History blesses Moving Galleries
If an idea has a future, it often has a past.
The first decorated tram in Melbourne was painted for a First World War recruitment drive in around 1914. Trams have been painted for advertising purposes since then but poetry and art boarded the public transport system last.
Melbourne’s trams hosted a few photocopied poetry series from the 1970 onwards. In 1986, professional artists were funded to paint the exterior of 12, W-class trams. In 1993 and 1995, two printed collections of poetry and art were placed inside trams and across train station platforms.
It is a poetic coincidence that the first of these series was called Moving Words.
Like the coordinators of Moving Galleries, the coordinators of these earlier exhibitions - Richard Foxworthy, Dean Frenkel and I - were inspired by the sight of poetry on London’s Underground.
In 1993, Moving Words placed 150 self-adhesive, vinyl posters carrying 150 poems and extracts from contemporary Australian writers inside 150 trams, for six to 12 months.
In the midst of a mini recession, we persuaded 100 different businesses around Melbourne to sponsor poems. Cafes on Brunswick street chose a poem for route 112. Larger corporations, including Penguin Books, sponsored several poems scattered across Melbourne.
In 1995, Art on the Met was sponsored by the Met, the Australia Council and the Yellow Pages. It placed 50 x 4 types of self-adhesive posters inside 200 trams and 50 x 4, A2 posters on train station platforms around Melbourne for six months. Each different poster carried one art work and three or four poetry pieces.
The public transport corporation provided the space and placement but we had to raise money for the selection, design, printing and promotion processes. The Australia Council gave us money to pay the artists better. We donated our time.
We got positive feedback for years afterwards. Some posters stayed up for almost two years, I suspect because tramways staff liked them. Travellers loved them.
It only seems more important today to give people alternatives to advertising in public spaces. Art humanises public space. It gives without asking people to buy. It encourages people to raise their eyes. It gives travellers a more emotional journey.
I congratulate everyone involved with Moving Galleries and am delighted it has become a part of moving Melbourne.
Andrew Bock
andrew@oceancalendars.com.au
