The 1988 exhibition Dreamings: The Art of Aboriginal Australia at the Asia Society Galleries in New York catapulted Aboriginal art onto the worldstage. Dreamings was the first major introduction of Aboriginal art to American audiences and represented a major turning point in its international reception. Anthropologist Fred Myers describes it asthe moment when “Aboriginal art emphatically became “fine art.” Dreamings also signaled a radical shift in the ways Indigenous artists and communities were represented in the modern museum. This symposium celebrates three decades since Dreamings, reconsidering its historical moment and examining its legacies. Speakers include artists, curators, art historians, anthropologists and critics whowill consider the future of contemporary Indigenous Australian art in the post-Dreamings era.
SCHEDULE
Thursday, February 21, Harrison Small Auditorium
5:00 pm: Keynote, Aboriginal Art Over the Last 30 Years with Indigenous Curator Djon Mundine
Friday, February 22, Harrison Small Auditorium
9:30 am: Coffee and refreshments
10:00 am – 12:00 pm: When Aboriginal Art Became Fine Art, with Chris Anderson, John Carty, Françoise Dussart, Fred Myers and Peter Sutton
12:00 pm: Lunch
1:00 pm: Artist Balang John Mawurndjul Discusses His Work, with Murray Garde
2:00 pm: Indigenous Australian Art in Contemporary Art Discourse, with Maia Nuku, Henry F. Skerritt and Terry Smith
5:30 – 7:00 pm: Reception at the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of UVA (note: this event is in a different location, a 20 minute drive from Harrison Small Auditorium)
Saturday, February 23, Kluge-Ruhe Collection
10:30 am: Gallery Talks. UVA graduate student curators and the symposiumspeakers at the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of UVA (note: this event is in a different location, a 20 minute drive from Harrison Small Auditorium)
