Monash University

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MUMA presents exhibitions of contemporary art by Australian and international artists. Focusing on curatorial research and commissioning, the program includes significant solo artist projects, thematic responses to current issues and exhibitions that contribute to shaping the recent history of art.

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MUMA Education engages students and teachers through tailored programs drawing on current exhibitions and the Monash University Collection. Trained educators and artists connect students to art in meaningful ways, promoting creative thinking and critical problem-solving skills. MUMA acknowledges the diversity of all children and provides a child safe environment.

Believe-not-every-spirit

Spectral Stories

Saturday 13 June 2015, 2–3.30pm
MUMA
Free entry

Martyn Jolly is the head of Photography and Media Arts at the ANU School of Art, and is fascinated by the craze for spirit photography in the late 19th century. For this program he will discuss forgotten Victorian era artist Georgiana Houghton and her presence in Australia via the carte-de-visite album of a spiritualist in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia. In most carte-de-visite albums portraits of intimate friends rubbed shoulders with portraits of famous personages, but in this album these images also rubbed shoulders with portraits of spirits. The album documents one person’s passion for the religion of Modern Spiritualism. Its owner was probably a member of the Victorian Association of Spiritualists, and her album uses photographic portraits to map the spiritual, social and political world the Victorian Spiritualists created for themselves.

This program is presented by MUMA in partnership with the Centre for Contemporary Photography (CCP), and is part of the 2015 Glen Eira Storytelling Festival.

^{Image: Georgiana Houghton, Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, installation view: Monash University Museum of Art, 2015. Photo: Zan Wimberley}

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