Established | 2010 |
---|---|
Location | 15A Anderson Road, Thornbury, Victoria, Australia |
Coordinates | 37°45′16″S144°58′51″E / 37.75451°S 144.98079°E |
Type | museum |
Website | islamicmuseum |
The Islamic Museum of Australia (IMA) is a community museum in Thornbury, Melbourne, Australia. It began as a not-for-profit foundation [1] founded in May 2010 with the purpose of establishing the first Islamic museum in Australia. It aims to showcase the artistic heritage and historical contributions of Muslims in Australia and abroad through the display of artworks and historical artefacts. [2] [3]
Designed by desypher, a Melbourne-based architectural firm, [4] the $10 million museum was opened on 28 February 2014 by the Australian treasurer Joe Hockey. [5] It shared a $4 million grant from the Government of Victoria's multicultural facilities program. [6] The museum was established by Moustafa Fahour, who is director of the museum [7] and Maysaa Fahour, with his brother Ahmed Fahour (CEO of Australia Post) and family contributing $4 million, early in 2014, to the IMA. [8]
The unique architectural style features a rusted Corten Steel facade representing the Australian outback, wrapped a white cube covered in geometric tilework with Arabic calligraphy.[ citation needed ]
The site backs onto Merri Creek, near the border of Thornbury and Brunswick East, two of Melbourne's well-established multicultural suburbs. [6]
The IMA is the first centre of its kind in Australia to showcase a diverse range of Islamic arts including architecture, calligraphy, paintings, glass, ceramics and textiles. The museum also aims to promote new and established Islamic artists, both local and international. The Temoporary Gallery has hosted exhibitions such as Mush by Sydney based Blake Prize-winning artist Khaled Sabsabi, and Borderlands: Islamic design covered surfboards by Sydney-based artist Phillip George. [9]
The permanent art gallery contains many unique works, including a 2011 Archibald Prize shortlisted portrait of Waleed Aly. The effort to establish this purpose-built Islamic Museum was geared towards sharing the artistic and historical achievements of Muslims internationally, and particularly in Australia. The Australian Muslim History gallery focuses on the history of Afghan cameleers, Malay pearlers, Albanian farmers and others. This was documented in the book and documentary, Boundless Plains, produced by the IMA based on a 2011 expedition unearthing unique Muslim stories from outback Australia. [10]
The Museum's Modern Middle Eastern Cafe is run by Masterchef Australia 2013 Top 3 finalist Samira El-Khafir, who is Fahour's sister. [8]
The Islamic Museum of Australia's permanent exhibition was Highly Commended in the 2014 Museums Australia MAGNA awards, endorsed as: "An important new museum which sensitively interconnects Australia's Muslim heritage with strong interpretive themes". [11]
Yassir Morsi, from the International Centre for Muslim and Non-Muslim Understanding at the University of South Australia, in his review lists a number of deficiencies, saying the museum displays "how European we are when we colonise our Islamic history". He says the museum's only saving grace is the large oil painting of Waleed Aly. [12]
Etihad Airways and Dubai-based Habtoor Leighton Group [13] are principal partners, while the museum branding was completed by Design 55 - a Dubai based studio. Gallery One from the Jumeirah Beach Residence Dubai, supplies the museum's gift store. The museum has a major UAE influence. [14]
The federal government contributed $1.5 million towards the IMA in the 2012-13 budget. [15] The Australian Labor Party promised to contribute a further $3 million during its unsuccessful re-election campaign in 2013. [16]
In February 2015 the Saudi Government contributed $1 million towards the IMA. [17] In March of that year the federal government allocated $500,000 and the state government pledged $450,000 [18] for an arts and culture education program which will be developed by the IMA. [19]
The Australian Muslim Artists launched in 2018, as an annual non-acquisitive exhibition featuring the work of emerging and established Australian Muslim artists. AMA is also a database of artists and art professionals intended as a networking tool for both local and international artists. [20] Following the establishment of the AMA Art Prize in 2019, the exhibition includes only shortlisted entries for the prize. [21] In 2021 the AMA exhibition is available for viewing online. [22] [23] [21]
The Australian Muslim Artists Art Prize was established in 2019, with the prize initially (until 2020 [24] ) worth A$15,000, as an annual acquisitive art prize hosted by IMA in collaboration with sponsor La Trobe University. [25] As of 2021 [update] the award is worth A$10,000. [23] The prize is open "to any Australian artist whose work is influenced by Islamic art or Muslim identity". [22] The winning work is added to the university's collection managed by La Trobe Art Institute. [26]
The partnership with La Trobe includes possibilities such as the university providing training in Islamic cultures for teachers, adding a new component to journalism courses and "work-integrated learning opportunities". [27]
La Trobe University is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its main campus is located in the suburb of Bundoora. The university was established in 1964, becoming the third university in the state of Victoria and the twelfth university in Australia. La Trobe is one of the Australian verdant universities and also part of the Innovative Research Universities group.
State Library Victoria (SLV) is the state library of Victoria, Australia. Located in Melbourne, it was established in 1854 as the Melbourne Public Library, making it Australia's oldest public library and one of the first free libraries in the world. It is also Australia's busiest public library and, as of 2023, the third busiest library globally.
Thornbury is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 7 km (4.3 mi) north-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Darebin local government area. Thornbury recorded a population of 19,005 at the 2021 census.
Ahmed Fahour is a Lebanese Australian businessman. He is the managing director (MD) and CEO of Latitude Financial Services, and was formerly MD and CEO of Australia Post, and CEO Australia of the National Australia Bank (NAB).
Godwin Bradbeer is a New Zealand-born artist now living and working in Melbourne, Australia. Bradbeer is known for large-scale figurative drawing and has been exhibited internationally since the 1970s. He has taught at the University of Melbourne, the Victorian College of the Arts, Monash University, and other art schools in Australia and Asia. From 2005 to 2010, he was head of drawing of the School of Art at RMIT University in Melbourne.
Janine Burke is an Australian author, art historian, biographer, novelist and photographer. She also curates exhibitions of historical and contemporary art. She is Honorary Senior Fellow, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, University of Melbourne. She was born in Melbourne in 1952.
Vivienne Joyce Binns is an Australian artist known for her contribution to the Women's Art Movement in Australia, her engagement with feminism in her artwork, and her active advocacy within community arts. She works predominantly in painting.
Sam Leach is an Australian contemporary artist. He was born in Adelaide, South Australia. Leach worked for many years in the Australian Tax Office after completion of a degree in Economics. He also completed a Diploma of Art, Bachelor of Fine Art degree and a Master of Fine Art degree at RMIT in Melbourne, Victoria. Leach currently resides in Melbourne. Leach's work has been exhibited in several museum shows including "Optimism" at the Queensland Art Gallery and "Neo Goth" at the University of Queensland Art Museum in 2008, in 2009 "the Shilo Project" at the Ian Potter Museum of Art and "Horror Come Darkness" at the Macquarie University Art Gallery and "Still" at Hawkesbury Regional Gallery in 2010. His work is held in public collections of regional galleries of Geelong, Gold Coast, Coffs Harbour, Newcastle and Gippsland and the collections of La Trobe University and the University of Queensland.
Irene Barberis, is an Australian/British artist, based in Melbourne and London. She is a painter primarily, working also with installation, drawing, and new media art. She is also the founding director of an international arts research centre, and is an international curator and writer.
Vaughan Murray Griffin was an Australian print maker and painter.
Eric Prentice Anchor Thake was an Australian artist, designer, painter, printmaker and war artist.
Norie Neumark is a sound and media artist who lives and works in Melbourne, Australia. She is part of the art group Out-of-Sync, an art collaboration with Maria Miranda.
Jeffrey Thomas Makin is an Australian artist, art critic, and director of Port Jackson Press Australia. He is best known for his paintings en plein air of the Australian landscape.
Lina Bryans, was an Australian modernist painter.
Stephen Wickham is an Australian photographer, painter and printmaker.
Trefor Prest is a Welsh-born Australian sculptor living in Victoria since 1961. He produces highly-finished intricate and puzzling, often humorous, quasi-mechanical or machine-age constructions that are the subject of solo shows in major public and commercial galleries and feature in national and international group exhibitions, including the Mildura Sculpture Triennials.
Abdul Abdullah is a Sydney-based Australian multidisciplinary artist, the younger brother of Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, also an artist. Abdul Abdullah has been a finalist several times in the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes. He creates provocative works that make political statements and query identity, in particular looking at being a Muslim in Australia, and examines the themes of alienation and othering.
Castlemaine Art Museum is an Australian art gallery and museum in Castlemaine, Victoria in the Shire of Mount Alexander. It was founded in 1913. It is housed in a 1931 Art Deco neo-classical building constructed for the purpose, heritage-listed by the National Trust. Its collection concentrates on Australian art and the museum houses historical artefacts and displays drawn from the district.
Abdul-Rahman Abdullah is an Australian artist based in Western Australia, an elder brother of artist Abdul Abdullah. He works mainly in sculpture and installations.
The Institute of Modern Art (IMA) is a public art gallery located in the Judith Wright Arts Centre in the Brisbane inner-city suburb of Fortitude Valley, which features contemporary artworks and showcases emerging artists in a series of group and solo exhibitions. Founded in 1975, the gallery does not house a permanent collection, but also publishes research, exhibition catalogues and other monographs. Liz Nowell has been the director of the gallery since 2019.
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