The Gallery @ Bayside Arts & Cultural Centre’s 2014 exhibition ‘Grommets, grinds and gnarly dudes’ has taken out the award for best Temporary or Travelling exhibition at the prestigious 2015 Museums & Galleries National Awards (MAGNA).
Bayside City Council Mayor Cr Felicity Frederico said that it was a fantastic outcome for Bayside and shows that this small municipal gallery could stand proudly alongside Australia’s best.
“The MAGNA awards celebrate the best and brightest amongst Australia’s gallery and museum sector and in 2015 recognised institutions including the Art Gallery of NSW, Museum Victoria and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image,” Cr Frederico said.
“For The Gallery at BACC to be recognised alongside institutions of this calibre speaks to the high quality of its exhibition program.
‘Grommets, grinds and gnarly dudes’ was created to target males aged 15 to 45. It also drew on the history of the Brighton Town Hall, where the gallery is located, as a surf film venue in the 1960s & 70s. The exhibition featured contemporary artworks by Phillip George, Gerry Wedd and Jud Wimhurst, alongside the Tony Hallam Skateboard Collection, and examined the roles of surf and skate subcultures within the Australian psyche.
The artists used a variety of different media to highlight aspects of skating and surfing history and development and the connection between these two pastimes. The exhibition also featured 60 skateboards and ephemera (magazines, posters, stickers and wheels) from the collection of former state champion skater turned skate park designer, Tony Hallam.
The closing event for the exhibition included a screening of the iconic 1960s surf film The Endless Summer which not only brought in a diverse audience to The Gallery, but also helped raise money for The Disabled Surfers Association of Australia.
The 2015 Museums & Galleries National Awards were announced at a gala event in Sydney on 22 May 2015.
Judges’ comments: “A creative community art project which succeeded in engaging the gallery with new audiences within the community. It was produced to a high display standard and featured appealing content which would get the youth audience to visit. Good public programs attached to the exhibition and use of social media to communicate with audiences. Also a nice example of working with artists, commissioning new works, and linking into communities and sub-cultures.”
The Gallery @ Bayside Arts & Cultural Centre
Melbourne
Jud Wimhurst, The New Empire, 2013, 108 x 68 x 20cm
Courtesy the artist and MARS Gallery
