Meet the curator- Damian McDonald
May 6, 2009
Damian McDonaldI’m obsessed with guitars and rock music; however, my path to curator has been more one of Museum knowledge rather than specialist of a particular collection area.
Inside the Collection
Latest Posts
Sweat, Lies and Heart-rates
May 6, 2009
Damian McDonald
One of the coolest objects I have acquired for the Health and Medicine collection is the Grass 7D polygraph machine. A common deus ex machina devise for Hollywood script writers – Polygraph machines, or ‘lie detectors’ are one of those objects that are so embedded in the public consciousness by popular culture that to see an actual example ignites curiosity.
Mystery Object – The ‘Earoscope’
April 29, 2009
Erika Taylor
The curatorial team here at the Museum are the keepers to an immense amount of knowledge, covering a wide variety of special areas. If you have a question, chances are someone here can write you a novel on the subject.
Meet the curator – Margaret Simpson
April 22, 2009
Margaret SimpsonMy specialty area is the transport collection – I’ve researched everything from a steam car to a tram hearse, luxurious railway carriages to a shearer’s bicycle.
Mawson’s Antarctic Sledge
April 22, 2009
Margaret Simpson
Several of my most favourite objects at the Powerhouse Museum are the five sledges used on Mawson’s and Scott’s Antarctic expeditions in the early 20th century. Hardly anyone knows we’ve got them.
Meet the curator – Anne-Marie Van de Ven
April 15, 2009
Anne-Marie Van de VenMy specialty area is visual communications – graphic design, new media design and commercial photography.
George Gittoes
April 15, 2009
Anne-Marie Van de Ven
Recently I was invited to visit the studio of Australian artist and filmmaker, George Gittoes to inspect his collection of Yellow House Puppet Theatre puppets paintings, ceramics and etchings. Today Gittoes is an internationally renowned filmmaker, but in the Sixties, he was a co-founder of the Yellow House, one of the most colourful contributions to the hippy/psychedelic era in Australia during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Meet the curator – Paul Donnelly
April 8, 2009
Paul Donnelly
Name
Paul Donnelly
What is your specialty area? Curators ‘specialities’ seem to grow by the year (!) but my background research is the Bronze-Age archaeology of Jordan and Syria, and I look after numismatics, antiquities, ceramics of Europe and the Mediterranean region (before 1700), and Australian ceramics.
Beugelfauteuil – Gerrit Rietveld
April 8, 2009
Paul Donnelly
Today it is hard to imagine that the now-ubiquitous tubular-steel style of furniture was once at the fore-front of modern design. In the mid 1920s tubular steel furniture had developed from purely utilitarian use in hospitals and transport to the domestic environment.
Meet the curator – Erika Dicker
April 2, 2009
Erika TaylorI like to think I’m a ‘jack of all trades’ but I know quite a lot about the history of the Australian merino, early plastics technology, scientific instruments, health and medical devices.
The Prawn Bike
March 31, 2009
Erika Taylor
This bike-riding prawn is one of my favourite things in the Museum’s collection. I both love it, and am deeply suspicious of it. The costume and bike were used in the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Closing Ceremony and are part of a large number of Olympic costumes we have in our collection.
Welcome to the new curatorial blog!
March 30, 2009
Erika Taylor
Ever wondered what happens to things in museums when they aren’t on display? Ever wanted to visit a museum’s basement? Ever wondered what curators get up to down there? Well here's your chance to find out!