Essays on the City Collection

First World War memorials within the municipality, the Fairies Tree, the Napier Waller murals in Melbourne Town Hall, the contemporary art collection… these and other elements in the collection are the subject of a small but growing number of pictorial essays. The essays were by written by specialists who collectively have a swag of PhDs and publications behind them. The point is they really know their subject area and bring great insights to the collection in clear and accessible prose. The essays were commissioned by the Writing sub-panel of the Collection Advisory Panel, comprised of seven external experts in collections and contemporary art.

Napier Waller, Melbourne Town Hall murals, 1926-27, oil and distemper on fibre panels

See below for all our essays

DR MICHAEL CATHCART ‘World War One memorials in the City of Melbourne’
DR CHRIS MCAULIFFE ‘The art of living in a city: contemporary art in the City of Melbourne collection’
TERENCE LANE ‘The Napier Waller murals at the Melbourne Town Hall’
PETER TIMMS ‘Melbourne’s Parks and Gardens: Through The Magic Lantern’
DR BARBARA LEMON ‘Folk of the Fairies’ Tree, Sculptor Ola Cohn, M.B.E (1892-1964) and a Melbourne Icon’
DARREN BURGESS 'City of Melbourne Numismatic Collection’
JONATHAN GREEN 'Vaulting ambition'
ALAN BATES 'Statement'
PHIP MURRAY 'The City of Melbourne’s Collection of Portraits'
EMILY BITTO 'Place over time: shifting ideas of place and the City of Melbourne’s contemporary art collection'
CLAIRE G. COLEMAN 'Peeling back the layers of the city'