George Paton Gallery

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Agent TypeOrganisationIdentifierUMA-AG-000000062Activities & OccupationsArt galleriesHistoryThe Ewing Gallery was established in the Union building in 1938. In 1971 Kiffy Rubbo was appointed director of the Ewing Gallery and Rowden White Library and began a programme of changing exhibitions funded by the Student Union. From 1974 funding also came from the Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council. In that year a meeting room was converted to the George Paton Gallery and it merged with the Ewing Gallery. Art in Melbourne in the 1970s has been described as idealistic and experimental, with artists embracing environmentalism, Buddhism, Marxism and feminism. In the 1980s this creative pluralism was superseded by post modernism. Much of the Melbourne activity associated with these trends was uniquely concentrated at the University’s Ewing and George Paton Gallery as it became the ‘first continuous publically funded experimental art space in Australia’ (Helen Vivian). Although the Gallery was at the cutting edge of the contemporary art scene in Melbourne, it was criticised within the student body for catering to the wider art community rather than the student community. It wound up at the end of 1990 after the withdrawal of Student Union funding. The Ewing Collection was transferred to the University Museum of Art. When the Gallery reopened in 1994, it had a different audience and mission.Search records of this agent

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Accession

Dates

Date1971-1990

Names

Other NamesThe Ewing Gallery

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Source of DescriptionWhen you think about art: the Ewing and George Paton Gallery, 1971-2008 » edited by Helen Vivian. Published Melbourne, Vic. : Macmillan, 2008

Organisational Relationships

Part of OrganisationThe University of Melbourne

University of Melbourne Archives

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George Paton Gallery