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FOCUS: 'ANDY WARHOL'
QUEENSLAND ART GALLERY ANNUAL REPORT 2007–08 35
WARHOL KIDS
As part of the exhibition, the Children's Art Centre was
transformed into the Silver Factory: Andy Warhol for Kids.
The Silver Factory included some of Warhol's art works
with particular appeal to children — a large-scale
installation of
Silver Clouds
1966, a selection of toy
paintings displayed on
Fish
wallpaper and a series of
alphabet drawings including
"A Was a Lady Who Went
Shopping at Sacks"
c.1953. The Silver Factory also
included interactive activities developed to complement
the works on display and to introduce children to Warhol
and his world.
The Andy Warhol Summer Festival was held from 18 to
28 January 2008. The 11-day festival included workshops,
performances, screenings, talks and storytelling. The
Andy Warhol Summer Festival — Queensland was held
simultaneously at 24 regional Queensland venues on
Saturday 19 January 2008. It featured seven interactive
activities drawn from the festival program. Gallery staff
travelled to regional venues to talk about the festival
activities and work with children and volunteers.
TALKS, TOURS AND EDUCATION
The Andy Warhol exhibition symposium on Friday
7 December was attended by 200 people, and explored
major themes relating to Andy Warhol's work and the
artist's ongoing influence on contemporary art. It included
a welcome and exhibition overview by Tony ElIwood
(Director, Queensland Art Gallery), a keynote address by
Tom Sokolowski (Director, The Andy Warhol Museum,
Pittsburgh), and response paper by Dr Rex Butler
(University of Queensland). The symposium concluded
with a panel discussion featuring Linda Jaivin (writer,
Sydney) and Philip Brophy (artist and curator, Melbourne),
which was co-chaired by Dr Andrew McNamara
(Queensland University of Technology) and Dr Rosemary
Hawker (Queensland College of Art, Griffith University).
The opening weekend programs, attended by more than
800 people, included talks, tours, panel discussions and
lectures featuring local, national and international guest
speakers and Gallery staff. Matt Wrbican, Archivist,
The Andy Warhol Museum, delivered a guest lecture on
Andy Warhol's
Time Capsules
. Talks were also presented
by writers featured in the exhibition catalogue, including
Linda Jaivin and Philip Brophy. Exhibition tours led by
Gallery staff introduced visitors to the themes and layout
of 'Andy Warhol', and panel discussions gathered
academics, curators and arts professionals to explore
Warhol's work in greater depth.
An ongoing public program of lectures, artist talks and
floortalks was presented in conjunction with the
exhibition. A major feature was a free fortnightly lecture
series, Sunday afternoons. This explored major themes
relating to Warhol's work including celebrity, pop music,
popular culture and gender in contemporary art and
theory.
The education program comprised public programs for
adult audiences, Look Out teacher programs, New Wave
tertiary student programs and a range of education
resources. The Look Out teacher program began in the
opening week with an exhibition viewing introduced by
Kate Ravenswood, Head of Access, Education and
Regional Services. Teacher workshops were held in
February 2008, enabling teachers to develop their own
exhibition-related teaching programs.
Online education resources for teachers and students
included the 'Visiting Andy Warhol' teacher PowerPoint
resource, for pre-visit and post-visit information, and
three online tours.
The New Wave tertiary program gave Queensland
university students access to a range of programs,
including a forum which invited emerging artists, current
university students and Gallery staff to address the
continuing relevance of Warhol's work. Exhibition tours
were available for booked university groups.
UP LATE
The Gallery offered its first Up Late series, a major new
programming initiative of late-night openings. On Friday
nights from 4 January to 11 April the Gallery presented
the exhibition and film program, '15 minutes of fame'
talks (short talks on aspects of the exhibition) and music
by local, national and international performers. More than
20 000 people visited the Gallery during the Up Late
events.
Guest speakers included Glenn A Baker, Sean Sennett
(
Time Off
magazine), Richard Fidler (ABC Radio) and artist
Scott Redford. The performance program included
international acts such as Caribou (Canada), Trans Am
(USA), Glass Candy (USA) and New Pants (China), as well
as local and national performers Ed Kuepper, I Heart
Hiroshima, Tyrone Noonan, Chris Abrahams (Sydney),
Philip Brophy (Melbourne) and Architecture in Helsinki DJs
(Melbourne). The special and final Up Late program was
a major performance by ARIA-award winning band
Wolfmother on Saturday 12 April.
Wolfmother perform at the Gallery
of Modern Art as the closing act for
‘Andy Warhol’ Up Late.
Robert Forster performs during the
'Andy Warhol' opening weekend
celebrations.