QPAC Museum

Exhibitions

Past Exhibitions

A VIEW FROM THE SIXTH ROW

12 April to 3 December 2011
Tuesday to Saturday 10.00am to 4.00pm
Tony Gould Gallery, QPAC, South Bank
FREE EVENT
 
Theatre Photography by Reina Irmer. A View from the Sixth Row celebrates one person's unique vision of the performing arts and features works in performance as well as "behind the scenes".

Photographer, Reina Irmer is well-known to performing arts companies visiting QPAC for her passion and talent in capturing unique moments on stage. From the mid 1990s to the present day Reina has taken photographs from the audience perspective, during the final dress rehearsal with only available stage lighting.

This exhibition features a selection of Reina Irmer's performing arts images, with an emphasis on recent productions. These include Fame, West Side Story and Queensland Ballet's The Nutcracker from 2010 and the recent smash-hit production of WICKED. Reina's stunning black and white photographs showcase a broad cross-section of drama, musicals and opera work. The exhibition will also feature a sample of Reina's collage show panels and autographed artist portraits.

 

KEEPING THE DREAM ALIVE

21 September 2010 to 19 February 2011
Tuesday to Saturday 10.00am to 4.00pm
Tony Gould Gallery, QPAC, South Bank
FREE EVENT
 
Drawing on the collections and archives of both QPAC Museum and Queensland Ballet, this exhibition celebrates the 50th anniversary of Australia's first professional state dance company.

Dance is such an ephemeral artform. Days and weeks of effort from dancers, choreographers, costume makers, set builders and painters and the myriad of support staff go into creating the perfect dance moment. So often here and gone in an instant.

Since its establishment in 1960, Queensland Ballet has been guided by four quite different artists. Each has brought their own unique vision of dance and helped to create a company that has responded creatively to changing audience expectations. Over the past 50 years, the Company has nurtured the careers of many Australian dancers, some who have chosen to remain in Queensland and some who have spread their wings across the world.

The exhibition brings together a dazzling array of costumes created especially for dance. These include items on loan from recent Queensland Ballet productions by current Artistic Director François Klaus including Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and Romeo and Juliet, with costumes from the QPAC Museum collection from the Artistic Directorships of Harold Collins, Harry Haythorne and Charles Lisner, the founder of the Company. Supported by performance video from the Company's repertoire and other memorabilia, Keeping the Dream Alive celebrates the  diversity and richness of the history of the Queensland Ballet. and  acknowledges the four unique Artistic Directors, as well as the dancers, choreographers and designers, who have shaped the Company's development over the past 50 years.

 

QPAC 25

 An exhibition to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the opening of the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (1985 to 2010).

Over the past 25 years, QPAC has showcased the best in performance from Australia and around the world and has hosted the leading actors, dancers, musicians and artists in visiting productions, as well as creating some of Australia's most innovative and successful shows. QPAC is also a performance home to some of the State's leading performing arts companies including Queensland Theatre Company, Queensland Ballet, The Queensland Orchestra and Opera Queensland.

At the heart of the exhibition, 25 artists will be featured in a series of commissioned portrait photographs by Justine Walpole. The artists, who represent the diverse art forms that QPAC has hosted over the years, will also share their personal QPAC experience.  These portraits and stories will be accompanied by a celebration of the thousands of artists from Queensland, the rest of Australia and overseas who have performed at the Centre.

The focus of the exhibition will be on the people who have made, and continue to make, the QPAC experience a unique one.

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Frocking Up: The Art Of The Costume Maker

What are the special needs of an opera singer, a ballet dancer, or an actor portraying an historical character, a Greek god or a dinosaur? Drawing on theatre, opera, and dance costumes and drawings from the QPAC Museum Collection, Frocking Up will feature examples of costumes created for different performance styles, and will examine the special requirements that designer and costume maker need to consider. The costume maker’s ability to interpret the designer’s two-dimensional concept drawing into a fully-formed garment can greatly assist the performer to make the transformation into his/her stage character. By documenting the development of an elaborate costume for the Queensland Conservatorium’s 2009 opera production of Handel’s Saul, the exhibition will explore the processes involved – from initial discussions with the designer, through fabric selection, patternmaking, cutting, sewing/assembly, fittings and finally in performance.

Curated by QPAC Museum.

Download the catalogue [PDF 386KB]

The School of Arts - Making the Play

The School of Arts is an Australian play by actor/writer/director Bille Brown written while he was QPAC Artist-in-Residence.

The accompanying exhibition Making the Play traces the creative development and social context of the work, which will be presented by QTC and QPAC as part of Q150 - Queensland's 150th celebrations 2009.

Drawing on the extensive Bille Brown Archive -donated to QPAC Museum in early 2009 -the exhibition focuses on this celebrated actor's career and the key social and political events surrounding the setting of his new work.The exhibition will also celebrate the role of the School of Arts as a 'community hub' in country Queensland and the touring companies who brought theatre to these isolated regions.

Brian Witte's documentary film Shakespeare on Wheels featuring The College Players' tour of Merchant of Venice by rail to north Queensland in 1969 will screen as part of the exhibition, which has been curated by QPAC Museum.

Download the catalogue  [PDF 870KB]

CURRENT EXHIBITIONS 

TOURING EXHIBITIONS