Yep, fresh from WA, here comes the news from Perth. I'm over here this week to attend a Museums Australia/ Interpretation Australia conference called 'At The Frontier' - I'm guessing a whole lot of people in the museum world have come to Perth for this, come over like Brownes' cows. I have been part-funded for this by Melbourne Museum, where I work part-time, so that makes sense.
Today was Sunday, and quite blowy - a westerly I think, coming up the Swan River.
I was looking to hire a bike to get me around, so I thought I'd ask at that tall pointy thing ahead.
Turns out that it is The Bell Tower, home of the Swan Bells and "probably the largest musical instrument in the world", and furthermore, because this weekend is Heritage Perth's Heritage Days, it's free to go in. So I go in. It's a pretty amazing place, you can climb stairs all the way to the top of those sail things and look down over the river or over Perth
and see what's been going on here recently - oh, I do love that word, CHOGM.
Some of the bells are pretty big. Pretty big. And today they were ringing constantly, and the whole place was shaking, almost subliminally, underfoot. It was great. And, the people there knew where the bike hire place was!
I dropped into the Old Court House Law Museum to see painter Thomas Hoareau talk about his picture 'John Gaven Parkhurst boy #422 - Appears a very good lad' from the exhibition 'Heroes or Villains of the Swan?' which just opened there last week. 15 year old Gaven was the first European hanged in Western Australia.
There were lots of open public buildings, including the Perth Town Hall where there was an exhibition about Perth hosting the 1962 Commonwealth Games, and 'leaving the lights on' earlier in that year for astronaut John Glenn to glipse as he passed over in Friendship 7.
Some of the public art really grabbed me, too, like Anne Neil's 2006 'Memory Markers'
On the border of the Stirling Gardens on Barrack Street.
As a ink-dip nib user myself, to see these big ones
was pretty exciting. And around the corner on St George's Terrace, I was really amused by these
For which I couldn't find the name of the artist. But look, the tip of the one lying on the ground
is even crumpled! - great, eh? Well enough of all this art and culture and heritage - I need a way to get around, and David Byrne is always talking about how good it is to have a bike in a foreign land. And you know? He's right!
Ladies and gentlemen, meet Brian. As in, "a brown like Brian".
Tomorrow, New Norcia. But not by bike.
Turns out that it is The Bell Tower, home of the Swan Bells and "probably the largest musical instrument in the world", and furthermore, because this weekend is Heritage Perth's Heritage Days, it's free to go in. So I go in. It's a pretty amazing place, you can climb stairs all the way to the top of those sail things and look down over the river or over Perth
and see what's been going on here recently - oh, I do love that word, CHOGM.
Some of the bells are pretty big. Pretty big. And today they were ringing constantly, and the whole place was shaking, almost subliminally, underfoot. It was great. And, the people there knew where the bike hire place was!
I dropped into the Old Court House Law Museum to see painter Thomas Hoareau talk about his picture 'John Gaven Parkhurst boy #422 - Appears a very good lad' from the exhibition 'Heroes or Villains of the Swan?' which just opened there last week. 15 year old Gaven was the first European hanged in Western Australia.
There were lots of open public buildings, including the Perth Town Hall where there was an exhibition about Perth hosting the 1962 Commonwealth Games, and 'leaving the lights on' earlier in that year for astronaut John Glenn to glipse as he passed over in Friendship 7.
Some of the public art really grabbed me, too, like Anne Neil's 2006 'Memory Markers'
On the border of the Stirling Gardens on Barrack Street.
As a ink-dip nib user myself, to see these big ones
was pretty exciting. And around the corner on St George's Terrace, I was really amused by these
For which I couldn't find the name of the artist. But look, the tip of the one lying on the ground
is even crumpled! - great, eh? Well enough of all this art and culture and heritage - I need a way to get around, and David Byrne is always talking about how good it is to have a bike in a foreign land. And you know? He's right!
Ladies and gentlemen, meet Brian. As in, "a brown like Brian".
Tomorrow, New Norcia. But not by bike.
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2 comments:
Hey Bern, I'm talking about daylight in art galleries on Thursday arvo, if you're still around then. See you there!
John.
Hi Bernard,
Thanks for the flattering portrait,
Regards,
Thomas
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