SHOWCASE PROJECT
BRETT WHITELEY STUDIO + WHITELEY: THE FILM
Nelson Meers Foundation has proudly supported two ventures that have helped solidify the legacy of one of Australia's most iconic artists.
The Nelson Meers Foundation currently supports the Brett Whiteley Studio (managed as a museum by the Art Gallery of NSW since 1995), a unique and revealing space that presents an incredible insight into Whiteley's private world.
Also through the Documentary Australia Foundation, the Nelson Meers Foundation supported the making of Whiteley: The Film, the AACTA Award-winning documentary that captured the visual journey into the life of one of Australia's most celebrated artists.
CONVERSATION
BUKU-LARRNGGAY MULKA ART CENTRE: DIGITAL LEARNING CENTRE
The Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre is the Indigenous community controlled art centre of Northeast Arnhem Land, located in Yirrkala, a small Aboriginal community on the north-eastern tip of the top end of the Northern Territory. Their mission is to sustain and protect Yolngu cultural knowledge in Northeast Arnhem Land under the leadership of community members. The Mulka Project opened the door to its new digital learning centre on July 31st 2015. Within its first week the community elders renamed the Yirrkala Digital Learning Centre 'Yalu' which is dhuwal language for 'nest'. The Nelson Meers Foundation is a founding supporter of the Yalu, providing support for a Digital Learning Co-ordinator to manage the Digital Learning Centre and guide visitors through the Yolngu digital archive.
CASE STUDY
URBAN THEATRE PROJECTS: BLAK BOX - A 'TOURABLE' SPACE FOR FIRST NATIONS STORIES
Blak Box is stripped back storytelling - up-close and personal in a surround sound environment. Blak Box embraces the First Peoples concept of ‘deep listening’. In NSW, the word for deep listening is Ngara. In the Yorta Yorta language of the Murray River in Victoria it is Gulpa Ngawal. An Indigenous understanding of deep listening is based on stories, silences and the spaces that lie between.
Blak Box will play ‘home’ to commissioned works and stories by First Peoples artists as part of UTP’s B-Side program.