Here’s a good opportunity for some pre-conference exchange. The organisers of the conference have just posted on their blog that “We have been offered a great opportunity to view the collection of acquired works from the Biennial Contemporary Wearables Exhibition, held at Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery.” So it’s off to Toowoomba to check out the collection in its natural habitat! I know (part of?) the collection toured a little while ago, though it never came past Melbourne which was a huge shame, so I for one never got to see it.
The Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery were the first public collection to purchase one of my works (you can see an image of the piece, Marian’s compact – radial pattern through the first link above) as a part of the biennial competition a few years ago. They acquire the winners of the competition as well as other pieces (like mine) each time the competition is held, and they have a few other older (as in 100 years or so older) pieces of significance. Thanks to their steady collecting of ‘Wearables‘ winners since 1989, they have gradually collected works by a big bunch of Australian jewellers. If you’re going to be in town (unfortunately I arrive in Brisbane later that day so I’m going to miss it) I would strongly urge you to go check it out if you haven’t already. It’s our history!