Art Start – a Day at the NGV

Ben, Zack and Alex discover the NGV collection and go behind the scenes in this two-minute introduction to A day at NGV – a more extensive feature film and associated short films launching in late July.

The Art Start films and associated resources and activities target middle years school students, and will appear on ngv.vic.gov.au

How does an artwork find its way into the Gallery’s collection? Art Detective Zack interviews NGV Curator Ted Gott to uncover the story behind one collection artwork, a painting by British artist Louis Duffy. It’s an intriguing tale that takes us from New Zealand to Ireland via the auction houses and archives of England.

Indigenous Australian art represents the world’s longest continuous tradition, spanning more than 40,000 years of history. Alex catches up with Stephen Gilchrist, Curator of Indigenous Art at the NGV, who explains the meanings and stories behind some of the paintings and sculptures in the Gallery’s Indigenous Australian art collection.

With such a big collection (some 70,000 artworks at last count) and only so much space, how do you decide what goes where? Alex finds out from NGV curators Humphrey Clegg and Emma Mayall who explain the role of the curator, from brainstorming ideas for exhibitions through to working with conservators and designers to present the final show.

For amazing insights into ancient and contemporary Asian cultures, join Ben in the Gallery’s Asian art galleries. NGV Asian Art curators Wayne Crothers, Mae Anna Pang and Carol Cains introduce him to the history of manga comics, the beauty of Chinese painting, and the secrets of the afterlife in the Chinese tomb ware gallery.

Venture into the Gallery conservation laboratories where artworks are cleaned, examined and repaired. NGV conservators Marika Strohschnieder, Raye Collins and Mary Jo Lelyveld show Zack and Alex how to repair an Egyptian coffin, clean an Australian icon (Tom Roberts’s painting Shearing the Rams) and choose a picture-perfect frame.

Go behind the scenes at the NGV to find out more about art and the Gallery with Alex, Zack and Ben. With the Art Start model and Gallery curators as their guide, the three explore The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia and NGV International to discover art treasures from around the world, from ancient Egypt artefacts to the pop art portraits of Andy Warhol.

Exhibition designers play a key role in deciding how we experience art when we’re in a gallery. Alex catches up with NGV Exhibition Designer John Eccles at the Gallery’s Australian Made fashion exhibition to find out what makes good exhibition design and what’s involved in transforming empty spaces into enticing exhibitions.