Exhibitions Manager and Curator
Love & Legacy
6 May - 28 October 2018
Jewish Museum of Australia
Love & Legacy was one of five new exhibitions that launched simultaneously as the inaugural Multicultural Museums Victoria project – ‘Grandmothers’. Multicultural Museums Victoria (MMV) is an alliance of five museums in Melbourne – the Chinese Museum, Co.As.It Italian Historical Society & Museo Italiano, Hellenic Museum, Islamic Museum of Australia and Jewish Museum of Australia – all united by a common, underlying mission – to promote awareness, understanding and appreciation of Victoria’s diverse cultural heritage.
Each of the MMV Museums also presented exhibitions about the grandmothers in their community. Love & Legacy aimed to celebrate and acknowledge the strength, tenacity and significance of Jewish grandmothers, both within the family and in the community more broadly.
The exhibition that I curated explored the role of grandmothers in keeping alive knowledge, history and tradition from one generation to the next. Jewish grandmothers undertake this vital responsibility through story-telling, recipes, songs, advice and religious rituals. Examples of these were presented alongside family heirlooms, photographs and a specially commissioned documentary film that I produced as part of the project.
This project won the Museums Australia (Victoria) Award for Medium Museums in 2018.
Photography of Barbara Ajzenberg by Elli Bardas. Image courtesy of the Jewish Museum of Australia
Amy Winehouse: A Family Portrait
22 October 2017 - 25 March 2018
Jewish Museum of Australia
Following its launch at the Jewish Museum London in 2013, this exhibition toured internationally with great success to San Francisco, Vienna, Tel Aviv and Amsterdam. After being shown in Melbourne, this exhibition went on to tour to Brussels.
Curated by the Jewish Museum London with Amy’s brother, Alex and her sister-in-law, Riva, the Winehouse family gave unprecedented access to Amy’s belongings, which focuses on Amy’s Jewish roots, family life, adolescence and her early career, including her guitar, family photos, record collection, and iconic outfits.
Amy Winehouse (1983 – 2011) was a lauded singer, songwriter and fashion icon named “the pre-eminent vocal talent of her generation,” by the BBC. Beyond that, she was deeply close with her family, and immensely proud of her Jewish-London roots. Amy Winehouse: A Family Portrait is a personal and intimate exhibition that explores Amy Winehouse’s inner world, and the influences that shaped her career and personal life.
Working in close collaboration with the Jewish Museum London, I managed the practical and logistical aspects of bringing this exhibition to Melbourne, including the re-design of the exhibition and its installation, the budget, contractual requirements relating to conservation and display, as well as making sure that our publicity campaign adhered to the copyright specifications of the various photographs and music included in the exhibition.
Amy Winehouse: A Family Portrait [installation views]. Images courtesy of the Jewish Museum of Australia
