Where better to celebrate International Museum Day on Monday 18 May than The University of Queensland which has multiple?
All located within minutes of each other at the St Lucia campus UQ Art Museum, RD Milns Antiquities Museum and the Anthropology Museum make a significant contribution to the University's teaching and learning, and highlight the important role museums play in shaping culturally enriched, sustainable societies.
UQ Art Museum Director Dr Campbell Gray said International Museum Day provided a platform to explore the role of museums around the world in asking important questions of society.
“Museums challenge assumptions and prompt conversations within a context of excellent research, evidence and analysis,” Dr Gray said.
“Through these conversations knowledge increases, values are affirmed, awareness and acceptance of other people and their ideas improves, and a sense of excellence and sensitivity grows.”
Dr Gray encouraged people who had never visited UQ Art Museum before to make Monday 18 May the day to do so.
“UQ Art Museum is a place where the university and community beyond it can come to reflect, contemplate, wonder and enquire. Anyone is welcome, so come in and spend some time with the three terrific exhibitions currently on show.”
RD Milns Antiquities Museum Director Dr Janette McWilliam said International Museum Day reinforced the importance of learning from the past.
“Our heritage is a world heritage and it’s remarkable what the ancient world can teach us about the effects of war, politics, trade, daily life and the importance of cooperation and peace,” she said.
“The Museum’s collection preserves artefacts from ancient Greek and Roman civilisations that lie at the very heart of Western civilisation and the modern world we live in today.”
UQ Anthropology Museum Operations Coordinator Jane Willcock said museums helped develop curiosity about human experiences and culture, and understanding these different perspectives is increasingly important for social sustainability.
“The UQ Anthropology Museum cares for a globally significant collection of material culture including contemporary Pacific and Australian Indigenous artwork, the cultural heritage of many nations large and small,” Ms Willcock said.
“Our exhibition program draws on recent research to challenge and expand ideas about what an anthropological collection can be in the 21st century whilst stimulating understanding and debate about inter-cultural issues across a wide range of audiences.”
International Museum Day – Monday, 18 May at UQ
UQ Art Museum: Open 10am to 4pm but has extended hours to 6pm on May 18. A curator tour of the Peter Hennessey: Making it real exhibition will be held at 12.30pm.
The UQ Anthropology Museum: Open from 11am to 3pm.
RD Milns Antiquities Museum: Open 9.30am to 4:30pm.
Media: Sonia Uranishi, +61 409 387 623, sonia@soniauranishicommunication.com or Sebastian Moody, +61 7 3346 8761, s.moody@uq.edu.au.
