prevailing attitudes and map the shifting historical meanings of these motifs. The dissertation pays close attention to these shifting meanings by mapping their circulation throughout both popular, political, and academic discourses and representations, as well as other photographic books. It is argued throughout that the American photographic books of Evans and Ruscha provide exemplary representations of the shifting conditions of the terms according to which the American way of life has been historically determined.
Gherardin, Elizabeth Frances
‘Picturing Modernist Melbourne: Discovering the Cross-section Archive’.
MA, The University of Melbourne, School of Fine Arts, Classical Studies and Archaeology, 2000. (Alison Inglis.)
Determining the significance and value of archival material is one of the major challenges facing collecting institutions today. In a climate of economic constraint, the ability to recognise and assess the significance of collections is a crucial factor in their preservation and ongoing management. The Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne currently holds a wealth of archival material in the form of architectural drawings, photographs and printed documentation. Some of this material is at risk of being neglected due to the failure to recognise its significance to the University and the wider community. The focus of this thesis is the Cross-section Archive, which consists of the publication of this name produced by the Faculty between 1952 and 1971 and the collection of black-and-white photographs that were used for it. Bound copies of the publication are readily available in the library collection. The photographs, however, are less accessible and are a little known resource. They are uncatalogued and are stored in variable environmental conditions in a number of locations throughout the Faculty.
It is the author’s contention that the Cross-Section Archive is a highly significant archive for both the University and the wider community, and is worthy of preservation. Attention needs to be given, in particular, to the photographs, which are in integral part of the publication’s history. This thesis aims to establish the archive’s significance by utilising an assessment framework that analysis its value as a historical, aesthetic and research collection. The study’s focus is on the Melbourne photographs within the collection. Cross-section was an innovative publication, created at a time when the architectural profession was experiencing great changes and Modernism was most influential in Melbourne. It provided an opportunity for individual creative talents within the local architectural community to comment on the prevailing architectural developments, while the photographs document the changes. The publication was a vehicle for the entrepreneurial focus of a young Architecture Faculty, eager to establish itself in both the local and international arenas. Its photographic collection is a unique resource that comprehensively represents a significant era in Australian architectural photographic history. This thesis makes a significant contribution to existing scholarship in the area and provides valuable exhibition opportunities. The significance assessment is to be followed by a plan for the ongoing management of the archive, ensuring that both access and conservation needs are met.
Hodgens, Sandra Joan
‘A Matter of Access: An Analysis of Cultural Tourism and Art Museums with Special Reference to the National Gallery of Victoria’.
MA, The University of Melbourne, School of Fine Arts, Classical Studies and Archaeology, 2000. (Alison Inglis.)
‘Cultural resources serve as people magnets, introducing a vitality which attracts tourists, other business and other consumers.’ This statement summarises the role cultural attractions are expected to play, especially in the application of cultural tourism. This thesis will examine the accommodation of this form of niche tourism by one cultural resource, the art museum. A central contention is that art museums need to be not only destinations of significance, but also important access points to the culture being visited. They have the potential to become initiators of interpretative material and programs for visitors. The inbound tourist is the focus of this examination for reasons of accessibility.
This thesis examines the nature of cultural tourism as well as the implications of its many interpretations for the creation of any cultural tourism product by the art museum. In addition the history of the relationship between art museums and tourism, and the potential for the future of this relationship, is explored. The Australian context is addressed in the light of the many cultural tourism initiatives at all levels of government in the 1990s. Victoria’s promotion of cultural tourism and how this has been addressed by its major art institution, National Gallery of Victoria, is the focus of the final chapter.
Stocky, Catherine
‘The Australian Racing Museum 1974—1999: Evolution of an Industry Museum’.
MA, The University of Melbourne, School of Fine Arts, Classical Studies and Archaeology, 2000. (Alison Inglis.)
This thesis traces the evolution of the Australian Racing Museum from its origins in 1974 to its emergence as an industry museum during the 1990s. The museum was originally established as a viewing space and a repository for memorabilia. Through the appointment of staff experienced in museum management practices the museum has matured into a cultural ambassador for the racing industry.
For the purposes of this study the growth and development of the museum has been divided into three chronological sections, each reflecting fundamental changes in the museum’s direction, its public profile and its audience focus. This thesis argues that the formative years of the museum were concerned primarily with acquiring a collection and operating a viewing space. This limited perception of the possibilities the museum could offer the racing industry, together with a decline in race day attendance throughout the 1980s, contributed to the lack of industry support.
The need to demonstrate the museum’s value and ability to promote racing began to change with the appointment of a curator in 1991. This appointment was the catalyst in the movement forward of the museum and created an understanding of the museum’s potential to be of service to the racing industry. This stage of the museum’s history is placed in the wider context of changes in the museum sector which resulted in the re-evaluation of the role of museums in society.
The following decade witnessed an increasing recognition by the racing industry of the museum’s potential as a vehicle of communication, and as a research resource. This thesis argues that the Australian Racing Museum exemplifies the possibilities of a symbiotic relationship between industry and museums. This relationship has provided the racing industry with a forum to present racing to previously unrealisable audiences in a balanced way, without compromising its own critical role as a cultural institution.