A healthy art community relies on figures that move quickly between commissions, code-switch through high and colloquial cultures, and translate between foreign lands. The record of Damian Smith’s career is the archive of one such figure.
Collection spotlights, Photography:
Journey through the evocative early works of Greek-Australian photographer Georgia Metaxas, and be drawn into the world of community and performance.
opera, Our stories, Victorian history:
Dame Nellie Melba was a legend in every possible way: her voice of an angelic purity and perfect pitch, her fame never equaled by another Australian singer, a fame which extended worldwide from the time of her international debut in Brussels in 1887 until the late 1920s when she staged her final performances.
With the help of the Women Writers Fund, the Library recently acquired Laura Dayton Fessenden’s most fascinating work of speculative fiction, 2002: Childlife One Hundred Years From Now.
Vali Myers (1930-2003) was known as a free-thinking artist and dancer who lived a unique bohemian life that was true to herself. Her archive held by the Library spans her life overseas and her return to Australia.
Exhibitions, Rare Books & Arts:
The internationally significant Michael Abbott Collection of South-East Asian manuscripts is now on display as part of the World of the book 2022 exhibition.
Collection spotlights, New books, Our stories, Rare Books & Arts:
State Library Victoria recently acquired an 1832 printing of the third edition of Mary Shelley’s, Frankenstein for its Rare Book Collection.
Collection spotlights, Victorian history, Visual arts:
A little sketchbook with a lot of stories. How did the newsworthy events of the 1880s go from pocket sketches to newspaper illustrations?
Collection, Rare Books & Arts:
To mark the 700th anniversary of the death of italian poet Dante Alighieri, we’re taking a look at the illustrative interpretations of his work by Australian artists.
New books, Rare Books & Arts, Visual arts:
Read about an audacious collaboration between Henri Matisse and James Joyce for the Limited Editions Club.
