Philosophy
Moving Galleries aim is to reach and engage an extensive and diverse community in the course of daily life by ‘moving Melbourne through art’. Through partnerships with Victorian arts organisations, such as the current partnership with Creative Spaces, Moving Galleries is expanding access to the public of the innovative creative arts projects and initiatives that exist within Melbourne and Victoria. As the poetry section of Moving Galleries is open for public submission, both professional and novice poets have been selected for publication. The poetry on the walls of the trains provides the commuting public with a snapshot of Victoria’s literary talent.
Every city has its public transport system, but Melbourne, through such cultural programs as Moving Galleries, aims to move culture through and within its structure, shaping Melbourne as a city. The project reflects its creative use of public spaces, making art and literature accessible to everyone, reinforcing Melbourne as the nation’s cultural and creative capital and most liveable city.
History
The inspiration for Moving Galleries came from public transport art and poetry initiatives from other countries. The oldest and most established initiative is ‘Poetry on the Underground’, launched in London in 1986. The success of the London project led to similar poetry and art initiatives involving established and emerging artists throughout Britain, Europe and the USA.
Moving Galleries was initiated in 2005 by the Committee for Melbourne’s business leadership program, the Future Focus Group, in conjunction with a group of poets. The Committee for Melbourne gathered a team of volunteers who created a non-profit project to foster emerging Victorian artistic talent and make creativity accessible in Melbourne’s public spaces. The first Moving Galleries featured parallel programming of both student artwork, and public poetry on the Melbourne train system and saw 480 artworks travel around Melbourne on 20 Connex trains.
Overwhelming community appreciation and support for Moving Galleries subsequently attracted funding to the project. In 2007, the project secured long-term funding enabling it to evolve from a ‘one-off’ exhibition to into an ongoing non-profit initiative dedicated to promoting creativity in Melbourne’s public spaces. This time, 1440 decals (posters) will travel on 40 Connex trains and poets from around Victoria are invited to submit their rooku each exhibition cycle.
Moving Galleries has since grown to become an important part of the Victorian cultural landscape.
Moving Galleries is generously supported by the Victorian Government’s Department of Infrastructure, Connex, Committee for Mebourne, our project partners.
Moving Galleries People
Sally Cap, CEO, Committee for Melbourne
Jessie Doring, Moving Galleries Project Manager
The Moving Galleries 2007 Selection Panel
Sally Capp
Sally Capp is the CEO of the Committee for Melbourne. Sally started her working life as a solicitor in commercial law and practiced for 10 years. In January 2004, Sally became a senior executive at ANZ Bank working directly with John McFarlane on ANZ group issues as Head of the Office of CEO and then as a corporate banker. In January 2004, Sally became a director of the Collingwood Football Club, the first female board director in the 112-year history of the club. In 2006, Sally became a Trustee of the National Breast Cancer Foundation and joined the Golf Australia Foundation.
Penny Webb
For more than 12 years, Penny Webb has been a part-time sub-editor at The Age, a period that has seen the almost terminal decline of newspapers. (She likes to think that this process, which is accelerating alarmingly, has nothing to do with her.) During the same period, Penny has contributed many exhibition reviews to the arts pages of the paper. Her academic background includes six years at art school and an MA in philosophy. (Her first involvement with the Melbourne contemporary visual art scene was as a magazine editor during the 1990s.) During a recent intense period as a reviewer, Penny’s record of gallery visits in one day was 17, all by public transport. I guess you could say she is passionate about art and public transport.
Deborah Hennessy
Deborah has worked with major Australian contemporary art galleries, including Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne, as gallery manager, project manager, and director, representing galleries and artists at major international art fairs such as Frieze, London, and Art Forum Berlin. Deborah has taught film and art history at the Victorian College of the Arts and Swinburne University of Technology, and has a background in journalism for radio and print media, writing for art publications. She is currently working on freelance writing and curatorial projects.
Kevin Brophy
Kevin Brophy has had ten books published, including four collections of poetry. His latest book of poetry is ‘Mr Wittgenstein’s Lion’ published by Five Islands Press in July 2007. Kevin is the coordinator of the creative writing program in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne.
Sue Stanford
Sue Stanford started experimenting with haiku more than ten years ago when she was living in Japan. Since then her poetry has won some prizes and been quite widely published both in Australia and overseas. Sue is a Roo-ku advocate. She is writing a PhD on the relationship between Japanese and English Language haiku, with the rough title, ‘Who Owns Haiku’? Sue’s first book of poetry, Opal, is available at some good bookshops.
The Moving Galleries 2007 Poetry Editors
Lia Hills
Poet/Novelist
Matt Hetherington
Poet
Similar initiatives around the world
Poetry in London ‘Poems on the Underground’, launched in 1986, was by 2000 recorded as bringing poetry to 3.5 million passengers traveling each day on the London Underground, the city’s suburban train network.
Art in London ‘Art on the Underground, is another initiative of the London Underground which has been commissioning publicity posters from artists and designers since 1908. The dynamic ‘Art on the Underground’ is a public art program entertaining passengers as they travel.
Poetry in New York ‘Poetry in Motion’, started in 1992 by the Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA), continues to this day with representatives from the MTA and the Poetry Society of America collaborating on the selection of poems for New York’s commuting audience.
Art in New York ‘Arts for Transit’, encourages the use of public transit by presenting visual and performing arts projects in subway and commuter rail stations. The Permanent Art Program, with MTA’s ‘Arts for Transit’, commissions artists to create site-specific permanent artwork to rehabilitate stations within the transit network. Artists are selected through competitive processes and via open calls to artists for submissions of project proposals.
Art in Stockholm Since the 1940s when the first metro lines of Stockholm’s railway system were constructed, the Stockholm metro has used artwork to create an attractive and stimulating environment for commuters
