Ararat Regional Art Gallery celebrates its 45th birthday with two exhibitions drawn from its extensive fibre and textile art collection. 

‘Bold Beginnings’ presents ten objects which capture the colours, ideas and enthusiasm for craft which characterised the 1970s, while ‘Big Time: Large scale fibre art’ presents major acquisitions from 1973 to 2006 which reveal an ambitious pursuit and exploration of scale.

The gallery’s fibre art focus was established by its inaugural director, Pamela Gullifer AM in 1973.  Mrs Gullifer honed in on Australia’s growing craft movement, which provided rich opportunities for a new gallery seeking to establish a collection on a small budget.  ‘Bold Beginnings’ presents foundational acquisitions from the gallery’s first five years (1975-1979) of fibre art collecting.  These works show how modernism, the craft ethos and radical cultural change defined this emerging fibre art field.  The exhibition includes work by Jess Brooke, Roma Center, Marie Cook, Heather Dorrough, Jutta Feddersen, Jean Lange, Helen McMurtrie, Ewa Pachuka, Winnie Pelz and Sue Walker, and covers practices as diverse as embroidery, tapestry, macramé, crochet and basketry.

Presented alongside ‘Bold Beginnings’ is ‘Big Time: Large scale fibre art’, an exhibition presenting six imposing fibre artworks from 1973 to 2006.  And includes:  Columbian Olga de Amaral’s ‘Coraza en dos Colores’ (1973), Vivienne Pengilley’s ‘Ducati Trip’ (1977), Nola Jones’ giant starfish, ‘Rhinegold’ (1987), Richard Goodwin’s huge suspended fish, ‘Air/Past Sample/Future Tense’ (1990) and Ewa Pachuka’s ‘Body (Man)’ (1977), from the Art Gallery of Ballarat collection and Kate Just’s ‘Paradise’ (2006).

Cr. Ian Harris, Ararat Rural City Council, will introduce a talk about the gallery collection by Ararat Regional Art Gallery Director, Anthony Camm, on Thursday 16 May 2013 at 6pm, followed by drinks at 6.45pm.