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AGM

The Living Museum 2022 AGM will be held at the Museum Visitor Centre and also via Zoom video link on Sunday, November 27th at 6.00 pm. If you are interested in attending please contact us directly in advance so we can email you a meeting link and password. admin@livingmuseum.org.au

Current Museum members can renew their membership subscription via email, new members can download a membership form here which must be signed and dated and returned via post or email to:
admin@livingmuseum.org.au

PO Box 60 Highpoint City, VIC, 3032

Download the Living Museum membership form here: The Living Museum membership form

Opening Saturday 19 November 2022

TWO LITTLE HOUSES
presented by Trocadero Projects in collaboration with Melbourne’s Living Museum of the West. 

Dates: November 19 – December 15 2022


TWO LITTLE HOUSES
 is group exhibition exploring crafts, decorative arts and textiles as objects of personal, social and cultural history. 

Featuring handmade objects and textiles, mixed-media dioramas and detailed drawings by local artists, this exhibition is fascinated with the dichotomy of public artistic practice and private, personal art-making. Two Little Houses explores a room as a shrine to oneself and a self-curated space.

Featuring works by Matilda Davis, Amie Green, Rumer Elisabetta Guario, Handbag Full of Worms, Madi Mercer, Ruby McCumiskey, Olive Snell, Morgan-Lee Snell and Emily Spratt.

TWO LITTLE HOUSES is presented by Trocadero Projects in collaboration with Melbourne’s Living Museum of the West. 

Dates: November 19 – December 15 2022
Location: The Living Museum of the West, Pipemakers Park, Maribyrnong VIC 3032
Opening Hours: Thursday & Friday 11am–4pm, Saturday 1–4pm.

ACCESS: Melbourne’s Living Museum of the West is wheelchair accessible with limited parking available directly in front of the Visitor Centre, on request. Regular parking is available in Pipemakers Park carparks nearby.

Trocadero would like to thank Melbourne’s Living Museum of the West for its generosity and community spirit in inviting us into its space and archives, as well as its ongoing efforts in documenting and sharing the unique heritage of the western region of Melbourne.

Vale, Peter Haffenden (30.03.1946 – 14.10.2022)

It is with great sorrow we announce the passing of Peter Haffenden at home with his family on Friday 14 October 2022. Our thoughts are with Kerrie and Phoebe at this time.  

Peter’s life will be celebrated at the
Living Museum of the West on
Thursday 3 November at 4 pm.

The Living Museum is creating a ‘Peter Haffenden Future Project Fund’ to develop new projects in keeping with Peter’s legacy and philosophy of museology. 

We ask that, rather than sending flowers, contributions instead be made towards the establishment of this fund, via EFT donation. The Museum is a tax deductible registered charity.

Please email admin@livingmuseum.org.au for further information and receipts.
EFT details can be found below.
   
Peter spent 38 years working in the museum industry as a photographer, project manager and innovator and has made an elegant tribute through photographs, journalism, history and museology in Australia.

Peter grew up in his family’s milkbar in Barkly Street, West Footscray, in the 1950s, working in local factories as a teenager and organising dances at the local church. After completing an Economics degree and a short stint as a Marketing Analyst, Peter worked as a journalist with The Age newspaper, then the ABC, and then studied art and photography, drove taxis, and began working at the Museum as Media Co-ordinator from its inception in 1984.

With the Museum’s first director, Olwen Ford, Peter was instrumental in establishing First Nations projects and programs at the Living Museum from the late 1980s, including positions of Cultural Officer (from 1991), Arts Officer and training programs such as the Koorie Gardening Team, of which he was a Director. Over 30 years, Peter has made many close colleagues and friends across generations of elders and families of the tribes of the Kulin Nation and beyond.

From 1997 to 2007, Peter was the Director of the Living Museum, managing hundreds of projects and supervising the production of innumerable events and exhibitions.  Peter has photographic work in the State Collection of significant photographs, has written many articles on the history of the Western suburbs and the book, Your History Mate.  He received awards for contributions to the museum industry and a Bicentennial Medal for contribution to the community. 

In 2011, upon request, Peter returned to work as a member of the Committee of Management of the Museum, developing new projects and sharing his knowledge. Peter has been instrumental in ensuring the continuation of the Living Museum, the recognition of Pipemakers Park as a heritage site of national significance, and the ongoing preservation of its historic buildings.

A relentless advocate for the environment, Peter’s legacy includes multiple copies of educational touring exhibitions: Pobblebonk (2005), about the Maribyrnong River, and Volcano Dreaming (2011), about the critically endangered biosphere of the Victorian Volcanic Plains, on permanent display in the windows of the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning on the corner of Victoria and Nicholson Streets. Peter founded the Friends of Buckley Park to protect the intact remnant coastal dune system between Point Lonsdale and Ocean Grove in 1999 and remained the group’s president throughout.  


Donations to ‘Peter Haffenden Future Projects Fund’
EFT details: Melbourne’s Living Museum of the West Inc.
BSB: 083004 Acc: 018485325

Museum News October / November 2020

Triennial Funding

The Living Museum has successfully secured Triennial Funding from the City of Maribyrnong to support its programs and operations during 2020 – 2023. 

The additional funding will enable the Museum to employ a part-time business manager to support the work of the Committee to deliver the Museum’s Strategic Plan and 3 Year Program. With the lifting of Covid restrictions we are hoping that the Museum’s doors will open once again in early December. We will keep you posted.  

In the meantime, this year our AGM will be held remotely, via zoom, on November 19th details are below.

Business Manager position vacant

The Business Manager is a new part-time position and the Living Museum’s only paid position. The position is part of a 3 year strategy to support the volunteer management committee who currently run the Museum. The Business Manager will support the implementation of the 2020 – 2023 Strategic Plan.

Details about this position and how to apply can be found here

AGM 19 November 2020

The Living Museum 2020 AGM will be held remotely via Zoom video link on Thursday November 19th at 7.30 pm. If you are interested in attending please contact us directly in advance so we can email you a meeting link and password. events@livingmuseum.org.au

Current Museum members can renew their membership subscription via email, new members can download a membership form here which must be signed and dated and returned via post or email to:
events@livingmuseum.org.au

PO Box 60 Highpoint City, VIC, 3032

Download the Living Museum membership form here:

Annual Report 2019 -2020 / Strategic Plan 2020 -2023

The Museum’s 2019-20 Annual Report and Strategic Plan 2020 -2023 documents are now available upon request.
work@livingmuseum.org.au

Museum News, July – August 2020

Presenting new videos:

‘Flowerlands’ and ‘Arts Programs and Residencies’

Presenting two new videos !!!

 ‘Supported by the City of Melbourne COVID-19 Arts Grants’.

The Museum is proud to present two new videos, ‘Flowerlands’ and ‘Art Programs and Residencies’ produced during Covid 19 restrictions. These videos present some of our archival materials and will be used to introduce a series of webinars held over the coming months. Stay tuned for updates.

Find out more and register for free webinar events here.

This grant has also enabled the broader Museum team to continue to be available to answer research enquiries from artists and the general public, which would usually occur face-to-face at the Museum Visitor Centre, on Tuesdays, by zoom or by phone.

Please feel free to contact the Museum on admin@livingmuseum.org.au to make an appointment for a consultation on any Tuesday between 11 am and 3 pm.

Flowerlands, 2020

Art Programs and Residencies, 2020

 ‘Supported by the City of Melbourne COVID-19 Arts Grants’.

Museum News January / February 2021

– Museum re-opens
– New and extended opening hours 2021

– Welcome to Rosemary Forde

Dear Members, Friends and Stakeholders, 

It is with great pleasure the Committee of Management welcomes Rosemary Forde in the new role of Business Manager at Melbourne’s Living Museum of the West.  Rosemary is a curator, educator and arts administrator with a wealth of experience working both independently and in museums and the artist-run sector in Melbourne and New Zealand. Rosemary shares the Living Museum’s belief in the value of art as a critical tool for local histories and community building.  We look forward to working with her! 

Establishing the part-time position of Business Manager has been possible thanks to recently announced Triennial Funding from the City of Maribyrnong, and will help secure the Living Museum’s future and expand its capacity for programming and public access to the archive.

After a challenging year for all in 2020, we look forward to welcoming you back to the visitor centre soon!

The Living Museum re-opens from February 4, 2021 with new expanded public hours:

Thursdays 11am – 4pm

Fridays 11am – 4pm

Saturdays 1pm – 4pm

The museum is following all COVID-19 safety guidelines and has processes in place to keep visitors and volunteers safe. Enquiries and appointments are also welcome.

We have exciting artistic programs to look forward to this year, including upcoming exhibitions by LMW artist-in-residence Nic Burridge as part of Melbourne Design Week (26 March – 5 April); The image is not nothing (Concrete Archives) curated by Lisa Radford & Yhonnie Scarce (13 May – 26 June); our ongoing River and Streams series of artist talks developed by Matthew Davis; a curatorial project with West Space; the launch of our new open studio program Canteen, and many more projects to be announced!

Thank you, as always, for your continued support of the Living Museum. 

Museum News, June 2020

The Living Museum received an arts grant from the City of Melbourne to produce online content and to help us continue to provide research assistance services during the COVID-19 restrictions.

The Museum is currently busy producing a series of short videos presenting some of our archival materials. These videos will be used to introduce a series of ‘webinars’ which will be held over the coming months.



This grant has also enabled the broader Museum team to continue to be available to answer research enquiries from artists and the general public, which would usually occur face-to-face at the Museum Visitor Centre, on Tuesdays, by zoom or by phone.

Please feel free to contact the Museum on admin@livingmuseum.org.au to make an appointment for a consultation on any Tuesday between 11 am and 3 pm.

 ‘Supported by the City of Melbourne COVID-19 Arts Grants’.

March 2020

Due to the Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic the Visitor Centre of Melbourne’s Living Museum of the West is closed to the public for the foreseeable future.

Please stay tuned to this space for updates on Museum projects. To reach out to our volunteer base email admin@livingmuseum.org.au or find us on Instagram @livingmuseumwest for updates.

Stay safe everyone!’

December 2018

The Living Museum’s latest exhibition: Great Western – is a collaboration between the museum and recent graduates from the Drawing and Printmaking Department at the Victorian College of the Arts.

Featuring artists Daniel Kotsimbos, Kathleen Hicks, Chas Manning, Tamara Marrington, Brahmony Mccrossin and Lucy Wilson, each of whom have explored the rich collection of the Living Museum of the West to draw forth relationships between peripheral archival material and contemporary art practice. The artists utilise the context of site, specifically the museum’s Visitor Centre as the axis for investigation and exchange thereby bypassing the formalities of exhibition conventions to convey a social engagement with a disparate range of histories and narratives. Each work is located within and amongst the permanent displays of the museum to create conversational platforms that highlight and potentially illuminate the core objectives of the museum’s interest in the region, its people and its immediate environment.

Exhibition dates:
1 December to 16 December 12 – 5 (Saturdays and Sundays only)

Opening celebration: Saturday 1 December 3 – 5